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By JASON DIAMOS
Published: November 27, 2005
The National Hockey League's version of Bird and Magic -Sidney Crosby of the Penguins and Alexander Ovechkin of the Capitals - faced each other for the first time as professionals on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh.
The matchup proved memorable, with Crosby contributing a goal and an assist in the Penguins' 5-4 victory. Crosby and Ovechkin, the No. 1 overall picks in each of the last two entry drafts, dominated the game.
For a league starved for attention after the cancellation of the 2004-5 season, the game was the kind of marquee matchup that should have had a national audience.
But the league did not ensure that a wide audience could see the game. OLN, in its first season as the N.H.L.'s cable television-rights holder, was locked into the Tampa Bay-Philadelphia game.
"I don't think we missed an opportunity," Adam Acone, the N.H.L. vice president for broadcasting and programming, said Wednesday. "And OLN did a very good job of covering the game."
Mark Fein, OLN's senior vice president for programming and production, said that the network had more live cut-ins to the Capitals-Penguins game than it ordinarily would have.
But there was no way for fans outside the Pittsburgh and Washington areas to watch the game live, unless they had subscriptions to the N.H.L.'s pay-per-view season package.
Crosby's goal came off a beautiful fake after making a move to split two defensemen. He outdid himself when he set up a goal with a reverse spin move and a blind backhand cross-ice pass to the tape of Zigmund Palffy's stick.
Ovechkin, meanwhile, was by far the Capitals' best player, although he recorded only one assist.
OLN also missed its opportunity to showcase Crosby on opening night, when it broadcast the Rangers-Flyers game in Philadelphia instead of Crosby's N.H.L. debut against the Devils.
In a telephone interview, Fein said there were several reasons OLN chose to show the Tampa Bay-Philadelphia game instead of Pittsburgh-Washington on Tuesday.
When OLN and the league worked out their television schedule in August, the Lightning-Flyers game appeared to be a better matchup, featuring the defending Stanley Cup champions against a Philadelphia team that was expected to contend for the Cup this season.
"Unfortunately, right now, the local market ratings really do drive national ratings," Fein said.
If OLN had switched to the Washington-Pittsburgh game, it would have lost its exclusive coverage of the game in markets to local regional coverage, which would have caused lower ratings. And the local networks in Philadelphia and Tampa Bay were already locked into alternate programming.
OLN, which broadcast the game in high definition, would have had to change production crews on the fly.
"Next year," Fein said, "I think, will be a lot smoother."
By JASON DIAMOS
Published: November 27, 2005
The National Hockey League's version of Bird and Magic -Sidney Crosby of the Penguins and Alexander Ovechkin of the Capitals - faced each other for the first time as professionals on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh.
The matchup proved memorable, with Crosby contributing a goal and an assist in the Penguins' 5-4 victory. Crosby and Ovechkin, the No. 1 overall picks in each of the last two entry drafts, dominated the game.
For a league starved for attention after the cancellation of the 2004-5 season, the game was the kind of marquee matchup that should have had a national audience.
But the league did not ensure that a wide audience could see the game. OLN, in its first season as the N.H.L.'s cable television-rights holder, was locked into the Tampa Bay-Philadelphia game.
"I don't think we missed an opportunity," Adam Acone, the N.H.L. vice president for broadcasting and programming, said Wednesday. "And OLN did a very good job of covering the game."
Mark Fein, OLN's senior vice president for programming and production, said that the network had more live cut-ins to the Capitals-Penguins game than it ordinarily would have.
But there was no way for fans outside the Pittsburgh and Washington areas to watch the game live, unless they had subscriptions to the N.H.L.'s pay-per-view season package.
Crosby's goal came off a beautiful fake after making a move to split two defensemen. He outdid himself when he set up a goal with a reverse spin move and a blind backhand cross-ice pass to the tape of Zigmund Palffy's stick.
Ovechkin, meanwhile, was by far the Capitals' best player, although he recorded only one assist.
OLN also missed its opportunity to showcase Crosby on opening night, when it broadcast the Rangers-Flyers game in Philadelphia instead of Crosby's N.H.L. debut against the Devils.
In a telephone interview, Fein said there were several reasons OLN chose to show the Tampa Bay-Philadelphia game instead of Pittsburgh-Washington on Tuesday.
When OLN and the league worked out their television schedule in August, the Lightning-Flyers game appeared to be a better matchup, featuring the defending Stanley Cup champions against a Philadelphia team that was expected to contend for the Cup this season.
"Unfortunately, right now, the local market ratings really do drive national ratings," Fein said.
If OLN had switched to the Washington-Pittsburgh game, it would have lost its exclusive coverage of the game in markets to local regional coverage, which would have caused lower ratings. And the local networks in Philadelphia and Tampa Bay were already locked into alternate programming.
OLN, which broadcast the game in high definition, would have had to change production crews on the fly.
"Next year," Fein said, "I think, will be a lot smoother."
