NBC bails on hockey, producing a good-news weekend for Canada

A busy weekend produces a lot of stuff not quite ready for prime-time publication on dead trees. Thank heaven for the web.

GOOD STUFF:  NBC's commitment to The Players Championship meant that the NHL got reduced exposure on one of the biggest weekends of the season. But the good news was that Canadians didn't have to suffer through afternoon hockey games this weekend and got our constitutionally protected Saturday night game. (Okay, there's nothing in the constitution about hockey, but maybe there should be something to protect us from being forced indoors on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. ...  Kudos to Toronto 640's Greg Brady, whose tribute to late Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell last week touched all the bases. It was personal without being self-indulgent and a lot more in-depth that most radio stuff. ... Love that Star Trek TV screen on the Hockey Night In Canada pre-game show and love the way Kelly Hrudey breaks down plays, like he did Saturday with an assessment of Pittsburgh's power play. ... Don Cherry was bang on Saturday in decrying the amount of diving going on in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He called Friday's dive-filled Vancouver-Chicago game, ``a disgrace." ... Great work by HNIC to catch Pittsburgh defenceman Hal Gill in a suit after suffering a mysterious leg injury.

BAD STUFF: During Sportsnet Connected on Saturday, a cheesy-looking commercial for something called Pardon Services Canada appeared on the screen, promising help in erasing criminal records. Just who do they think is watching Sportsnet? ... Just what the NHL needed: another summer of Phoenix Coyotes speculation and skeleton-uncovering. ... Cherry reminded viewers not once, but twice, Saturday night that he's a bit of a hockey genius. If you're really a genius, do you have to remind people that often? While we're at it, who is that ``Lalongo" guy he keeps talking about? Is he a friend of ``Havlak?"

SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Not that there’s a dearth of hockey on television, but if you’re looking for hockey with a little difference, TVO is offering a documentary called Blood, Sweat and Beers (Wednesday, 10 p.m.) It provides a fascinating look at the Bentley (Alta.) Generals and their drive for the Allan Cup under coach Brian Sutter.

TIME OUT: Vacation time calls, which means no blog until next month, unless that Icelandic volcano messes up my plans. See you then.

TSN gets both Game 7s, but CBC sitting pretty for round 2

As the first round of the two-month National Hockey League odyssey nears an end, it's still not clear whether CBC made the right call in choosing the Pittsburgh-Ottawa series over the Montreal-Washington one.

A glance at this week's TV listings sure points to a victory by TSN, mainly because it has ended up with both Game 7 showdowns. Those will produce huge ratings in what has been a pretty successful playoff run for TSN.

But CBC didn't fare too badly. While taking the Vancouver series was pretty much a no-brainer, the Canucks certainly haven't disappointed in the ratings. CBC's Pens-Sens broadcast Saturday night drew upwards of a million viewers more than TSN's carriage of the Habs-Caps game on Friday, though CBC pretty much had the hockey world to itself Saturday night. Still, an audience of almost 3 million is not to be dismissed lightly.

Whoever wins this round, there's no doubt that CBC has the upper hand in the next. It gets the first two picks, which means it could end up with both Canadian-based teams should the Habs survive Wednesday's game in Washington.

If not, the Corp. still gets Vancouver, which guarantees high ratings for at least one series. If the Habs should die on Wednesday, expect CBC to stick with Sidney Crosby and the Penguins. They did nothing in the first round to merit being dropped.

Here are the top-rated weekend sports events on English-language television, according to BBM Canada overnight calculations:

1. NHL, Penguins at Senators, Saturday, CBC: 2,948,000

2. NHL, Canucks at Kings, Sunday, CBC: 2,826,000

3. NHL, Kings at Canucks, Friday, CBC: 1,953,000

4. NHL, Canadiens at Capitals, Friday, TSN: 1,629,000

5. NHL, Avalanche at Sharks, Saturday, CBC: 1,359,000

6. NHL, Predators at Blackhawks, Saturday, TSN: 747,000*

7. NHL, Coyotes at Red Wings, Sunday, TSN: 715,000*

8. NHL, Bruins at Sabres, Friday, CBC: 593,000

9. NHL, Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, Saturday, CBC: 570,000

10. NHL, Red Wings at Coyotes, Friday, TSN: 521,000

11. Baseball, Blue Jays at Rays, Friday, Sportsnet: 452,000**

12.  Baseball, Blue Jays at Rays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 374,000

13. Baseball, Blue Jays at Rays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 279,000

14. NHL, Pre-game show, Sunday, TSN: 263,000

15. Figure skating, world synchronized championships, Saturday, CBC: 201,000

16. MLS, Seattle at Toronto FC, Saturday, CBC: 188,000

17. Auto racing, NASCAR Aaron's 499, Sunday, TSN2: 175,000*

18. NBA, Mavericks at Spurs, Sunday, TSN: 130,000

19. EPL, Sunderland at Hull, Saturday, Sportsnet: 110,000

20. NBA, Lakers at Thunder, Saturday, TSN: 106,000

* Viewers on U.S. channels not calculated

** 3 channels only

LOOKING SOUTH: There's nothing like a great playoff round to stir up interest, even south of the border. The NHL reports that Sunday's events produced the busiest day ever on NHL.com. The weekend was a good one for NBC, too. Its weekend games earned 1.3 overnight ratings, up 8 per cent over last year.

Does Don Cherry need a remedial reading course?

We know that Don Cherry can't pronounce names very well based on his frequent Hockey Night In Canada verbal manglings of just about anything beyond Smith or Jones. But it was always assumed that he could read. Based on Saturday's Coach's Corner rant, that assumption may be wrong.

Cherry was in high dudgeon, as always, about something I wrote last week. (I'm grateful that he didn't use my name, based on the last time he tried to pronounce it on air.) According to Cherry, I didn't know who Warren Rychel and Bob Boughner were and therefore wasn't worthy to write anything about hockey. Well, just to set the record straight, here's what I wrote:

... CBC dipped into mystery - or theatre of the absurd - thanks to Ron MacLean and Don Cherry. During the late-game intermission, MacLean asked Cherry if he was going to apologize to Warren Rychel and Bob Boughner, assuming viewers knew who they were.

"They beat them again ... and they played the clip before the game, " MacLean added with no further explanation. "So, poor Spitfires."

"Anyhow, " Cherry responded, "I didn't mean to do that. I'm not getting on to it again, but they lost again today. I don't know, Warren's ..."

And that was it. We'll assume at least Rychel and Boughner knew what they were talking about.

I know who Rychel and Boughner are, though I had no idea what he and MacLean were referring to.

My point, which I thought was obvious, was that he and MacLean assumed viewers had watched the previous edition of Coach's Corner and knew what they were talking about. MacLean usually attempts to translate these things for the average viewer, but this time didn't even make an effort.

It's all part of a disease that seems to afflict the denizens of HNIC: an assumption that everybody in the country is following the game as closely as them and they've all watched every minute of every broadcast.

That was in evidence during Saturday's Hotstove panel discussion, in which references were made to something happening in Edmonton and somebody named ``Sparky". If you'd been combing the Internet or reading Alberta newspapers, you might have known they were talking about the fact that the Oilers had axed their longtime training staff.

If not, you probably had no idea what they were talking about. Even if you did, this was hardly front-page news. Neither was the rather arcane discussion that followed, which focused on who might occupy executive chairs with some of the U.S. franchises.

Canadiens become Canada's team for a while

It's long been assumed that the Toronto Maple Leafs, for reasons apparently not connected to logic, are Canada's team.

They consistently draw the highest TV ratings, thanks mainly to a large Southern Ontario populace that bleeds blue and white regardless of the team's ineptitude. (Maybe the bleeding comes from being kicked in the wallet repeatedly for the better part of 40 years.)They also have a huge following across the country, as witnessed by the number of Leaf jerseys worn in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa.

But maybe, just maybe, the Leafs' hold on Canadian hockey fans is slipping. Maybe, just maybe, their legion of slavish fans are noticing that other Canadian teams are worthy of their loyalty.

The evidence lies in the returns from the first round of the National Hockey League playoffs, where the Montreal Canadiens have been drawing huge ratings. Saturday's game against the Washington Capitals drew an average of 2.1 million viewers to TSN, a strong but not an overwhelming number and one the Leafs have topped during the regular season. 

But another 1.3 million watched the game on French-language RDS -- an impressive  39 per cent of the Quebec French market.

This attention will probably pass if the Habs fail to come back in the series and Quebecois interest  dissipates. But with a Saturday night audience focused on the Canadiens, it's possible that some viewers will have noticed that there's at least one other team worth cheering for in this country.

On the other hand, things will probably return to normal the first time the Leafs score a pre-season goal.

 Here are the top weekend sports ratings on English-language television, according to BBM Canada overnight calculations:

1. NHL, Kings at Canucks, Saturday, CBC: 2,135,000

2. NHL, Canadiens at Capitals, Saturday, TSN: 2,100,000

3. NHL, Senators at Penguins, Friday, CBC: 1,912,000

4. NHL, Penguins at Senators, Sunday, CBC: 1,690,000

5. NHL, Red Wings at Coyotes, Friday, TSN: 877,000

6. NHL, Coyotes at Red Wings, Sunday, TSN: 829,000*

7. NHL, Predators at Blackhawks, Sunday, TSN: 815,000

8. NHL, Devils at Flyers, Sunday, TSN: 788,000

9. NHL, Avalanche at Sharks, Friday, CBC: 784,000

10. NHL, Bruins at Sabres, Saturday, CBC: 722,000*

11. NHL, Sharks at Avalanche, Sunday, CBC: 708,000

12. NHL, Flyers at Devils, Friday, TSN: 599,000

13. Curling, Grand Slam men's final, Sunday, CBC: 484,000

14. Baseball, Angels at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 481,000

15. Swimming, World synchronized championships, Saturday, CBC: 447,000

16. Curling, Grand Slam women's final, Saturday, CBC: 427,000

17. Baseball, Angels at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 354,000

18. Baseball, Angels at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 324,000

19. PGA, Verizon Heritage final round, Sunday, Global-CBS: 292,000

* Viewers on NBC not calculated

OTHER STUFF: Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which basically runs the NBA's broadcast operations in Canada, has managed to find homes for all playoff games this week. But you'll need a pretty comprehensive cable/satellite package to see them all. Raptors NBA TV has nine games, with TSN2 airing eight this week. The Score has another six while TSN managed to find room for three. ...  If you don't have the NFL Network and really want to watch the NFL draft Thursday night, you're going to have to do some work. TSN2 will show the first hour at 7:30, before going to the Chicago-Nashville playoff game. Now here's where it gets really complicated. When the 7 p.m. NHL game between the Flyers and Devils ends (let's say around 10 p.m.), the Chicago-Nashville game will migrate to TSN and TSN2 will pick up what's left of the draft. TSN3, anyone? If you do have the NFL Network, it will have every excruciating moment. By the way, the next day's picks will be carried live on TSN2. ... When the Rogers Sportsnet has added a couple of ex-NHLers to its playoff editions of Hockeycentral. Recently fired Tampa Bay general manager Brian Lawton appears Tuesday (6 p.m.) while retired defenceman Marty McSorley will be on Wednesday's show. McSorley will also do other work during the Canucks-Kings series. ... If real sports news isn't enough for you, try out this ``report" on Saturday's mixed martial arts fiasco: http://etruesports.com/index.php?page=article&articleId=400 At least, I think it's not real.

CBC takes a gamble on Sens and Pens

You have to admire CBC's courage, if nothing else.

Under the National Hockey League's Canadian broadcast deal, CBC gets the first two picks of playoff series in the first two rounds with TSN choosing third. After that, they alternate selections.

CBC's first pick was a no-brainer, what with the Vancouver Canucks expected to have a long playoff run and the team having a pretty strong following, especially left of the Rockies. As for the second pick, nobody would have blamed CBC if it had chosen the Montreal Canadiens-Washington Capitals series over the Pittsburgh-Ottawa matchup.

After all, the Habs have a much bigger following than the Senators and CBC's been trying to mend fences in Quebec for a few years. But instead, the public network chose to go with the Sens-Pens and risk a torch-and-pitchfork revolt in La Belle Province.

Why?

CBC Sports head Scott Moore explains:

``It was a tough, tough choice. We have spent a lot of time cultivating Montreal Canadiens fans and the fact they're playing against Ovechkin made it potentially interesting. But we couldn't see walking away from opening with the Stanley Cup champions.

``We think it may be a more competitive and longer series and there's potential for an upset."

The deciding factor was Sidney Crosby, coming off his Olympic moment.

``One of the major reasons is that Sidney Crosby is the Gretzky of his time and we felt pretty strongly that this is a big year for him," Moore said. ``His stock may never be higher and we felt he was the guy to follow."

There were other factors at play. In Quebec, CBC has to split its audience with RDS, the network of choice for many bilingual hockey fans.

That's a pretty big gamble for CBC. I'm not sure Crosby has enough drawing power to make up the difference in the teams' fan base. Ottawa has the smallest legion of fans among the Canadian teams and Montreal's is right up there with the Leafs and Canucks. 

Either way, TSN is happy. It gets a built-in audience with the Habs and should enjoy some pretty solid ratings in the first round. But that will probably be it for TSN's playoff Canadian content since it's unlikely all three will make it past the first round.

In addition to the two aforementioned series, CBC will also have San Jose-Colorado and Buffalo-Boston.  Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson will call the Vancouver-Los Angeles series while Bob Cole and Greg Millen get Ottawa-Pittsburgh. Dean Brown and Garry Galley will handle the Buffalo-Boston matchup with Mark Lee and Kevin Weekes doing the San Jose-Colorado series.

TSN has the Devils-Flyers, Blackhawks-Predators and Coyotes-Red Wings series in addition to the Habs and Caps. Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire will take the Montreal series while Chris Cuthbert and Ray Ferraro will do most of the New Jersey-Philadelphia and Chicago-Nashville series with help from Miller and McGuire.

TSN will pick up most of the Phoenix-Detroit series from Versus.

Three of the first-round games are scheduled for TSN2 because of conflicts, though obviously none of Montreal's games will end up on the secondary channel.

VIRK ON THE MOVE: Adnan Virk, who left The Score last year to join MLSE's broadcast team is moving again. He's been hired as an anchor for ESPN. He heads to ESPN's Connecticut headquarters on May 1. ... Rogers Sportsnet's Sam Cosentino had some troubles judging fly balls (The George Bell Syndrome) but otherwise did a commendable job handling the Blue Jays play-by-play on the weekend. He was filling in for Buck Martinez, who has TBS commitments that conflict with his Jays work about a dozen times this year.

Nike might want to rethink that Tiger ad

If a good ad is one that grabs attention and stirs up controversy, the Nike commercial featuring Tiger Woods and the voice of the late Earl Woods is a stroke of genius.

On the other hand, if Nike thinks this will make the public think nice thoughts about its client and rush out to buy its products, the equipment giant is sadly mistaken. People will be talking about this ad, but they may be saying things that Nike and Tiger don't want to hear.

This is one creepy ad and not just because it's voiced by a dead man, whose words were obviously taken out of context. What it says is that Tiger Woods and Nike have no problem exploiting the golfer's late father to sell products and attempt to rehabilitate his image. And what it says about Tiger's sincerity in turning his life around isn't  clear.

The creepiest ad on TV ever was the one that used Martin Luther King's ``I have a dream" speech to push products. The Nike Tiger ad is easily as tasteless considering the events that preceded it.

As many missteps as the Tiger camp made following his public de-pantsing on that Florida driveway last fall, this one may be the worst.

Unless, of course, if he wins the Masters. Then, all will be forgotten and forgiven.

MASTERING AN APP: TSN has a winner in its Masters app for iPhones, iPads and IPod touch units. The  app, which features high-resolution live video of Masters action,  was first among free sports downloads on iTunes and in the top 10 among all free offerings.

The quality of the video and sound are incredible and make you wonder where this whole mobile thing is going.

This could be the start of something new and different for TSN. It experimented with a one-day live-video app for NHL trade deadline day and got 60,000 downloads. This one should surpass that, partly because it's good for four days and has more than talking heads.

It could hit big numbers Friday when the TSN app, along with the TSN website, shows both Mike Weir and Tiger Woods on the back nine.

``We're trying to gauge how much interest there is before we decide where to go with this," said TSN president Phil King. ``We're experimenting."

 If interest is high enough, it's possible TSN may add more apps and eventually start charging for them. 

King said TSN is looking at a Canadian Football League app to stream live games, as well as the world junior hockey championships and other sports offerings.

OTHER STUFF:  Thanks to the public broadcaster, The Score is getting in on the World Cup. The CBC and The Score announced a partnership Thursday that will give the latter access to extended highlights from the big soccer event, along with other content. The Score will start with a preview of the tournament, nightly highlight show and features. In addition, Cabral Richards will file his unique reports from South Africa, though it's anybody's guess how the locals and big-name soccer guys will react to his hands-on approach.  ... TSN has a couple of gripping broadcasts coming up. First, is the NHL draft lottery on Tuesday (8 p.m.) in which NHL exec Bill Daly draws lots (or is it jellybeans?) to decide which bad team gets first choice among the graduating juniors. It's also being carried live on Versus in the U.S. One thing is certain in this hockey-mad country: It will draw a good audience.  ... On May 2, TSN will carry the first two rounds of the Canadian Football League draft. That marks the third time the draft has been televised live if you include that early episode of The Simpsons. ... Best laugh of the day comes from www.eTrueSports.com, which spun this tale in its Sports Shorts: Calls emanating from homes carrying ESPN2 on their cable systems swamped narcolepsy prevention hotlines across the U.S. on Wednesday night. ESPN says no evidence to suggest network's new announcing team of Rick Sutcliffe and Nomar Garciaparra played any role in ``unfortunate uptick." ... CTV's W-5 has a heart-warming report Saturday (7 p.m.) on how a hockey program is changing lives in Toronto's tough Jane-Finch neighbourhood. If you can tear yourself away from the Leafs' latest meaningless game, it's worth a look.

CBC makes case for amateur sports

When the Canadian Olympic Committee sounded off recently about the lack of amateur sports on television, CBC Sports boss Scott Moore was a tad irritated.

While he understood that the COC wasn't pleased that its application for an amateur sports channel is still collecting dust two years after it was filed, he felt that his network's contributions to amateur sports were being ignored. 

He has a point. Nobody does more amateur sports than CBC.

``We continue to be the only major broadcaster that consistently schedules amateur sports and we're proud of that," he says. But Moore's not sure there's a case for the kind of blanket coverage the COC is proposing.

 ``Generally, I agree there isn't enough amateur sports on TV," Moore says. ``Is there enough demand? That's the question.

``Can there be more? Yes, but we and the private networks have to look at the investment, the return and the audience numbers. It's easy to say there should be more, but there's got to be a return."

In other words, unless these sports can draw a large enough audience to justify the rights' costs, they're not going to get much more exposure.

Take the case of skier Erik Guay. Barely two weeks after Canadians went ga-ga over our Olympic athletes in Vancouver, Guay won a World Cup championship. The event was shown on CBC the same day.

You'd have thought the country would be captivated by such an event. But fewer than 100,000 viewers -- 5 per cent of your average Hockey Night In Canada broadcast -- bothered to watch. World Cup races last weekend did even worse.

``Every Olympics without fail people talk about how exciting amateur sports are and that there should be more of it on television," Moore says. ``But they don't seek them out in big numbers.

``Every other year, we in the broadcasting industry think this is the year there will be a bigger holdover effect. But it doesn't happen and that's disappointing."

The fact is that amateur sports tend to get lost in the shuffle, unless the Olympics are on when huge dollars are at stake.

``It's a crowded marketplace," says Moore. ``It's tough to compete with all the major league sports on TV. Amateur sport has to compete with that and it's tough to compete with the big promotional push coming across the border.  It's tough to build a profile."

Part of the problem does lie with CBC. Because little of its prime-time programming draws huge audiences, the network doesn't have much opportunity to promote amateur sports coverage.

When CTV runs a sports promo during Canadian Idol, it speaks to millions. CBC doesn't have that kind of clout.

Then there's the Bold problem. CBC runs a lot of amateur sports live on its oddly named digital channel. But because it has so few subscribers, much of that is wasted. That's why CBC wants another sports-specific channel, but that's another matter.

The fact is that amateur sports' only hope for exposure is the CBC. The private networks simply aren't interested in most amateur sports because they either lose money or barely break even.

If it hadn't been for the CBC, Canadian figure skating fans would be out of  luck next week when the world figure skating championships start. Nobody else wanted the skating package.

It would be great to see more exposure for our amateur athletes. But the sad truth is that the public has to demand it first. Outside of the Olympics, that's not happening.

STARS ON ICE: CBC Bold and the CBC Sports website will have complete coverage of the world figure skating championships from Turin starting Tuesday at 7 a.m.  As for the main channel, it will have coverage every weekday afternoon starting at 3 and live coverage on the weekend.

MORE MADNESS: The Score is offering more coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament than ever. In addition to carrying all the games on The Score, it will also offer coverage and highlights on its website, Score mobile and on its Sirius Hard Core Sports satellite radio station.  Games will also be available on demand on Rogers and Shaw cable systems.

PARALYMPIC PARADOX: CTV is saying it was so encouraged by ratings for the Paralympics opening ceremonies that it has changed its mind and will show Sunday's closing ceremonies live across the country. But there's no doubt that criticism of the network's earlier decision to show the opening ceremonies a day after the fact to most Canadians had something to do with this move. While the CTV-Rogers Olympic consortium is carrying more Paralympic coverage than ever, the fact is that there's an appetite for more. CTV, which had not planned to carry the closing ceremonies,  drew a combined audience of 1.4 million for last Friday's opening show. It was aired live only in B.C. Sunday's finale begins at 10 p.m. EDT.

TFC BETTER DEFINED: Once again, all Toronto FC games will be carried on Canadian television. But there is an improvement this season: all games will be in HD. CBC is carrying the bulk of the games with 13, starting April 25 against Seattle. Rogers Sportsnet has 10, beginning with the May 1 game against Real Salt Lake. MLSE-owned GolTV has the other seven, including the season opener March 27 in Columbus.

No Olympic hangover for curling

When American athletes land in Canada, they inevitably ask the same questions: Who eats ketchup-flavoured potato chips and why is there so much curling on TV?

The first answer will forever remain a mystery, but a look at the weekend ratings might answer the latter question. Even in the post-Olympic funk, with Canada's gold medal champions sitting out, the Brier even managed to beat out Hockey Night In Canada's late game. Sure, it was a 10 p.m. start in the East, but still the Canadiens and Kings aren't exactly bottom feeders.

What's more amazing is that curling drew an average audience of 846,000 on Sunday night -- up against the Oscars. Then again, the curlers put on a  better show with fewer lame jokes and no bad dance routines.

While curling is building on its success from Vancouver, the NHL isn't in the U.S. Sunday's Detroit-Chicago game, as entertaining a game as the NHL serves up these days, score a 1.2 rating. That's better than the 1.0 rating NBC recorded a year ago, but down from the NHL's last pre-Olympic game on NBC.

None of those are great numbers, though the weekend NCAA basketball games didn't produce any better for CBS.

1. NHL, Maple Leafs at Senators, Saturday, CBC: 1,812,000

2. Curling, Brier evening draw, Sunday, TSN: 846,000

3. NHL, Canadiens at Kings, Saturday, CBC: 793,000

4. Curling, afternoon draw, Saturday, TSN: 773,000

5. Curling, evening draw, Saturday, TSN: 705,000

6. NHL, Hockey Night In Canada pre-game show, Saturday, CBC: 695,000

7. Curling, morning draw, Sunday, TSN: 599,000

8. Curling, afternoon draw, Sunday, TSN: 597,000

9. NHL, Maple Leafs at Flyers, Sunday, Sportsnet: 478,000*

10. PGA, Honda Classic, Sunday, Global: 325,000

11. NBA, Raptors at Knicks, Friday, TSN: 322,000

12. NASCAR, Kobalt 500, Sunday, TSN2: 312,000**

13.  NBA, 76ers at Raptors, Sunday, CBC: 218,000

* Ontario only

** Viewers on Fox not calculated.

Vancouver the Final Day: And now, back to reality

So how was that for a finish? Now we can all breathe again and prepare for the horrifying thought of watching NHL hockey after being treated to the sport at its best.

Ratings for Sunday's game won't be in until Monday, but they will be huge and will set a Canadian record. They'll probably also set a hockey record for NBC.

They will cap 17 days of record ratings for the CTV-Rogers consortium.

The consortium reports that 99 per cent of the Canadian population has watched the Olympics on its many platforms, which makes you wonder exactly what  the other 1 per cent was watching. _{Masterpiece Theatre}? The Shopping Channel?

It had another solid day Saturday, with 6.9 million viewers watching Kevin Martin's curling victory and 5.3 witnessing Jasey Jay Anderson's snowboard gold.

Interesting fact from the consortium: The most-viewed athlete on its website Saturday were figure skater Joannie Rochette and curlers Martin and Cheryl Bernard. Somehow we get the feeling the top spots Sunday will be taken up by hockey players.

THE GOOD: CTV's Chris Cuthbert and Pierre McGuire hit pretty much all the right notes during the gold medal hockey game. McGuire's line describing Sidney Crosby's game-winning goal ``and an entire nation is relieved" really summed up the entire game.  Great work also by CTV to get some superb views of crowds watching the game around the country. A post-game series of gatherings was superb. The overhead shots of Robson Square and other venues said it all. ...  NBC's Al Michaels after Don Cherry, a vision in red velvet, expounded on how the game would go, including his opinions on that ``Lalongo" guy: ``I never knew that Feb. 28 was Halloween in Canada." ... NBC's Mike Milbury heading into the game: ``There are two, maybe three guys on the U.S. team who could make Team Canada." ... The beauty of having a guy between the benches.  McGuire reported early in the first period that Canada coach Mike Babcock was telling his players to get more pucks on net and cease with the fancy stuff. You don't get that kind of stuff in the broadcast booth. ... Watching the game on CTV, the sound mix made me feel as if I were in the stands. On NBC, I felt like I was in the parking lot. ... NBC used slow motion and stop-action to illustrate why things were happening the way they were. In the second period, Ed Olczyk showed how Ryan Kesler got too close to Brian Rafalski on the point, letting Canada's Rick Nash to break up a pass. ... Nick Kypreos, after Kesler told CTV reporter Ryan Rishaug that Vancouver Canucks teammate Roberto Luongo was fighting the puck just as he expected: ``I think Kesler forgot that he has to go to work Monday morning." ... Good discussion by Chris Cuthbert and McGuire on why Ryan Getzlaf was taking a key last-minute faceoff in the Canadian end despite having the lowest faceoff percentage on the team. .... Good analysis from the studio panel on how Canada was forced into overtime because it sat back and tried to protect the lead.

THE BAD: When did ``O Canada" become a commercial jingle? There are now two ads using our anthem to sell burgers and bread. ... Does CTV honcho Ivan Fecan have a Conservative Party membership card in his wallet? How else to explain the camera time given to PM Stephen Harper, who has revealed the real reason he prorogued Parliament? ... Huh? Pierre McGuire after a U.S. penalty: ``Corey Perry just got a mouthful of stick right in the head." ...

Peter Mansbridge: A former floater who still loves hockey

Peter Mansbridge is best known as that serious guy who brings Canadians their daily hit of news on CBC every night. But underneath those conservative suits beats the heart of a hockey-loving guy from Ottawa who spends many a weekend morning in arenas.

 That's why he's looking forward to hosting The National Thursday and Friday from Stratford, the site of the tenth annual Hockey Day In Canada on Saturday. In fact, the British-born anchor fell in love with the game not long after arriving in Ottawa from Malaysia when he was 7.

``I got off the plane with a sawed-off cricket bat," he recalls. ``I didn't know what they were talking about when they talked about hockey. But I got hooked pretty quick.”

Mansbridge recalls playing outdoors and dressing in one of those typical wooden shacks heated by a wood stove. Like most kids of that era, he'd use the lettering on the top of the stove to burn his name into the handle of his stick.  ``Those were great times," he says.

So what kind of a player was he? ``I was pretty average, a bit of a floater," he says with a laugh. ``I scored a lot of goals, but that was the benefit of hanging around at centre ice."

Mansbridge is a big Maple Leafs fan, but is a bigger fan of son Willie, who plays major atom hockey in Stratford. ``He's much better than me," Dad says. ``I'm not shy about telling him that."

Mansbridge is also not shy about his love of hockey, which always leaves him torn when the playoffs usurp his usual 10 p.m. slot.

``The professional image is one of a guy who's always upset about Hockey Night In Canada knocking us off the air ... That does irk at me,

 ``But personally, there's a monitor in the studio so I get to watch the game. I've come to appreciate how much a part of the Canadian fabric hockey is."

 If a newsman giving in to hockey isn’t proof of the sport’s power in this country, I don’t know what is.

Hockey Day has become a tradition, even though there weren't high hopes when it launched 10 years ago. ``When we first started, I said this will go one year," says Don Cherry, who is threatening to dress like Henry VIII at some point Saturday. You may or may not notice.

The high-collared one wasn't alone, though. Cherry admits he's become a big fan of the day. ``The biggest kick of all is when I look at the kids' faces," he says. ``They're so excited. It's almost like Christmas has come."

He didn’t mention if he was wearing his red velvet jacket when the kids were acting like Santa had arrived.

Hockey Day is a bit of a labour of love for CBC. It doesn't draw huge audiences between games and doesn't exactly produce any ground-breaking material.

 It's basically a feel-good exercise to promote hockey, though there are always a few great stories to keep the audience from going into diabetic shock.

 ``We were all fearful that we would gag ourselves with syrup when we first started with this, but it’s proven to be just the opposite," says host Ron MacLean, who deserves a medal for putting in these 13-hour days, much it spent shivering on frozen bodies of water.

 There are some good stories planned for Saturday that should keep cockles warm in hearts across the country. There's one on a 13-year-old aboriginal girl who hopes to use her hockey skills to eventually become a lawyer. There's another on a family that used hockey to help cope with cancer.

 All in all, Hockey Day will be an even more ambitious project than usual. In addition to the 13-plus hours of televised hockey, features and images of kids skating on ponds coverage will also be aired on CBC radio and Sirius satellite radio.

The theme this year is teamwork and how hockey promotes that concept more than any other sport. Stratford should be a good backdrop for all of this, what with the swans and memories of Howie Morenz comingling on the Avon River.

 ``Engaging the community is very important," says CBC executive producer Joel Darling, who's been working for months to pull this all together. ``The way we can do the best job is interacting with the people and tell the great stories about how this game is loved."

And nobody loves it more than the CBC and the CBC accountants.

SUPER SIZED: A group of American doctors has appealed to CBS and the NFL to air an anti-junk food ad during the Super Bowl. The ad points out that because of overconsumption, a lot of those watching the Super Bowl won't make it to the fourth quarter alive.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine  chastises the NFL for encouraging the consumption of fatty good by airings ads from purveyors of artery-clogging goop such as KFC. It quotes studies that show that the amount of fat in  a football fan's blood can more than double by the end of the game -- assuming he makes it that far.

Neither CBS nor the NFL has responded, but surely they can find a few seconds even it it's just for PR purposes. Judging by the size of some of the people in the stands, it might even save a life.