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Originally Posted by Igster
I'm surprised how many simply don't seem to care about the "tradition" of HNIC on CBC. Just wait until we have the brutal broadcasts from Rogers...you're gonna' wish the CBC was back. I grew up with CBC on just about every TV on Saturday night. And I'm going to miss that when it's gone. Regardless of what taxpayers paid for it.
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Times change. The NHL is big business now and a publicly funded company simply can't compete using taxpayer dollars to outbid private broadcasters. Also as a Westerner I don't particularly look back at HNIC with fondness. The Saturday night double headers are only of the last decade and for the most part the tradition of HNIC is essentially Leafs and Habs every Saturday night not the other Canadian teams. Maybe some of you don't recall how bad the Leafs were in the 80's but I do and having to watch them get blown out on a Saturday night while at the same time having to listen on the radio to a great Flames/Islanders game wasn't something I look back at with fondness. Honestly think about a horrible team like the Oilers of today being shoved down the throats of Canadians every weekend as it was that bad. They care so much about us out here that they couldn't even be bothered to broadcast the 2006 Flames/Ducks playoff series in HD. When it officially ends for them I for one will not shed a tear.
As for Rogers I totally expect some brutal broadcasts but that's par for the course with a 2nd tier broadcaster. Most of us realize this was a poor decision by the NHL to hand over 12 years to Rogers but there's nothing we can do about it as the NHL cares about $$$ over what's best for Canadian hockey fans. That said we all knew the day would come when HNIC would no longer be feasible so we will all just have to get used to it.