This week's NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Schedule

Clear your schedule, the second round of the NHL playoffs are set to begin.

Because It's The Cup: 2014 Playoffs

Because it's the Cup.... The 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs start tomorrow night. Who's your pick to win the Stanley Cup?

NHL Hockey: If the Playoffs Started today (Western Conference)

If the playoffs were to start today here's what it would look like. #NHLonNBC pic.twitter.com/sqWrTTaF4p
— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) March 10, 2014

After watching the Blue shred the Wild tonight, I hope they can move up.

Dustin Brown hit on Michal Rozsival

I think this is the next hit that will probably get a look from the NHL Department of Player Safety. This hit has also generated a lot of discussion on twitter at the end of the game.

I also expect, L.A. Kings forward Dustin Brown will get a call from the Senior Vice President of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan. Whether that hit deserves a suspension is another thing.

I do believe that the NHL has to review this hit, even though there was no penalty called on the play. I think that  Michal Rozsival who had been diving and flailing around on the ice minutes before when he was tapped by a Kings players stick, probably led to there being no call on the play. If you cry wolf enough times who is going to believe you when you really get hurt, right?

If you look at second angle of the hit, it looks worse than the first clip that you saw at game speed. I also think that Jess Myers has a point with his tweet below.

Just for the record I would not want to be in Brendan Shanahan's shoes, I don't think it's an admirable position, not after this post season.

One person pinged me this to me on twitter -  he doubts that Shanahan has the stones to suspend the Kings Captain for game 1. I guess we will find out - does Shanahan have the stones - he has proven already that he has the balls to suspended two superstars players in  Claude Giroux and Nicklas Backstrom during the earlier rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. These actions leads me to believe that he might have the stones to do so. I wouldn't want to be in Brown's shoes right now.

Either way I really don't care, do you think that this hit deserves a suspension, fine or nothing at all. Personally, I just hope the Devils and Rangers series can fill the void until next Wednesday when the Stanley Cup Finals start.

Former Phoenix Coyotes tough guy seems to think that Dustin Brown will be suspended for his hit on Michal Rozsival and this is what he tweeted tonight.

ESPN and the lack of hockey coverage

I read a couple of articles and blog posts in the past week about ESPN not having NHL coverage on any of their channels anymore. Frankly, the first thought that came to my mind was - that ship has sailed – it may never come back again. I don't think we really need to worry about that because the void has been filled by a much better product.

To be honest with you, after watching ESPN’s brutal coverage of the NCAA Hockey tourney, who really cares anymore?

Enter NBC Sports Network formerly known as Versus and originally was the Outdoor Life Network has evolved and filled the void that ESPN left after the NHL lockout and has gotten better which each year that has passed since the NHL lockout.

NBC Sports Network has started coving college hockey as well, and for the most part NBC Sports Net has done a pretty good job in the broadcasts that they did last winter. I look forward to watching more of their broadcast next winter. Maybe we can get ESPN to drop their Division I NCAA College Hockey coverage all together as well and let NBC and or CBS take over college hockey for them.

ESPN will will then be free to show NFL and College football, NBA and College Basketball and Billiards on their sports network. While we are at it, ESPN can keep Barry Melrose, there is no use for him in college hockey and he isn't very good at breaking down the NHL either.

Just to be clear, I not trying to snub CBS Sports Network, they do a very good job with their hockey coverage as well and will be the future home of NCHC beginning in 2013-14.

So why is there a disconnect or a lack of hockey coverage? Recently, Ed Sherman asked Vince Doria, ESPN’s senior vice-president and director of news Vince Doria, why ESPN hates hockey. This is what he had to say.

We don’t hate hockey. When I worked in Boston (as sports editor of the Boston Globe), I probably went to more Bruins games than Celtics. There’s probably not a better in-the-house sport than hockey. Watching it live. My own personal feeling is that it never transferred well to television. I’m not exactly sure why that is. [Sherman Report]

I don’t agree with that argument and I think it’s a load of horse manure, if that was true why do people purchase the NHL package from their cable provider or satellite dish providers? Hockey fanatics want to see NHL Hockey and they want to be able to watch games from all over the NHL Hockey spectrum every night of the week during the hockey season.

I wouldn’t walk across the street to watch a NBA basketball game, I don't care who is playing, nor would I turn to ESPN to watch college or NBA basketball, but I would pay $160.00 to watch anyone in the NHL play hockey on my television set, any night of the week.

I remember the good ole days of hockey coverage on ESPN and ESPN2, this was pre-NHL lockout when NHL hockey was on two or three nights a week and then on every night during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, of course ESPN picked the teams that you were going to watch and we got a heavy dose of the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, but for the most part it gave us "decent" hockey.

That was then and this is now – NBC Sports Network has made us forget that ESPN has ever shown a hockey game on their network - NBCSN has shown all of the games exclusively during this season's Stanley Cup Playoffs, so we're good. When there have been two games on at the same time NBC has had the other game on the news channel CNBC. In closing, we can say to ESPN that we don't need you for hockey coverage anymore and you don't have to pretend to like hockey on any level, because we know the truth.

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