NHL goes to OLN

[Azaroth]

On the plus side, they ARE decreasing the neutral zone and increasing the offensive zone sizes by two feet each. No big deal? Watch an offensive team like the Penguins make use of that.

[Shockeye]

Damphousse retires after 18 seasons

Associated Press

TORONTO -- The NHL lost the second of its top eight active leaders in games played in as many days.

Vincent Damphousse announced his retirement Wednesday, one day after New Jersey Devils captain Scott Stevens called an end to his 22-year career.

"I loved getting up every morning and heading to the rink, and I will miss being in the dressing room with the guys," Damphousse said in a statement released by the NHL Players Association, where he now serves as vice president. "However, I'm looking forward to the next stage of my life."

The futures of veteran free agents Mark Messier, Ron Francis and defenseman Al MacInnis -- who are first, second and sixth, respectively -- also are in doubt.

Eighth on the list of games played among active players with 1,378, Damphousse began his 18-year career in 1986 with Toronto, which drafted him sixth overall prior to that season.

A four-time All-Star who registered 12 career hat tricks, Damphousse is 30th on the all-time assists list with 773. His 432 goals gives him 1,205 points, good for 38th all-time.

Damphousse, who also played with Edmonton, Montreal and San Jose, has surpassed the 20-goal plateau 12 times, including a career-high 40 with the Canadiens in 1993-94. The previous season, the 37-year-old former Montreal captain helped the club to its 23rd Stanley Cup championship.

After recording 12 goals and 29 assists with the Sharks in 2003-04, Damphousse signed a one-year contract with Colorado but never played for the Avalanche due to the NHL lockout. A free agent again this summer, the Montreal native had discussions with Pittsburgh last month with hopes of continuing his career.

[Shockeye]

Wings: Datsyuk as good as gone

[Paelos]

Wings: Datsyuk as good as gone

As a Stars fan I say: Boo hoo.

[Shockeye]

Dish slashes Comcast's NHL channel
By Andrew Wallenstein
Fri Oct 21, 1:39 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A three-way brawl over National Hockey League games has broken out among Comcast, Cablevision and EchoStar, which on Thursday ejected the Comcast-owned OLN channel from its Dish Network lineup.
 
Earlier this month, Comcast began replacing NHL games scheduled on the channel with other OLN programing on systems run by Cablevision and EchoStar. The two distributors were put in Comcast's penalty box because they put OLN on channel tiers available to fewer than 40 percent of their subscribers, according to a Comcast spokesman.

Sources said EchoStar stunned Comcast brass by yanking the channel without warning. Company executives flew to the satellite service's Denver headquarters Thursday to negotiate a truce, but after 10 minutes of discussion, EchoStar ended the meeting, citing an unspecified crisis.

By the time the Comcast delegation's plane touched down at its home base in Philadelphia, EchoStar had issued a statement signaling its intent to pull the plug.

In a statement Thursday, EchoStar blasted Comcast's "strong-arm tactics," explaining that moving OLN to a more accessible tier would result in the satellite service having to pay more for the channel, a cost it would be forced to pass on to customers.

"We work hard to provide choice for our customers and to keep prices low," EchoStar senior vp programing Eric Sahl said in the statement.

OLN countered with a statement of its own. "We are surprised and disappointed that Dish has unilaterally chosen to stop providing OLN to its customers. ... We are also disappointed that EchoStar cut off the ongoing discussions with OLN."

MORE BAD NEWS FOR HOCKEY

The OLN blackout represents a setback for the perennially struggling NHL, which signed away its TV rights to Comcast in August for a three-year deal estimated to be worth $200 million. After ESPN declined to pick up another hockey season amid poor ratings and a lockout that canceled the 2004-05 season, the league suddenly is seeing its visibility reduced in key markets like the New York-New Jersey area that Cablevision serves.

Thus begins another contentious face-off between programing and distribution in the subscription-TV world, which, like hockey itself, is occasionally marred by nasty battles pitting combatants capable of landing low blows.

EchoStar chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen has shown that he is more than willing to pull the jersey over a programmer's head. In March 2004, he removed all Viacom-owned channels from Dish Network for 48 hours before reaching a new carriage deal with the conglomerate. In January 2001, it took a federal injunction to keep EchoStar from dumping Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC Family in a similar fracas.

But now EchoStar is going toe-to-toe with Comcast, the biggest cable operator in the country and owner of a growing portfolio of channels, including E! Networks, Golf Channel and G4.

Cablevision has no plans to pull OLN, according to a spokesman. But the operator isn't giving up the fight, either. "We continue to carry OLN, and we continue to call upon them to cease their illegal electronic blocking of hockey games in New York," the spokesman said.

EchoStar currently slots OLN on its America's Top 180 channel package, which isn't as popular among its 11.4 million subscribers. Cablevision slots OLN on a separate sports tier that costs an additional $4.95.

Comcast wants to see both distributors upgrade OLN to channel positions that will put them in front of 40 percent of their subscriber bases, commonly accepted as the baseline for pro sports programing.

Formerly known as Outdoor Life Network, OLN is available in 65 million homes.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

[HaemishM]

Echostar/Dish Network are complete cockmonkeys. On the cable system I used to have (which was actually some bastard wireless form of Dish Network shite), they would just pull shit off the air with no warning because they were having a negotiation snit with some provider. Fuck that. You are bending the customer over because you don't want to pay an extra few bucks in fees, money you'll just shaft the customer with later.

[Surlyboi]

Hockey sucks.  :-D

[Paelos]

I have to admit, I'm not watching hockey right now. It's hard to find out when it's on, it's on a channel that doesn't come in very well on my cable, and it's always some NE team I don't care about.

[Bunk]

You need to move to Vancouver my friend.

[naum]

I swore I would never resub to DirectTV Center Ice but I got sucked in this season, and a big factor was the dearth of televised hockey — I do get OLN, but Coyotes plus a game Mon or Tue?

And fuck ESPN, fuckers can televise poker championships but can't show any love for a sport that helped put them on the map. The last time ESPN dumped hockey, 88-92 I believe, also put a damper on the game — I lived in Alabama at the time, and pro hockey simply disappeared from my world, other than reading USA Today sports or being in a sports bar where there was a spare TV tuned to a hockey game.

[Strazos]

I'm just disappointed when a Flyers' game is on OLN, because for some reason, that channel looks like shite in my house.

Oddly enough, when the OLN clips are replayed on a different channel, they look perfectly fine.

[WayAbvPar]

Does the Center Ice carry the local feeds for the OLN games too? I know they do for Hockey Night In Canada (as an aside, I can't believe how much I missed it! I could watch Grapes and Ron babble forever). The OLN coverage is a little on the amateurish/cheap side, or at least it seems to be. At least it is hockey!

[HaemishM]

The OLN coverage is a little on the amateurish/cheap side, or at least it seems to be.

I miss Barry Melrose and John Buccigross.

[WayAbvPar]

Don't forget Barry's mullet! They work as a team, dammit.

[Surlyboi]

I hung out with Melrose, his hair got its own dressing room.

[WayAbvPar]

I still see him as a former Seattle Thunderbirds coach. It never fails to amuse me that he got so big and famous after such humble beginnings. Hell, the current coach can't even attend home games- the US government denied his work visa for no apparent reason and he has been jumping though hoops for a month trying to get it back. Glad to see that Homeland Security is using its budget well.

[HaemishM]

Those fucking hockey coaches are a menace 2 society.

[WayAbvPar]

Not this guy...he looks like he is 14 years old!



BTW, he was finally admitted to the country today. I guess the government responds to my bitching!  :-D