It’s preseason for broadcast crews too

It’s not just the players who have to shake a little rust off after a summer of being away from the rink.

Monday night’s broadcast of the first NHL preseason game of the year had its share of glitches over the airwaves, too — and not in ways you might expect.

The Rogers Sportsnet commentators, who clocked over 1,000 kilometers just to get to Terrace, eased in nicely from their regular duties as Canucks’ regional broadcasters and providing an interesting, impartial insight into the game.  The normally local feed ran on the NHL Network both north and south of the border, and MSG+ in New York.

Things didn’t run so smoothly for the crew behind the scenes.  The Canucks.com online broadcast was inadvertently blacked out in parts of North America to start the game, despite still being available in some parts of Europe.  The game also appeared to come off of its 30-minute delay at one point, as the action quickly switched away to a feature which should have run at intermission.  Then, late in the third period with the Canucks clinging to a one-goal lead, the game flipped over to commercials before a stoppage in play.  Good thing this one was on tape.

Some fans on the island may have taken offense to their suggestion that the Islanders were holding only neutral site preseason games, save for one preseason game at Uniondale, to try to boost their bottom line.  But seeing as the team ranked dead last in attendance in 2008/09, averaging under 14,000 fans a game, there’s merit to that statement.

Also of interest was the mention that a large number of kids skipped school for the day to take in the morning skates both clubs held in Terrace.  That’s not unexpected.  However, by playing hooky, some kids may have actually missed out, as Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa didn’t dress for the Canucks, but spent the day touring schools.

On the ugly side of things, a boorish Hockeyville logo — complete with the contest’s corporate sponsor — dominated the on-screen scoreboard, taking up what seemed like one-third of the graphic.  They don’t even make network logos that big!