NBC earned a 3.2 overnight Nielsen rating for Friday night's Bruins-Canucks NHL Stanley Cup Final Game Five from 8:00-11:00pm ET, down 20% from a 4.0 overnight for Blackhawks-Flyers Game Five last year, which aired on a Sunday night. The telecast is up 23% from a 2.6 overnight for Penguins-Blackhawks Game Five in '09, which aired on a Saturday night, and also up 33% from a 2.4 rating for the clinching Ducks-Senators Game Five in '07, which was the last time a Canadian team played in the Final. Friday night's telecast peaked at a 4.0 rating during the final half hour of the game. Boston earned a 25.8 local rating, while Providence finished with a 16.0 rating (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
TURN DOWN THE MIKE: Canucks LW Daniel Sedin "wasn't too happy" with NBC and Versus analyst Mike Milbury, who referred to Sedin and his twin brother Henrik during Game Four as Thelma and Louise. Daniel Sedin said, "We don't really worry about those kind of comments. He made a bad comment about us, calling us women. I don't know how he looks at women. I would be pretty mad if I was a woman" (GLOBESPORTS.com, 6/11). In N.Y., Larry Brooks wrote, "We've all heard this sad song before from Mike Milbury, the ugly American who apparently thinks it is insightful hockey commentary to mock the manhood and masculinity of Henrik and Daniel Sedin. ... What on earth is wrong with the North American television network executives who make the decisions to hire these people to spew their ignorance?" The Sedins are "gentlemen and ambassadors for the sport," but they "aren't North American, after all, so they must be belittled." Milbury also calls Bruins games for NESN during the regular season, and Brooks wrote, "Boston must be so proud. So must NBC and the NHL" (N.Y. POST, 6/12). In L.A., Helene Elliott wrote, "Shame on Versus/NBC for continuing to employ Milbury. Not just for this but for the body of his alleged work on the air. Is this really how the NHL wants to be portrayed?" (LATIMES.com, 6/12). In St. Petersburg, Tom Jones writes, "It was Milbury trying to be controversial, outrageous and funny, but it came off as unfair, sexist and in very poor taste" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 6/13). In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont wrote, "I'll keep my 'I like Mike' button, but hockey has had enough of those passive-aggressive drive-bys for years with Don Cherry's off-color ruminations" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/12).
THE DOC IS IN THE HOUSE: In Denver, Dusty Saunders writes NBC play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick "displayed again Friday night why he won the recent Sports Emmy as outstanding personality in the play-by-play category during Vancouver's stirring 1-0 win." Emrick "was at his breathless yet coherent best" (DENVER POST, 6/13).
JUMPING THE GUN: ESPN BOSTON's Joe McDonald reported the Canucks "attempted to sell the broadcast rights for their potential Stanley Cup celebration parade following their Game 5 win Friday night," but a source said that the NHL "would not allow them to do so." The league, Canucks and Bruins "held meetings prior to the start of the series to plan for parades in each city, which is the norm because of the amount of planning needed to prepare for such celebrations" (ESPNBOSTON.com, 6/12).
WRONG KIND OF HEADLINES: The ST. PETERSBURG TIMES' Jones wrote the NHL "should be worried about how this series is being viewed by the casual sports fan," because "once again, the headlines in this series are for all the wrong reasons." Instead of "celebrating the acrobatic goaltending of Boston's Tim Thomas or the enormous skill of Vancouver's Daniel Sedin, all anyone is talking about is how ugly the series has become." The NHL is "partly to blame." While the league "moved swiftly and strongly" in suspending Canucks D Aaron Rome for his hit on Bruins RW Nathan Horton during Game Three, "perhaps a lot of the nastiness could have been taken out of this series if it had suspended" Canucks LW Alex Burrows for biting Bruins C Patrice Pergeron's finger in Game One (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 6/10).
