Hockey Night in Canada has been rescued!

I was so overjoyed at the offical news stating how the CBC cinched it over TSN (Canadian ESPN). There were rumors going on all season that the NHL would sign for a ridiculous amount of money with TSN; more than the CBC could cough up since they’re funded by Canadian taxpayers but their hockey coverage fuels the rest of the network through advertising, unlike the BBC’s per set tax or the PBS beg-a-thons. Bettmann’s ongoing excuse was “doing what was best for the league” litany. If this were true, he’d be working on improving the game’s exposure in the US, which has 24 of the 30 teams, before trying to destroy 50-plus year-old icon for our northern neighbor.

For those of you who don’t like or know hockey, why is the CBC’s coverage and Hockey Night in Canada such a big deal? Other than it being a tradition older than the recently destroyed Monday Night Football, HNiC has Coach’s Corner during at least the first intermission with Don Cherry, the John Madden of Hockey and a rather atypical Canadian; he’s blunt, openly a political conservative for a Canadian and endorses toughness in hockey (as there’s yet another debate about banning fighting happening). Then there’s The Hot Stove debate at the intermissions. Overall, Canadian coverage of hockey is superior to American since CBC, TSN and Rogers Sports Net cater to Canadians so they assume the audience knows the game, thus no segments wasting your time about what the hell icing is. Other than Comcast and VS., ESPN (all), NBC and especially FSN assume the audience is clueless.

The new contract is for six years. Hopefully long enough for Don Cherry to retire on a high note.