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How important is the world junior hockey championship to TSN? Let's start with the numbers.
The tournament has produced eight of the network's top 10 audiences, including the first three, all of which had viewership above three million: 3.453 million for the 2003 gold-medal game; 3.227 million for 2005 final; and 3.007 million for 2006 (all Canada-Russia games).
Those audiences are comparable to the number of people who will watch a Grey Cup game or Super Bowl on Canadian television. And they're superior to what most games of a Stanley Cup final involving a Canadian team will draw, although the seventh game of the final in 2006 (Edmonton Oilers-Carolina Hurricanes) produced a huge 4.739 million on the CBC.
The junior tournament, which starts next week, is TSN's franchise property. Its popularity is based on the appeal of a best-against-best competition involving the country's favourite sport. Other factors are Canada's success over the years, the high standard of TSN's telecasts, some heavy-duty marketing by the network and the fact the event is held over the holiday season when a good portion of the viewing audience is at home and able to watch the telecasts.
"It's our biggest show," executive producer Jim Marshall said. "We put a lot of energy and effort into it every year. And it won't get any bigger for us until we do the Grey Cup next November. Then we'll see which one is bigger."
The junior tournament is in the Czech Republic this year, and, as a rule, a North American network will pick up the host broadcast feed of a European-based event. But TSN will produce its own telecasts because it wants to the shoot the games in high-definition TV. Czech TV will provide only a stretched, standard-definition picture.
"We're across the ice from the Czech TV cameras," Marshall said. "I call it the good side, because our cameras look directly into the benches."
TSN has sent over a crew of 33. A high-definition mobile truck and cameras have been rented from a Swedish company. As usual, Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire will call the games. James Cybulski will be the rinkside reporter and, in Toronto, James Duthie will anchor the studio show with Bob McKenzie providing analysis. The telecasts will be streamed on TSN.ca.
McGuire predicts Canada will win, followed by the United States (silver) and Russia (bronze).
"This is my sixth tournament," he said.
"And this is the quickest Canadian team from top to bottom and probably the smartest that I've seen."
He picks Canadian forward Kyle Turris, the third player selected in the June NHL draft, by Phoenix, to be the tournament's "breakout player." Miller and McKenzie like Canadian Steven Stamkos, the Sarnia Sting forward projected to be taken No. 1 in 2008.
TSN will air a tournament preview show Dec. 25 at 7 p.m. ET, repeated the next day at 12:30 p.m. The first telecast is Dec. 26 at 1:30 p.m., Canada-Czech Republic.
-- ESPN Classic Canada will air a series of old world junior telecasts over the next few days, the most interesting of which might be Wayne Gretzky's debut on the international scene in a 1978 round-robin Canada-Czechoslovakia game. That's Monday at noon.
-- NHL Network in the United States will pick up TSN's telecasts of the world junior quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
-- Goalie Curtis Joseph, who had some big years in Edmonton and Toronto but is now looking for work, will be interviewed Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada's pregame show. He will play for Canada at the Spengler Cup next week and hopes to find employment in the NHL in the new year.
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