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The time is probably right for Hockey Night in Canada to stop giving the Toronto Maple Leafs countrywide distribution. Through the end of the NHL's regular season, Hockey Night should be thinking about featuring the Ottawa Senators nationally on the 7 p.m. EST telecast.
The Leafs have taken precedence on Hockey Night for years, but as a non-playoff team currently second last in the Eastern Conference, they're contributing little to the telecasts. What's more, Hockey Night will be counting on the Senators, the top team in the Eastern Conference, to deliver substantial playoff audiences.
That won't happen unless the Canadian audience is given an opportunity to connect with the Senators in the regular season.
The problem for Hockey Night's network, the CBC, is that, among the six Canadian NHL teams, the Leafs produce the largest audiences.
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"In television, you want immediate results," a TV source said. "But in this case, the CBC should probably suffer in the short term for long-term gains. Ottawa is going to be the CBC's bread and butter in the playoffs, not Toronto."
Last Saturday, with the Leafs on the West Coast playing the San Jose Sharks at 10 p.m. EST, Hockey Night aired the Detroit Red Wings-Senators game, the battle of the NHL's top two teams, nationwide at 7 p.m. The telecast did pretty well, 909,000 viewers, not far off the 1.181 million average for the Leafs' telecasts.
The Wings-Senators were up against two NFL playoff games on CTV, which were watched by 1.05 million (Seattle Seahawks-Green Bay Packers) and 924,000 (Jacksonville Jaguars-New England Patriots).
Without the competition from football, Wings-Senators would have pulled in an audience probably larger than the Leafs' average on Hockey Night.
In addition to giving Ottawa the national TV forum, Hockey Night could occasionally switch off to the Montreal Canadiens, currently fifth in the Eastern Conference. The Leafs would continue to be televised in the Ontario or southern Ontario market.
For example, on Saturday, the non-playoff matchup, Buffalo Sabres-Leafs, at 7 p.m., would be seen in southern Ontario. The rest of the country would get either Pittsburgh Penguins-Canadiens or Tampa Bay Lightning-Senators.
Leafs stalemate
The interview Hockey Night host Ron MacLean had with Scotty Bowman was revealing and also important, because Bowman, who has done a great deal of tap dancing around this issue, confirmed his interest in becoming president of the Maple Leafs.
But equally interesting was Bowman's account of being wooed last August by Larry Tanenbaum, the chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Leafs, then getting blown off by MLSE chief executive officer and president Richard Peddie. It revealed the paralysis that exists within the company.
Tanenbaum, despite his 13-per-cent ownership position and chairmanship, appears to have little or no power. Peddie does, despite botching the Leafs' management situation and that of the Toronto Raptors prior to hiring Bryan Colangelo.
Bowman, by the way, did not say Leafs general manager John Ferguson would keep his job if Bowman became president. He said the general manager's salary that goes to Ferguson would be deducted from the stipend that Bowman would demand. If Bowman were to take over the Leafs, Ferguson would be removed.
- Rogers Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos, on Peddie stopping Tanenbaum from changing the general manager: "It's disgusting. That whole outfit, it's such an embarrassment. But what are you going to do? That's the way they operate. As of today, there's apparently no sense of urgency except to count the money."
- The opening episode of MVP bombed on Friday. The CBC hockey drama drew only 349,000 viewers. Twice that number would have been acceptable. The CBC heavily promoted MVP.
- The NFL had a big weekend in the United States and Canada. CTV's Saturday audiences were larger than Hockey Night's. In the United States, Fox earned an overnight rating of 25.8 (percentage of potential households tuned in) for the New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. That was the highest overnight since 1997 (Cowboys-Carolina Panthers, 28.6). On Saturday, CBS earned a 20.2 rating for the Jaguars-Patriots game, the best since 2003 (Pittsburgh Steelers-Tennessee Titans, 20.3).
- Hockey Night's P.J. Stock was wrong when he said young players avoid Toronto because of a tough press. The Toronto sports media are easy on athletes. They focus their hostility on coaches, executives and owners.
Rating the weekend
| EVENT | NETWORK | VIEWERS | SKINNY |
| Friday | |||
| Basketball. Raptors-Knicks. | TSN | 152,000 | Above average |
| Saturday | |||
| Soccer. Arsenal-Birmingham. | Sportsnet | 94,000 | On target for EPL on Sportsnet |
| Skiing. Women's slalom. | CBC | 82,000 | Skiing's core audience |
| Skiing. Men's slalom. | CBC | 129,000 | Big jump for the men |
| Football. Seahawks-Packers. | CTV | 1.05 million | Up from Colts-Ravens, 753,000 Global '07 |
| Hockey. Red Wings-Senators. | CBC | 909,000 | Down from season average 1.163 million |
| Hockey. Canadiens-Rangers. | RDS | 574,000 | Down from season average 643,000 |
| Football. Jaguars-Patriots. | CTV | 924,000 | Up from Eagles-Saints, 746,000 Glb. '07 |
| Hockey. Maple Leafs-Sharks. | CBC | 739,000 | Up from season average 689,000 |
| Sunday | |||
| Soccer. Bolton-Blackburn. | Score | 56,000 | Two also-rans |
| Football. Chargers-Colts. | CTV | 850,000 | Up from 'Hawks-Bears, 701,000 Glb. '07 |
| Basketball. Trail Blazers-Raptors. | CBC | 182,000 | Third highest for CBC this season |
| Skiing. Men's downhill. | CBC | 133,000 | Skiing audience holds |
| Football. Giants-Cowboys. | TSN | 597,000 | Down from Pats-Bolts, 1.13M Glb. '07 |
| Tennis. Australian Open. | TSN | 133,000 | Good for early round coverage |
