Don Cherry's moonlighting south of the border inspired the sort of U.S. reaction he's been receiving in Canada for years.
His spots on ESPN were praised and knocked, but certainly not ignored.
On his Friday postgame segment, the NHL analyst accused the Detroit Red Wings of playing boring hockey - the sort of style that will never appeal to Detroit's "redneck" fans. He said much the same on the CBC that night.
The response in Detroit was almost immediate.
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The Detroit Free Press sought out Cherry for an interview.
Pat Caputo, a sports columnist for the Journal Register News Service in the Detroit area, took him to task, writing that "what Cherry does at times borders on bigotry. It's his dark side."
On Saturday, during the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, Cherry explained, as he did to the Free Press, the redneck remark.
He said he defines rednecks, not as bigots, but as Irish and Scottish immigrants working on construction, as Cherry did years ago, and literally having red necks.
Later on Hockey Night, he decided to explain how a mule is different from a donkey. Twice, he noted that mules are castrated. That could have been construed as a shot at Red Wings star Johan Franzen, whose nickname is Mule.
But the point seemed to be that the Hockey Night producers, who were ready to air a photo of a donkey at the start of the show to illustrate Franzen's hard work, couldn't tell the difference. The opener was scrapped when Franzen sat out the game with concussion-like symptoms.
During his ESPN spot on Sunday, Cherry avoided controversy, although on both the CBC and ESPN he rapped the crew at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh for allowing the goal line on the ice to become so faded that it was impossible to accurately rule on a disputed goal.
It was a fair comment, but the blogosphere noted it was missing from ESPN.com's video replay. An ESPN spokesperson said the remark was made to ESPN's SportsCenter as an aside by Cherry after his spot was over. That's why it didn't appear online. Mark Gross, ESPN's senior vice-president of studio production, said it wasn't controversial.
Cherry's first ESPN spot received more than 100 posts rating its quality, as well as a large number of comments. The second had received 43 votes on quality (close to five stars, the maximum) by late yesterday afternoon, but no comments. Comparatively, ESPN hockey commentator Barry Melrose's spot from Sunday night received 93 votes (four stars) and 23 comments.
Gross gave Cherry's work thumbs up, too. "He's been terrific," he said. "And he's fun to work with." Hockey and HDTV
The online magazine Slate says high-definition television will be the salvation of the NHL on U.S. television, which is hardly an original idea, given the league has been stating this for years.
Certainly, the clarity of HDTV, combined with the obstruction-free game, has made the sport a better TV spectacle.
Patrick Stack of Slate writes: "Not only does HD turn the faint black blur of the puck into a well-defined punctuation mark, it makes sweater names readable and toothless smiles recognizable. The 16-to-9 aspect ratio of HDTV also offers a broader horizontal view of the ice than standard-def television's 4-to-3 aspect ratio. Players don't just appear out of nowhere, charging the net at full speed. Rather, plays develop in real time, allowing you to follow the action and learn how the action builds and goals get scored."
HDTV has been absent from TSN's coverage of the 2008 world men's hockey championship. However, the semi-finals and the gold and bronze-medal games will be shot in HD.
ESPN has acquired the cable rights to the U.S. Open tennis championship, taking over from the USA Network. ESPN2 will air about 200 hours of U.S. Open coverage. It's a six-year agreement reportedly worth $140-million (U.S.).
GolTV will televise live tonight an exhibition soccer game between the Los Angeles Galaxy, with David Beckham, and th Vancouver Whitecaps at 9 p.m. EDT.
Versus is pursuing a puck-tracking technology that, according to USA Today, could be used as soon as the next NHL season. This would be for replays rather than live coverage. Anything involving a live application - such as the FoxTrax from the 1990s - would require the NHL's approval and participation.
Rating the weekend
| EVENT | NETWORK | VIEWERS | SKINNY |
| Friday | |||
| Auto racing, Nationwide Series | TSN | 117,000 | Second-tier race |
| Hockey, Flyers-Penguins | CBC | 1.206 million | Good number for U.S. matchup |
| Baseball, Jays-Indians | Sportsnet | 225,000 | Below average |
| Saturday | |||
| Swimming, short-course championship | CBC | 67,000 | Niche event |
| Hockey, Canada-Germany | TSN | 291,000 | Numbers won't jump until playoffs |
| Diving, men's and women's 10 metres | CBC | 94,000 | Good audience for diving |
| Basketball, Pistons-Magic | Score | 21,000 | Too much competition |
| Auto racing, Sprint Cup | TSN | 184,000 | Busy Saturday night |
| Hockey, Stars-Red Wings | CBC | 1.110 million | West series less popular than East |
| Baseball, Jays-Indians | Sportsnet | 128,000 | Low, Jays blown out |
| Sunday | |||
| Soccer, Portsmouth-Fulham | Sportsnet | 41,000 | Up against Man United game |
| Soccer, Wigan-Man United | Score | 54,000 | Low for Man United clincher |
| Auto racing, Turkish Grand Prix | TSN | 108,000 | The usual for F1 |
| Baseball, Reds-Mets | Sportsnet | 148,000 | It replaced rained-out Jays |
| Hockey, RBC Cup | TSN | 69,000 | Kudos to TSN for amateur coverage |
| Hockey, Finland-U.S. | TSN | 210,000 | Not bad for non-Canadian game |
| Hockey, Flyers-Penguins | CBC | 1.582 million | Biggest yet for U.S. series |
| Basketball, Hornets-Spurs | Score | 62,000 | Hoops outdraws MLB |
| Baseball, Red Sox-Twins | Sportsnet | 46,000 | Low |
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