The HD Corner – HNIC’s The Headliner

Well, it’s official. The Headliner on HNIC has been terminated. Tragic, I know. *Tear. No more riveting Scott Oake interviews with Steve Moore about how his NHL career is basically over after that fateful Vancouver evening (Steve Moore had an NHL career? Could have fooled me). No more features with Lou Lamorello showing his office with a chart of every NHL team’s roster. No more stories about Gary Bettman’s failed attempt for hockey to become popular in the U.S. Sunbelt. How on Earth will I be able to survive the hockey season without these informative segments? In all seriousness, The Headliner will be replaced by two new segments called “Inside Hockey” and “Viewpoint”. Both of these new additions sound like they will be pretty much composed of the same content as The Headliner (ie: complete crap).

The biggest news of the day appears to be the fact that The Satellite Hotstove is staying on the air during the 2nd intermission for another season, after some off season rumours that it might be removed from the lineup. Definitely a smart move. Nothing is better on a Saturday night than seeing Pierre LeBrun’s pudgy face crammed into a small quadrant of my TV screen. Unfortunately, CBC will be adding some new personalities in the form of former players and league execs, in addition to the usual journalists normally featured. The best part of the Hot Stove was hearing the latest rumours from all the journalists’ hockey connections. I find it hard to believe that a former player such as Brett Hull would know of any insightful rumours, other than where a new Krispy Kreme franchise is possibly opening.

Finally, William Houston raises an interesting point from his most recent article about analogue vs. digital TV feeds on HDTV’s. NERD ALERT! Basically, what it comes down to is analogue signals on HDTV’s aren’t the greatest but do come out cleaner than digital signals on HDTV’s (I thought this would be the opposite, but what do I know. Sorry…I don’t work at Speaker City). Now that explains why Joe Bowen’s face looked like an old catchers mitt the other night. I knew there had to be some plausible explanation.