Wings fans should tune out to protest Versus, officiating

[Factorial 0]

Here’s a suggestion for all Red Wings fans ahead of Thursday’s Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals: Don’t watch. At all.

It leave to the dull member of British means in order to arrive upward with the trick as this. I have to never see, that fans played the card of victim more than you the fans Of redwings.

[WingZNut13 99]

Always do, VS can suck a fat hairy one. My life will be complete when CBC HD happens.

Can you get CBC in the South? I have to be stuck with VS and I want to cry.

[Vladiator 116]

Watch CBC.

If you can.

Deleted my preset VS recording. Watching on CBC tonight. Hopefully a little less Crosby love.

[Vladiator 116]

Always do, VS can suck a fat hairy one. My life will be complete when CBC HD happens.

Yep will be happy when I can get CBC HD too. I was hoping the VS broadcast on Tuesday would be better by a long shot compared to the NBC broadcasts...but it wasn't. Willing to sacrifice the VS HD eye candy so that I don't have to hear Crosby or Malkin love every other sentence.

[catbox_9 1]

Haven't read the whole thread, but unless you have one of those Nielsen boxes in your house, they won't even know if you don't watch the game. Ratings are determined by boxes that some people randomly get. We used to have those and that's how they determine how many people watch something.

A good protest for those that have the boxes is to turn to something stupid and watch the game elsewhere.

[Xitium 272]

Saw this over on RWC and thought it was worth carrying over.

British writer: Wings fans should tune out to protest Versus, officiating

By SIMON VENESS • FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER • June 3, 2009

Here’s a suggestion for all Red Wings fans ahead of Thursday’s Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals: Don’t watch. At all.

Turn off the TV, do some housework, take the dog for a walk or chat with the neighbors. But leave the viewing to those in Pennsylvania and the suits of the NHL.

I’m serious. As much as it seems like fan lunacy (as in, real fans support their team, come what may), it makes perfect sense.

First, it will send a message to the blinkered buffoons at league HQ that you can’t put a marquee event on a cable station most people have never heard of and maintain any kind of credibility.

The playoffs on Versus is like putting the Super Bowl on Comedy Central. It’s a joke of the unfunniest kind, pure and simple.

If the (already paltry) viewing figures for Game 3 are followed up with a near-zero rating for Game 4, the NHL just might realize its standing with the fans is dropping like a stone.

Second, it will raise a measurable protest at the way these playoffs have been (mis)handled almost from start to finish. Putting out officials who miss call after call (go back to review the Anaheim and Chicago series if you have any doubts) and then scheduling the first three games of the finals in four days is the kind of slap-in-the-face arrogance that only the immensely successful or terminally dumb can pull off.

Third and most important, it will prevent Wings fans from the kind of angst and anguish they had to suffer Tuesday night, witnessing yet another display of officiating incompetence that absolutely cost them the game (see also Game 3 against the Ducks and Game 3 against the Blackhawks).

It certainly raises the question of how desperate the NHL must be to ensure their precious series survives to Saturday night and a second chance to breathe the much-needed air of exposure into the finals on NBC (even if the network insists on covering the event as if the only two players involved are called Malkin and Crosby).

It’s hard to suggest there was anything deliberate about a schedule that clearly penalizes the defending champs; about a league disciplinary process that waives its own procedure when it might have to suspend a star player (who just happens to be called Malkin or Crosby); and about officials who refuse to recognize when one team has an extra man on the ice for half a minute (perhaps they were waiting for a seven- or even eight-man front?).

But fans certainly can be excused for detecting the nasty odor of suspicion about the way events are unfolding, most especially about how the only four people in the Mellon Arena who didn’t notice the Penguins’ six-man assault were the ones with the whistles.

So the only way to make your feelings known at 8 p.m. Thursday is to leave the TV set blank, switched off, somnolent. You know it makes sense.

Simon Veness is a U.S.-based British sports writer who contributes to the Sun and News of the World newspapers in London. He provided European view of Super Bowl XL to Free Press readers. Now he weighs in on the Stanley Cup finals.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=424850

Versus scores highest-rated,most-watched telecast ever with Game 3 of Stanley Cup Final

NEW YORK, N.Y. (June 3, 2009) - VERSUS, the exclusive cable television home of the National Hockey League (NHL), garnered a 2.6 national HH rating and averaged 2,955,348 viewers for its Game 3 telecast of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday, June 2, with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 4-2 defeat over the Detroit Red Wings at Mellon Arena. The game, which peaked at a 3.5 HH rating between 10:15 and 10:30 p.m., was the highest-rated and most-watched Stanley Cup Final game on cable since 2002. VERSUS, for the 8:00-10:45 p.m. time period, was the most-viewed cable network in the country and the top-rated network overall (broadcast and cable) among all key male demos.

The 2.6 national HH rating is the best rating ever in the history of the network, beating both Lance Armstrong's final ride (7/24/05) and Game 5 between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks in the Conference Finals (5/27/09) which both earned a 2.1 HH rating. Among average viewers, the Game 3 telecast topped the network's previous high set during Game 2 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final (2,608,371). VERSUS' Game 3 telecast showed a 37-percent increase in HH rating (2.6 vs 1.9) and 19-percent growth (2,955,348 vs 2,479,977) in average viewership over the average of Games 1 and 2 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final between the Red Wings and Penguins.

Locally, VERSUS garnered a 15.1 HH rating in Detroit and a 26.1 HH rating in Pittsburgh, making VERSUS the top-rated network (broadcast and cable) for the time period in both markets. VERSUS was also a top 5 cable network for the time period in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC and Philadelphia, among others.

VERSUS entered the 2009 Stanley Cup Final with tremendous momentum based on ratings and viewership gains in the regular season and through each round of the playoffs. The network's coverage of the 2009 Conference Final round was the highest-rated third round on cable since 1998 with HH ratings up 25 percent and average viewership up 30 percent from 2008. The third-round growth came on the heels of VERSUS airing the highest-rated Conference Semifinals on cable since 1997 and seeing 32-percent viewership growth in that round, 22-percent viewership growth in the Conference Quarterfinals and a 21-percent increase in viewership during the regular season.

VERSUS celebrates real competition across all platforms (VERSUS.com, VERSUS on Demand and VERSUS HD). Now in more than 75 million homes, the network is the national cable home of the National Hockey League (NHL), the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the IndyCar® Series as well as best-in-class events such as The Tour de France, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Professional Boxing. The network also offers collegiate sports featuring nationally-ranked teams from top conferences such as the Pac-10, Big 12, Mountain West and Ivy League. VERSUS features the best field sports programming on television and is a destination for sports fans, athletes and sportsmen to find exclusive, competitive events and original programs, such as Sports Soup and The Contender, that audiences can't find elsewhere. VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.

ORLY?

[VM1138 1,921]

Not watching Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals isn't going to make the league any m ore respectable. No true Wings fan could willingly NOT watch such a crucial game.