Watchdog

Gov. Sarah Palin is dropping the first puck Saturday night at the Rangers-Flyers game?!

Wow. Politics aside - since we no longer talk politics around here - I must admit I am enjoying the attention Gov. Palin has been bringing to both Alaska and to hockey in recent weeks.

She has done a service in reminding Lower 48 dwellers that the state and sport both are as American as Mike Richter.

Did I ever mention the only time I was invited to drop a first puck? It was at the men's hockey final of the 1984 Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, which I was covering for The Anchorage Times.

Wearing work boots, I thought I would stylishly slide the last few yards into the faceoff circle. But it turns out that freshly Zambonied ice is slippery, and soon I was on my back (and tush), looking up at University of Alaska-Anchorage center (and later head coach) John Hill, who shook his head.

I assume they still talk about that night during the long, dark winters of Yellowknife and have a chuckle at my expense over a few rounds of Molson XXX.

I think I have mentioned this here before. But that was before Gov. Palin started reading the blog. So, here's a fair warning, ma'am: Either put on skates, or walk gingerly.

The Spectrum will be demolished sometime in 2009.

The Flyers played their final game there Wednesday.

Sigh.

Paul Newman died during my blogging bye weekend, but his passing should not go unacknowledged here.

In addition to being an actual auto racer and a generally cool dude, he also played a number of memorable sports-related roles, including ones involving car racing, football, baseball and poker.

But he will be most remembered by sports movie buffs for starring in two of the best sports flicks of all time - "The Hustler" and "Slap Shot."

My daughters only knew him as "the salsa guy." But that's not a bad way to be remembered, either, I suppose.

My father-in-law, Ed, died Monday. I'm happy my last words to him Sunday morning brought glad tidings: Phils win, Mets lose.

Yup, he was a Philadelphia guy, through and through.

Did someone say "gruff?"

Let's put it this way: The guy was an original Flyers season ticket holder in 1967-68 whose fandom peaked with a team perfectly matched to its time and place - the Broad Street Bullies of the mid-1970s.

Happily, he passed along an appreciation of sports to his middle child.

Even an old Rangers fan had to be impressed by a woman's knowledge of a classic, hated rival. Thanks to the lessons passed on from her father, Mrs. WatchDog had me at Kindrachuk.

I wrote a column a while back about 'Love Guru' star Mike Myers and his love of hockey, which in turn led to a poll on favorite hockey movies, which in turn led to a couple of readers encouraging me to check out "The Rocket," a film about Maurice Richard that came out in Canada in 2005 and had a limited theatrical run in Manhattan last year and now is on DVD at my local Blockbuster.

I checked it out Friday. It's admirably earnest, offers a primer on The Rocket for sports fans who don't know much about him and surely will cause French Canadians to swell with pride. Plus, the old-time hockey scenes are fascinating.

On the other hand, it's slow, it's overly worshipful, the English dubbing is a distraction and Mr. Richard turns out to be a man of painfully few words, in any language.

"The Rocket" is much better than "Love Guru," not nearly as good as "Slap Shot."

OK, one last sports event national anthem, this link courtesy of Charlie Chilkoot.

Until seeing this I had forgotten about it, but I did watch it live at the time. Thanks for the reminder, CC.

Go back to enjoying the lack of humidity in San Diego.

Here is my Sunday newspaper column, in which "Love Guru" star/writer/producer Mike Myers discusses his lifelong love of hockey.

Please read it and also vote for your favorite hockey movie.

Here is a list of nominees suggested last week when I sought the help of WatchDog Nation. Thanks as always for doing parts of my job for me.

I am not going to write anything about Tiger Woods today. It would end up coming out corny and hyperbolic.

Happy Father's Day.

Before we close the voting on the post below . . . Has anyone out there seen "The Rocket?"

I keep hearing it is a great movie, but apparently almost everyone who saw it lives in Canada.

Do they have the Internet and blogs and stuff in Canada? Do any Canadians read WatchDog? I mean, other than Mike Myers?

OK, WatchDog Nation, I need your help again to avoid doing actual work myself.

Please use the comments section to nominate candidates for a poll I am doing on the best hockey movies ever.

I know, I know. The list will not be quite as long or impressive as those for baseball or boxing. That's why I need help. Thanks in advance.

(Of course, your lists should start with No. 2, because I think we all can agree No. 1 is spoken for.)

I had a long talk about hockey with Mike Myers Monday night, and learned that his favorite all-time player is Dave Keon.

I have not yet screened his new movie, "Love Guru," which opens June 20, so I can't say whether it's worth seeing. But how can you not like a guy who loves Dave Keon, loves hockey and casts Jessica Alba?

To officially wrap up the NHL TV situation, ratings-wise:

The four games on NBC averaged 3.2 percent of U.S. homes, exactly double last year's record low 1.6 for the three games on NBC.

OK, fans, take a few weeks off before the Rangers and Isles report for training camp.

Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, which featured an almost-incredible finish, was watched by an average of 4.4 percent of homes in major markets Wednesday, the best overnight rating for Game 6 of a Finals since 2000 and double the last Game 6 in 2006.

From 10:30 to 11 p.m., 5.3 percent of homes with TVs were watching, nine percent of those with TVs in use.

"Two great teams, at the top of their game, generated significant interest," NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer said in a news release. "Hopefully this provides a launching point for future growth. We can't wait for our season to begin, somewhere outdoors, next season."

Not surprisingly, Pittsburgh and Detroit led all markets with 37.4 and 30.6 percent of homes, followed as usual by Buffalo with 10.9. (And remember, people in Detroit and Buffalo are able to watch CBC as well.)

The rest of the top 10 (rating/share):
4. Denver, 6.6/11
5. St. Louis, 5.7/9
6. Richmond, 5.6/9 (Richmond???)
T7. Philadelphia, 5.5/9
T7. Columbus, 5.5/9
T9. Minneapolis, 5.1/10
T9. Fort Myers, 5.1/10

New York's rating and rank were 3.4 and 23rd, putting us solidly in the top half of major markets. Yay!

I've decided to annoy all the hockey non-believers by doing as many hockey-related posts and links as possible until the end of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Here's one about the evolution of Sidney Crosby's playoff beard.

I would like anyone who stayed up until 12:49 a.m. to watch the Stanley Cup Finals to explain how and why baseball and basketball are more popular sports in this country than hockey. Please, go ahead, I dare you.

Now that that's settled, here is some ratings data from Game 5, which featured three commercial-free overtime periods:

The game drew 4.3 percent of homes in major markets, a 79 percent increase over Game 5 last spring and the best overnight rating for a Cup Finals game since 2002.

The rating peaked at 5.8 from 11 to 11:30, during which 10 percent of U.S. homes with a TV set in use were watching hockey. Not bad.

Petr Sykora scored the game-winner after telling NBC's Pierre McGuire during the second OT that he would do so.

Click below for the best ratings markets for Monday night, with Buffalo as usual leading the way among cities without a team in the series and New York again not cracking the Top 10.

Yes, I stayed up (barely) until 12:49 a.m. to watch the Penguins stave off elimination and give the Stanley Cup Finals the long series it deserves.

I had no choice, really. I did it for my favorite sport. I did it for my job. And I did it to see whether Sue Simmons would be so ticked off about staying up two hours late she would drop another f-bomb on the Ch. 4 news.

No such luck. She was a pro. At least in the first few minutes before I turned it off and went to bed.

(Hey, Rangers fans, who is that guy in the picture?)

A laurel and hearty handshake to Mike (Doc) Emrick upon the news he will receive the Hockey Hall of Fame's 2008 Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for contributions to the sport as a broadcaster.

Much deserved.

I told Emrick recently that one of these days I'm going to keep track of how many different verbs he uses in the course of calling a game.

I think it would be interesting and amusing. But so far I've been too lazy.

Maybe some hockey blogger out there can steal my idea and take it off my hands. Thanks in advance.

Ed Olczyk is not as good at guaranteeing stuff as his former teammate, Mark Messier.

The hockey analyst promised on a conference call last week that hockey would out-rate basketball in the Detroit market when the Red Wings and Pistons overlapped.

Not so, at least through the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals.

In fairness, the first two conflicts pitted ABC against Versus and then ESPN against Versus.

Wednesday night will provide a fairer fight: The Red Wings will be on NBC and the Pistons on ESPN.

We'll see.

The Penguins are making those of us who helped hype the Stanley Cup finals look bad. So far.

But I distinctly recall many people talking about how boring the 1986 World Series was after the first two games.

So there's hope.

The Pens need some pucks to dribble through Osgood's legs.

Here is an article about the low number of American newspapers that will be covering the Stanley Cup finals this season . . . written in a Canadian newspaper, of course.

The article quotes my boss, so you really should read it. It also mentions Helene Elliott of the L.A. Times, who was doing great work on the hockey beat at Newsday before Sidney Crosby was born.

Have I ever mentioned how I had a job at The Hockey News in Toronto snatched away from me in 1982 because I am a U.S. citizen? I believe I have. Sigh.

Here is the complete version of my Friday newspaper column, featuring guest appearances by Sidney Crosby, Danica Patrick, Earl Weaver and Willie Randolph.

There is more about hockey and auto racing in it than about the Mets or Yankees.

So it will be interesting to see whether I get fired by noon.

Here is the first piece of my Friday newspaper column.

It's about the fact the NHL, NBC and Versus are quite pleased to have the Red Wings playing the Pens in the Cup finals as opposed to, say, yet another yucky matchup between a Sun Belt squad and a secod-tier Canadian market.

It now appears the NHL Winter Classic might not close Yankee Stadium, according to this story.

I've learned to keep tabs on this dude in Toronto for my TV hockey news, such as Don Cherry (!) contributing to ESPN.

I could never get away with writing as much about hockey as they do in Toronto, of course. Unless perhaps I was in Detroit, which still really cares quite a lot about the NHL, perhaps second only among American markets to Buffalo. (Scroll down a bit for the Detroit reference in the above link.)

Anyway, enjoy the conference finals, even though Our Rangers are through.

Speaking of which . . . the fact the Rangers' elimination was not the featured back page element of ANY of the three New York tabloids Monday was a shocking, collective diss of the sport.

That's it for me today. I've got stuff to do. If I'm not back Wednesday, it's because I got fired for publicly complaining about the lack of hockey on the back page.

At least I sacrificed my career for a worthy cause.

Here is my Tuesday newspaper column, which contains interesting information about the new Sports Museum of America (opening Wednesday), the new episode of YESterdays (premiering Wednesday) and the strangely happy post-Derby scene on NBC.

Please click on the ads on the blog and on the Web.

Keeping Newsday's on-line advertisers happy will help keep us strong and available to you for decades to come. Plus, my daughters keep threatening to go to college.

I asked Marc Fein, a top Versus exec whom I quoted in my Friday newspaper column, whether he has heard anything lately regarding ESPN's potential interest in returning to the NHL.

"We haven't heard anything,'' he said. "We've stated in the past if someone wants to talk to us, [we] would have those conversations."

ESPN would have to come to Versus, because Versus owns national cable exclusivity for the league. (I guess I could have asked ESPN poobah John Skipper about this Thursday, but, um . . . )

NBC exercised its option to carry the NHL for another season, which almost certainly puts the ESPN possibilities on the shelf for now, but some in and around the league miss the exposure ESPN provided even as Versus gradually gains acceptance.

Here is what a helpful ESPN spokesman had to say on the subject: "We are fans of the NHL and look forward to discussions next time rights become available."

By the way, in case you were wondering whether NBC and Versus are happy with the mix of Original Six, big market and Sidney Crosby teams in the second round, stop wondering:

They are.

I can't do any better today than to have inspired a raging Syl Apps controversy (see two posts below).

So I will quit while I'm ahead. Sorry.

What do you people want from me? I had 20 posts Tuesday!

Enjoy "Whitetail Diaries" on Versus at 2 p.m.

Ch. 4 will not be showing the entirety of the Detroit-Nashville hockey game scheduled for NBC Sunday because of its coverage of the Pope's visit to Big Town.

Until the Pope portion of the TV day is over, the game will be shown on WNBC 4.4, a digital channel not available to everyone. (It's on Ch. 110 on Cablevision, I believe).

The entire game will also appear on MSG Plus.

There's an NBA playoff game on Ch. 7 Sunday. I will let you now if/when I hear about the game plan for that apparent conflict.

(UPDATE: I am told the game will be seen on ESPN2, thus accommodating Pope watchers and basketball watchers.)

This is weird. But I like it. Anything like this for the Rangers out there?

WatchDog does not encourage gambling. But if you must, I hope you took my advice minutes before the start of the Frozen Four and bet the house on BC.

No need to thank me. Just spend some of your winnings patronizing Newsday.com advertisers. Tell them WatchDog sent you.

I'm happy for BC and its fans after two straight title game losses, and even more than that I'm happy whenever Eastern hockey can take one from the uncivilized hordes from the Upper Midwest hinterlands.

Or, in this case, from Notre Dame.

A couple of readers e-mailed me about this, but rather than explain it myself I'll just send you here for a summary and audio link.

The commissioner of the NHL unfortunately has his Ace Baileys mixed up. I'd make fun of him, but he's a Cornell guy from Long Island and thus gets full immunity here.

That's why I didn't even mention his Maxim Afinogenov mistake in the same interview.

Sigh. Anyway, at least the guy got back on the WFAN horse by joining Ca-Boom this morning. (Come to think of it, that would have been a good opportunity to offer a clarification.)

I'm going to write a Sunday newspaper column now and continue to whine about my back. Maybe I should have sat out softball practice.

Come to think of it, let's just ditch the Masters (see post below) altogether and agree that we all will watch the best sports event of the day/night: The Frozen Four on ESPN2.

It's Boston College's time. You read it here first.

That's it. I'm done for today. Thanks for reading.

As everyone knows, one of WatchDog's most strict policies is to link to any Sports Illustrated feature on a member of the Canadiens from Long Island.

So here it is.

Loyal WatchDog reader Kenny Albert, presumably inspired by Anthony Rieber's piece on Feb. 29 birthdays, sent along this link to a Canadian Press story about Henri Richard, who celebrates his 18th birthday today.

Albert also sent a reminder that Brian Leetch's first game as a Ranger was 20 years ago today, Feb. 29, 1988.

(Why do we have to add an extra day to the dreariest month of the year? Why not May?)

Check out this interesting interview with Curt Chaplin about his bit role in the media drama surrounding the United States' Olympic hockey victory over the Soviet Union 28 years ago Friday.

I'm still really annoyed that ABC showed the game on tape delay. Really, really annoyed. But I'll get over it eventually.

Maybe when the U.S. wins a gold medal in team handball.

Here is a cool link Glauber tipped me off to, as the 28th anniversary of the U.S.-Soviet hockey game approaches.

It's an alternative audio reality for those of us who have heard Al Michaels and Ken Dryden enough times already.

(Sorry, Ken. You know I love you. Really.)

I once shared a jar of artichokes with Jim Craig at a party in Anchorage in 1983 to honor the touring '84 Olympic team.

Several members of the '80 team were in attendance.

It has been a busy few months for Dr. Leslie Bisson of Buffalo, what with helping save the lives of two professional athletes.

Here is a piece on that topic from the Buffalo News' Jerry Sullivan, who was a rising star at Newsday many years ago before he left us for snowier pastures.

(It's sort of cool that the guy is a Buffalo sports doctor, and his name is one letter away from being Bison, and . . . oh, never mind.)