Buffalo Sabres play by play announcer Rick Jeannerret is a legend in Buffalo and throughout the NHL. He can not be compared to anyone else because he has a style that you either love him or hate him there is no middle ground. In Buffalo most people love him, although there are a few exceptions, and therefore relish the opportunity to have him call the games. The NHL today announced the Broadcast schedule for the 2007-2008 season and there are a number of games that they will play on National Television. It isn't impossible to listen to Rick, who still does the game on radio, but it takes a lot of work. I for one will not put that much effort into it so here is a list of the games I will be listening to another announcer.
Monday OCT.15 vs. Toronto 7PM
Monday NOV.26 @ Washington 7PM
Monday DEC.12 vs. Boston 7PM
Tuesday JAN.29 @ Tampa Bay 7PM
Monday FEB.25 vs. Philly 7PM
Tuesday MAR.4 @ Philly 7PM
Monday MAR.10 vs. NY Rangers 7PM
All-Star Festivities
Saturday JAN.26 All-Star Skills competition 7PM
Sunday JAN.27 All-Star Game 7PM
It appears that Versus wants to take advantage of the potential storyline of Danny Briere and Chris Drury playing for their former team. A team that has played in the Eastern Conference Finals the previous two seasons. The final three games on that slate are against former players. The schedule shows the Sabres playing the Flyers in two games and the Rangers in one on Versus. The Sabres will also play on Hockey Night in Canada on two occasions, both against the Leafs on January, 19 and March 15.
Note: The NHL website states that the NBC schedule has been released but I can not find it anywhere. If anyone can find the NBC schedule please write a diary or just comment on this post.
Update: 3:35PM
The Sabres NBC schedule is not set in stone because of the new flex-scheduling. NBC has a couple of games to choose from each week. They will have to pick the game 13 days in advance to allow the local network an opportunity to prepare for it's broadcast. The Sabres potential dates are as follows:
Sunday FEB.17 vs. Pittsburgh 3:30PM
Sunday MAR.2 vs. Detroit 12:30PM
Sunday MAR.30 vs. Boston 12:30PM
At first glance you would have to think that two of the three are automatically on, the Pittsburgh and Detroit games with Boston probably being pushed back to MSG.