The Bruins are hosting the Lightning Friday night in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals, and coverage of the Bruins' playoff run in the Boston market "has been comprehensive and of high quality" on both NESN and Comcast SportsNet New England, according to Chad Finn of the BOSTON GLOBE. NESN analyst Andy Brickley "might be the best analyst of any sport in the market," and host Kathryn Tappen "remains as professional as always in the anchor chair." CSN New England, meanwhile, "deserves kudos for using its affiliation with Comcast and NBC to worthwhile effect, particularly in showing extended postgame press conferences." Mike Giardi and Joe Haggerty "are a knowledgeable tandem, and the in-studio pairing of Michael Felger and Tony Amonte has worked from the get-go." Meanwhile, WEEI-AM during the postseason has used guests like ESPN's Barry Melrose and Boston Globe hockey reporter Kevin Paul Dupont "with entertaining and informative results." However, WEEI is "late to the bandwagon, and despite recent reminders that [host Glenn] Ordway was once part of the Bruins' radio broadcast team, its hosts don't discuss hockey as convincingly or thoroughly as their counterparts" at WBZ-FM. WBZ is the Bruins' flagship station, and it "delivered perhaps the most compelling Bruins-centric radio segment ... in years" prior to Monday's Game Five. Host Damon Amendolara and Bruins broadcasters Dave Goucher and Bob Beers were joined by HOFers Ray Bourque and Phil Esposito, and Finn writes the "result was a conversation so engrossing that one wouldn't have minded if the game were delayed a few minutes" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/27).
THE HUB OF HOCKEY: Versus averaged a 16.1 local rating in the Boston market for Wednesday's Bruins-Lightning Game Six, marking the net's highest rating ever for an NHL game in Boston. The 16.1 rating was up 19% from a 13.5 average local rating for the first four games of the series, and up 40% from a 11.6 average local rating for the two games Versus broadcast exclusively during the Bruins-Flyers Eastern Conference Semifinals. Versus during Game Six was the No. 1 network overall in the Boston market and also beat Fox' "American Idol" head-to-head in the market (THE DAILY).
