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NHL, TV Partners Get Mostly High Marks For Postseason Coverage

The NHL, Sportsnet and NBC have "managed to get it mostly right" when it comes to TV coverage of the playoffs and Stanley Cup Final thus far, according to Kevin McGran of the TORONTO STAR. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said, “It looks and feels much better than I expected it would. Sometimes I don’t even notice that there’s not a crowd. That could be the way they’re televising them." He added, “Even the production quality, in some respects, is superior to what you would get in a normal arena with fans, because we have access to camera angles and mics and other things that we wouldn’t normally have access to.” McGran noted a 360-degree camera -- the "Jitacam, also used in boxing and MMA -- made its hockey debut with no fan sightlines to block." It hangs from the rafters on an arm and "can follow the play." Sportsnet’s crews are "working from mid-ice level." NBC’s team is "hived off on the same level at Rogers Place, after operating from their usual perch in the press box high above the ice when there were games at Scotiabank Arena." Between periods there also are "some quirks." Analysts such as Sportsnet's Kevin Bieksa, Brian Burke and Anthony Stewart are "typically in studio" with host Ron MacLean or David Amber, "meaning their exchanges sound natural" (TORONTO STAR, 9/20). 

LIFE ON THE OUTSIDE: THE ATHLETIC's Sean Fitz-Gerald noted Sportsnet's Jim Hughson, the English-language voice of the Stanley Cup on Canadian television for "more than a decade," will call the final series alongside analyst Craig Simpson. But unlike colleagues at NBC, Hughson has "not embedded into the NHL’s bubble." He "still has access to the arena, but cannot come into direct contact with those carrying a higher security clearance." Instead, he "stayed in an apartment in Toronto," and has been "living in another one in Edmonton." Hughson said that he "never wanted to live inside the bubble." He "prefers the freedom of his apartment." But there have been "drawbacks." Hughson said that production staff -- directors and producers -- are in the bubble, and his "only contact with them comes through virtual meetings" (THEATHLETIC.com, 9/19).

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