Networks gear up for start of NHL playoffs

It took the entire 82-game regular season to figure it out, but finally the National Hockey League playoff schedule is set.

Television executives received the final word late last night about when the games in the first round will be played and which network will carry them.

For each of the past several days, the league had been putting together a mock playoff schedule, taking into account arena availability as well as the needs of desires of each of the four networks telecasting the games -- CBC and TSN in Canada and NBC and OLN in the United States.

By constructing, revising and reconstructing the schedule on a daily basis, the league was able to come up with the final product fairly quickly.

Joel Darling, the head of the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, says he is satisfied with the schedule.

"There are some conflicts here and there," he said. "But, for the most part, it looks pretty decent."

Hockey Night will begin on Friday with a doubleheader, starting with the Ottawa Senators' opening game, followed by the first game of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks-Calgary Flames series.

Bob Cole and Harry Neale are expected to call the Ottawa games. Jim Hughson and Greg Millen will likely be in the booth for Calgary-Anaheim.

Host Ron MacLean will work out of the Canadian Broadcast Centre in Toronto with Don Cherry and Kelly Hrudey. Cherry will provide commentary for the Ottawa series, while Hrudey will be analyzing Anaheim-Calgary as well as Edmonton Oilers-Detroit Red Wings.

Don Wittman, along with former Los Angeles Kings coach Andy Murray, will likely call the Edmonton-Detroit series.

If there is a fourth matchup involving a Canadian team, which is to say the Montreal Canadiens, the broadcasting alignment could change. Mark Lee would work as the fourth play-by-play announcer.

TSN will get first shot at the U.S. matchups and plans to air doubleheaders as often as possible.

In the United States, NBC will carry afternoon games on Saturdays and Sundays. OLN is hoping to air a game virtually every night of the week.

Here's the answer

The non-playoff Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks are receiving plenty of advice on how to fix their problems.

In Vancouver, two main targets are coach Marc Crawford and forward Todd Bertuzzi. Commentator Neil Macrae of CKNW, the leading AM station in the market, says fire Crawford and trade Bertuzzi. David Pratt, the co-host of the Team 1040 Sports Radio afternoon show, agrees.

How much influence does all-sport radio have? There are two stations in Vancouver, Mojo Sports Radio and the Team.

Bertuzzi, in an interview with The Province a few days ago, said the rough ride he's been given on all-sport stations made his life a misery.

In Toronto, TSN's Glenn Healy says, if coach Pat Quinn is fired, offer the job to Mark Messier.

If the Leafs are looking to hire a president, Howard Berger of The Fan 590 nominates Cliff Fletcher, currently the vice-president of hockey operations for the Phoenix Coyotes.

If general manager John Ferguson is dumped, we say make a pitch for Brent Sutter, the owner, general manager and coach of Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League. His résumé includes: As a player, two Stanley Cups with New York Islanders; as a coach, two consecutive world junior championships; plenty of success with the Rebels, including a Memorial Cup. Make him president and GM.

Will the NHL referees, who cracked down on obstruction in the regular season, ease up during the playoffs? TSN analyst Pierre McGuire says no.

"I'm convinced they won't," he said. "Some referees may change, but as a body overall, no, I think it's going to be the same. And players are getting used to it. You know how I'm noticing it? When players go to shoot the puck in and fore-check, the defencemen, who used to hook on and grab on, aren't doing that any more. They're letting guys go and just trying to get in a race with them instead of hooking on."

Andy Murray's first assignment as a game analyst was last Saturday for the Buffalo Sabres-Montreal Canadiens game. Now we know why the Los Angeles Kings' players tuned him out. He never stops talking. At least, that's how it seemed during the telecast. Murray needs to say less and convey more.

The Hockey Night regular-season average audience for the first game of its doubleheaders was 1.393 million, up 8 per cent from 2003-04; the average for the second game as 942,000, an increase of 17 per cent.

Rogers Sportsnet has dropped Los Angeles King Sean Avery as a playoff analyst after "serious concerns" were conveyed to the network about using Avery, a controversial figure who in the past has made disparaging remarks about French Canadians and Europeans and was alleged by Georges Laraque of the Edmonton Oilers to have uttered a racist remark. A Sportsnet representative would not divulge the origin of the serious concerns, but said it was felt to be "in the best interest of the network" not to put him on the air.

whouston@globeandmail.com

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