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As of yesterday, these were the lines at practice. Talbot is in, Husso backing up and Lyon is nearing a return. Before the “head to head” stats
Pittsburgh traded Lars Eller to the Capitals for a 3rd and a 5th(Chicago’s). There was some speculation heading into the season that the Penguins may make some deals if the season isn’t heading in the right direction as it gets closer to January/February. This may just be an isolated deal or prep to bring in someone else, not really certain.
Detroit’s 6-3 loss to the Penguins at the beginning of the season will surely have soured the group, but Talbot will have to be a saving grace and the power play will likely have to be going strong (with multiple opportunities) for Detroit to shake off that loss. attorney this point in the season, here are the stats:
Power Play: DET - 24.4%. PIT - 19.1%
Penalty Kill: DET - 65%. PIT - 83.7%
Faceoff: DET - 51.2%. PIT - 52.9%
GF/GP: DET - 2.43%. PIT - 2.76%
GA/GP: DET - 3.07%. PIT - 3.88%
Detroit comes out on top with the Power play and Goals against, but the Penalty kill is heavily weighted toward Pittsburgh. Goals for sees about .25 in the Penguins favor with goals against about .8 advantage for Detroit. Except for the PK, the stats are remarkably close.
As per usual, it feels like going into this with no real idea of what we’ll see on the ice. 1 strong period, 2 periods hemmed in. Ironically, Detroit has only outshot the opposition in 3 contests and lost all 3. The 6-3 loss to the Penguins and two losses to New York. Glad to be corrected, but every other game seems to show a negative shot differential. That doesn’t change the fact that you need higher possession and shooting statistics, it’s just bizarre. We’ll see what the team brings to the table.
Now, at this point I’m entering the “broadcast” zone so if you’re not interested, please move on and spare yourself the grief.
Last Thursday something happened during a Comcast earning’s call. It took almost a full week to make sure I hadn’t misheard the information. In “future plans”, Comcast (which partners with NBC Universal) is looking to spin off (sell) some of its broadcast holdings and looking for a streaming partner that could potentially pull the company out of broadcasting to focus on higher priority sectors.
So, did a cable company just tell us that cable is their weakest division? Internet/broadband is, of course, huge. I worked in the business division and sold fiber optic connections to business. Also huge. The company is partnered with a cellular provider, also big business. So, what changed that made me finally break down and mention this? MSNBC is for sale. Let that sink in for a minute. This blog is not getting into politics, but there was “politicking” afoot for a while and viewership on major networks saw some all time low numbers. Post said events, that viewership was nearly halved. (CNN is also for sale and both have indicated on air personalities will be let go).
NBC and NBC Sports got back into the NBA by outbidding TNT for their broadcast deal. TNT is trying to counter by bringing in other attractions but this was a brutal loss for the network. Bally’s is now Fan Duel and (thanks to my friend Chris for the heads up) is offering single game purchases. One indicator may be that subscriptions aren’t what they need them to be with baseball leaving altogether (save for one team at this point) for a platform they’d been working on (streaming, of course). ESPN is supposed to move to their flagship in 2025 pulling all of their content into a subscription service (streaming). Amazon has a deal with the NHL and it could easily absorb Bally’s if needed. All this is happening at a rate that defies logic.
So, with all of that to chew on, like the rest of you it is now time just to sit back and watch it all work itself out. The mighty “Shaq” declared live sports to be “the ultimate reality television” a few weeks ago. He’s not wrong. Story lines, protagonists, antagonists, fans drinking out of their own shoes (disgusting). Pretty much everything. There will be a place/platform it’s just going to continue to adjust to market demands.
It’s been an educational journey since Bally’s declared bankruptcy and teams that were sold released debt numbers. It’s also exhausting. Unless something major happens, this will likely be the first (and possibly last) part of the swan song for “Broadcast Buzz”. Thanks to all of you who have sent notes of support and being a part of this odd journey. For now, the Detroit faithful are hoping for a win tonight!
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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