Blown Coverage For Better or Worse

The past few days in the States, there has been a huge to-do about the attention, or lack there of, when it comes to hockey coverage. Over at Puck the Media (very stellar job over there, by the way), Steve Lepore talks about how the NBC family of networks are really screwing the hockey fans out of some games' starts because of other events involving USA teams or individuals. It's a noble undertaking in getting attention for the hockey fans out there to get the coverage they need-- but it's getting close to annoyance rather than nobility.

The fact remains this-- the NBC networks were showing events in which American teams or individuals were involved. They had USA-Japan women's curling on MSNBC and USA-Russia women's hockey on CNBC. Because these games went long, the Canada-Norway men's hockey game was delayed being on any channel. While I agree that NBC kind of "dropped the ball," so to speak; the networks are not and should not be risking removing or short-changing the USA team on any sports to show two non-USA participants play a game, host country or not. The interests of NBC Universal is only to the USA Olympics team and should not have to cater to non-USA nations. The same thing happen on Wednesday with the Sweden-Germany game being delayed due to extra-ends in USA-Switzerland men's curling match on CNBC and Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, with the first period being missed almost entirely due to a 22 minute delay.

While NBC has really been dropping the ball in terms of coverage all around, especially with the way Twitter has been buzzing-- people know the result of events before NBC starts to show them; I can give a pass to NBC on this instance. The fact they are showing USA events over non-USA hockey events is admirable and shouldn't be as chastised as it has been. Like I said, the NBC Universal interest is not going to be to hockey fans (as their Sunday "Game of the Week" has shown for a few years now) if the USA team is not in the game. If there is going to come a day where Team USA hockey is being delayed for one game or another, then that's when the outrage should come fast and furious and then NBC can be truly vilified and ridiculed.

When hockey is seen most of the time on the network, the odds are that NBC Universal will show the sports not often seen on TV. Figure skating is a big pull, skiing and speed-skating will get cult followings, much like curling has gotten over the past games-- they will have the niche and appeal, especially if they are seen once every four years. Hockey is shown weekly and while it sucks that hockey fans won't see every minute of every game, you have to pick your battles and fights when it comes to supporting your game.

If you are upset by the NBC Universal snub of all the games, check out Buddy Oakes' Preds on the Glass and his post about how you can get into contact with NBC Universal about their coverage or lack thereof.

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On another side, there's a decent story from ESPN's Scott Burnside about Alex Ovechkin being pretty much missing and put away by the Russian Federation in terms of interviews or putting his face out there. His piece states that Ovechkin, and much of the other Russian team, has been only giving interviews to the Russian media over the mass media that's there at the Olympics. Burnside says something to the effect of Ovechkin blowing off the media.

When something come out about one of the bigger personalities in the NHL, you have to wonder how much of this is the athlete's doing and how much is this the Federation. While, I get the Federation's concern, as it is the world's stage and there's only so many times you can go ahead and answer the same questions about the atmosphere and trying to face Sidney Crosby in a showdown later on in the Games. That seems to have been the focal point, at least in the Canadian media, when it comes to the Games; especially when both teams are the favorites, but as an athlete-- that can be a redundant to answer the same question that may or may not happen when the time comes.

On the flip side, what does the the Russian Federation hope to achieve by making Ovechkin scarce during the Games, especially when they know that guys like Ovechkin, Malkin, and Kovalchuk are the high-energy guys-- Ovechkin being the top guy. It's very Soviet-esque for the Federation to basically shutting down the personalities of the guys who are out there. This seems to be odd, considering that there were reports about Alex Semin commandeering a golf-cart and joyriding around the Olympic village and Semyon Varlamov talking about the food in the Olympic Village and having to go to McDonald's. Maybe it was that freedom that the Russians didn't like, thinking it'd become a distraction; thus shutting them down to everything and having them only focus on the games. It's a detriment to the players, the Federation, and the press for the top guys to be shut off like that. Especially when these games are suppose to display the personalities of athlete's many may not see all the time, the Russians seem to be shutting it down.

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There have been many mistake in coverage and availability in these Games and if nothing else, this could be the Olympics with the most CFs in recent memory. Of course, there's a chance where there's too much demand for one thing or another for networks, audiences, and countries to keep up with it. Of course, they should have known something like this would happen and should have been prepared. Odds are that even if they were prepared, someone would find something and then bring that up and blown it out of proportion.

Like the Girl said to me when I had the idea to write this-- you're not going to please everyone and someone will always get mad in one way or another.

My Thoughts on the Allan Walsh/Twitter Trouble

Now that we've all had a chance to breathe from Saturday night's Twitter debate (which is code for me being fashionably late), I'll throw my two-cents in and wonder what's going on over there with Allan Walsh and all that.

If you hadn't heard, Allan Walsh posted on his Twitter page a questionable stat about Carey Price. This would be all well and good just in passing, but for Walsh-- he has a vested interest. His client is Jaroslav Halak, who is battling Price for time in the net in Montreal. So, while the stat in itself, that Price is 10W-25L in his last 35, it seems to be definitely uncalled for. Walsh said it was tongue-in-cheek, but the damage was done as it caught on with CBC's Hockey Night In Canada between games one and two, thus being taken to task by the crew there-- especially Kelly Hrudey.

Of course, the ethical implications are in play in this-- because not only does it make him look bad, but it makes the target and pressure on his client to succeed in a market like Montreal that much bigger. While there would be heat in any market, you can't argue that this is making bigger news considering it has to do with Montreal and not, say, Florida. With Twitter being the immediate news source nowadays, it definitely a place where you should pick your spots and watch what you say.

Yet, at the same time, this is not the first time someone related to Walsh has been in the cross-hairs of the Twitter-verse, as the kids say. Walsh's client, Martin Havlat, made his falling out with the Chicago Blackhawks somewhat public after the team didn't offer him a contract. That made the first wave of NHLers airing their grievances on the social networking mainstream.

This begs the question-- is this all happenstances that the biggest issues when it comes to problems between players and their teams are with Walsh and his clientele or is this strategic planning by Walsh and his clique to go into business for themselves?? While I'm sure there's a bit of coincidence, you never really know because of the fact both people who have made the mainstream hockey media when it comes to the Twitter front have been linked to Walsh. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. Makes you think.

If it is calculated, then it's bloody genius in some instance because of the fact we're talking about it and making a big deal about it. However, the doubled-edge sword thing is in effect because of the fact teams may be hesitant to deal with Walsh and his clients, knowing what he is capable of saying or doing. Plus, who'd want to be teammates with guys like that-- who's agent will slap down negative stats to a teammate and create awkward issues in the locker room??

This is either extremely brilliant to bring light to situations that are development and what other journalist would say in time or it's extremely stupid by making awkward situations and creating enemies amongst teammates and front office personnel alike. While the latter is more often than not the likely response, you have to say the buzz about each player was out there in a big way at the times of the happenings. Also-- shows the power of the social networking sites in this day-in-age.

Weighing-In On The Creativity Conversation

If you follow the blogosphere and look at Puck the Media like I do, you'll see the post Mr. Steve Lepore had about bloggers creativity being ruined due to the access. He cites Yahoo's Puck Daddy and AOL Fanhouse as examples to this ordeal, Fanhouse being looked at a little closer. While we had this discussion on our Draft Show Portion One, it's begs to be talked about a little more, especially with the season going on and stories from blogs being thrown up and down.

I can see Steve's point. There's a lot more you could do when you have the access to. If you're going to get down and dirty with things on the blog, and have the access, it'd be nice to see something out of the usual norm of things. That's what makes Puck the Media so unique because you don't have someone devoting their time to the happenings of hockey broadcasting and solely focusing on critquing the media. It's a great concept and Steve does a fine job of doing what he does. And I mean, you look at all the blogs out there and it's an outlet used for people to get the "everyman" kind of response to games and what-not, which is a refreshing change from the normal mainstream media reviews and insight of the game-- even better than most op-ed pieces you can find in the newspaper.

That said, most of the people at Puck Daddy and Fanhouse can't have that kind of independence, mostly due to the fact they could have assignments, like was revealed about the Chris Botta case, or they have to realize that they are a representitive of a bigger company and don't want to risk their jobs, reputation or the reputation of the company they work for by doing something so out of the norm. They have a little more at stake than most of the people out there in the independent kind of blog. Plus, who's to say the independent blogs would be able to do something they would want to do if given the access. Knowing if they make one false move while attending, they could be at risk of never getting that access again, they could tone it down when in attendance more than they would on their blog.

Now, luckily-- I have been able to get credentialed in the past and am glad for the chance to. I've never really done much out of the norm, mostly due to the lack of imagination. I've ask some off-the-wall questions in some interviews, but mostly just to lighten the mood or see how some people react. Plus, I don't think I'm well enough known to do something pretty crazy and get away with it in good humor. It's definitely a different world when you actually get down to the bowels of any arena. Most of the times, you could be intimidated in terms of what you want to do and if it's your first time there, get a little flustered when you actually get your chance to do something with it.

While Steve make a point of bloggers doing the same thing that mainstream media folks do, sometimes it's a necessary evil. You may not want to do something like, in fact the complete opposite will be true-- yet, going the simple route may be the best route at the time. Hindsight of what could have been done and what should have been done with the access given is 20/20-- if you want to continute to be granted that access, the safe route is always the way to go.