Maxim Laperrière Gets Winner in Shootout

Look ESPN, I know you have given up on hockey and everything, but would it kill you to get the name right of the guy who got the winner? For fuck's sake, the back of his jersey was clearly visible earlier in the highlights, AND after you showed him scoring. Can you even read?

Gotta love the slo-mo then explosion move though. Mad Max, shootout king. When did that happen?

The Morning Skate for Wednesday, August 1st

Bullet points for what you missed while dreaming of hockey taking its rightful place back in the big four of U.S. sports...

• Interesting piece from ESPN.com's Scott Burnisde about the possibility of the NHL capitalizing on the woes of the other team sports. What? There are problems in the other sports? Why isn't anyone talking about this?
• Speaing of ESPN, look who's talking.
• In case you missed it yesterday, RDS has signed a five-year extension to their deal to broadcast Habs games. It turns out that RDS can put the broadcasts on the Interwebs too. Good news for FHF reader Jordi!

Look at the calendar kids. August is here. The summer is almost over. The puck drops soon. Yeah baby!

The Demise of Hockey (Part 1?)

Of course in Canada this is a non-issue. USA, different story. As I trolled the sports blogosphere today instead of working, I could not help but link to Is ESPN Killing the NHL? Sample:

By minimizing coverage and highlights, the network is effectively reducing the imprint of the game on Americans’ collective sports consciousness. Worse still, several ESPN writers and commentators have gone out of their way to emphasize the demise of hockey. Le Ann Schreiber recently noted that during the NHL’s regular season, hockey was only mentioned on-air if there happened to be “some egregious brawl” or if it was being “dissed” for its invisibility and irrelevance.

It's well-worth the read.