The HD Corner – Canada Russia Super Series

Hello, and welcome to the first installment of The HD Corner. Throughout the upcoming NHL season, I hope to provide frequent insight about our beloved frozen sport with relevance to how its covered through various media outlets.

One item I’d like to discuss concerns the current Canada Russia Super Series. As you may already know, TSN and Sportsnet have combined together for all eight broadcasts (complete with a new/ generic scoreboard ticker….wow! no one cares.) The Russian TV feed was shown here in Canada for the first four games, alongside Peter Loubardias‘ play-by-play and Pierre McGuire’s brilliant (cough) insight. Am I the only one who misses the Paul Rominuk and Gary Green combination of the mid-nineties?

To be fair, it turns out that Loubardias and McGuire actually were not that bad together, with Pierre even toning down his rants a tad, as explained here by William Houston. For once there was no mention of SAP (slot area presence). Let us rejoice!

Now, I can understand TSN and Sportsnet’s inability to bring their own camera crew to Russia, but how on Earth are they not able to have an HD crew for the four games in Canada? Watching last night’s game at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg on Standard Definition made it feel as if I was watching a meaningless mid-season CHL game. The fact that SportCentre’s lead story after Canada clinched the Super Series was about the Jay’s Wildcard hopes really puts things into perspective.

Can’t wait for the real season to start…