Cherry Picked: CBC Analyst To Appear On ESPN For Rest Of Playoffs

Cherry To Make Appearances On ESPN's NHL Playoff Coverage

The CBC's Don Cherry will "make regular appearances on ESPN during the NHL's Eastern Conference final," according to William Houston of the GLOBE & MAIL. Cherry and "HNIC" host Ron MacLean will broadcast live from the site of each Flyers-Penguins game, and Cherry will do "live hits by remote" for ESPN's "SportsCenter" at the end of each game. ESPN also "plans to use Cherry during the Stanley Cup final." Houston writes ESPN's move to use Cherry will "restart speculation about ESPN2 returning as a carrier of NHL games next season." Meanwhile, "HNIC" will air the entire Flyers-Penguins series and "pick up the second game, as well as the fifth through seventh games" of the Stars-Red Wings Western Conference final. TSN will air the remaining Stars-Red Wings games (GLOBE & MAIL, 5/6).

RATINGS RECORDS: The Stars' four-overtime victory Sunday over the Sharks, which sent the team into the Western Conference finals, earned a 4.4/11 HH rating (107,000 HHs) on FSN Southwest, the highest-rated Stars game on the net since a 5.6 for Game Six of the Ducks-Stars Western Conference semifinals in '03. CSN Bay Area drew a 5.9 HH rating (142,000 HHs), the net's highest-rated Sharks game ever. The game peaked with an 8.8 HH rating (213,000 HHs) from 10:45-11:00pm PT at the end of the third overtime.  For all '08 Sharks playoffs telecasts, the net averaged a 3.0 HH rating, up 233% from last season (THE DAILY).