The 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs start on Wednesday evening with the Ottawa Senators hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins. This will be the 3rd time in four years that these teams will meet in the playoffs. Here in Canada CBC, TSN and TSN2 will have coverage. The networks sat down (along with NBC and Versus) late Sunday afternoon and the selection order went like this
1) CBC: Vancouver Canucks vs. Los Angeles Kings
2) CBC: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Ottawa Senators
3) TSN: Washington Capitals vs. Montreal Canadiens
4) CBC: Buffalo Sabres vs. Boston Bruins
5) TSN: New Jersey Devils vs. Philadelphia Flyers
6) CBC: San Jose Sharks vs. Colorado Avalanche
7) TSN: Phoenix Coyotes vs. Detroit Red Wings
8) TSN: Chicago Blackhawks vs. Nashville Predators
Bob Cole, Garry Galley and Glenn Healy will call the Senators-Penguins series for CBC, Elliotte Friedman will report from ice level. Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson will handle the action between the Kings and Canucks, with Scott Oake rinkside. Former Rogers Sportsnet pairing Dean Brown and Greg Millen will be re-united to call the Bruins-Sabres series, with Cassie Campbell rinkside. Finally Mark Lee and Kevin Weekes will provide play-by-play and analysis for the Sharks and Avalanche.
Ron MacLean and Don Cherry will be in the Coach’s Corner during the first intermission of games between Ottawa and Pittsburgh. Kelly Hrudey and Mike Milbury will join MacLean for the first intermission during the other series. CBC is expected to bring “After 40” back for the second intermission, which will include various features and special studio guests. Regulars Hrudey, Milbury and P.J. Stock will also be involved. The Hotstove will continue to air on Saturday evenings.
Meanwhile TSN will produce every game in the Montreal-Washington series, with Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire on the call most likely. I would expect John Lu to report rinkside, but I don’t have confirmation. TSN will also produce most games in the Philadelphia-New Jersey series, with only game #4, which will be on TSN2, using a local US feed. At least one game in the Detroit-Phoenix game will be a TSN production, game #4. The rest of that series will be NBC and Versus feeds. It is expected that TSN will mostly take the CSN Chicago feed for the Predators-Blackhawks series. Chris Cuthbert and Ray Ferraro will do any games that TSN produces in the Philadelphia-New Jersey and Detroit-Phoenix series.
TSN’s studio show will once again be hosted by James Duthie. Regulars Dave Hodge, Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger and Darren Pang will make up the main part of the studio. Keith Jones, Bob Clarke, Matthew Barnaby, Mike Johnson, Craig MacTavish, Mike Keenan and Mike Peca all could be guest studio analysts, although nothing has been confirmed on any of them.
All TSN games should be produced in HD, while CBC will produce the two series that involve Canadian teams in HD. The other two will be in 16:9 SD. I’ll be posting the complete schedule in the new “Stanley Cup Playoffs ’10” section in just a few minutes. Check it out often as it will be updated as information becomes available. I will also preview the entire first round tomorrow sometime, after I watch the HockeyCentral Preview tonight on Sportsnet (10 ET, following the Jays game). CBC and TSN will each have preview shows tomorrow night.
A Rouge Point 