The Flyers Game Sucked, but the Broadcast Is Pretty Good

Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome back.

Ice girls cometh

Theyyyyyyy’re baaaaaaaaaaack. And they’re wearing pants? PANTS?! No! No pants. If you go Ice Girl, you gotta go full Ice Girl. This is a cop-out and a concession… unless, of course, this outfit was hastily thrown together and there’s a new outfit on the way? Maybe? 

More pics after the jump. And here’s a gallery from the Courier-Post (remind me to cite this the next time their hockey beat writer decides to lecture me or anyone else on the merits of Journalism).

Flyers on CSN Twitter account

Two days in a row and I’m complimenting Comcast (don’t worry, have a post for later about the evil conglomerate getting a customer fired from his job), I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But credit where it’s due. CSN’s inside the broadcast Twitter account (@FlyersonCSN) is cool and a good idea:

It does what Twitter and social media are supposed to do by making the broadcast slightly more interactive without being obtrusive. They have behind-the-scenes stuff, Q & As, and Ice Girls. What more could you want? They’re basically tweeting all the things a fan would Tweet if they were given access. Nice work. Really digging CSN’s Flyers broadcast overall. Bouche and Bundy are nice additions to an already solid team.

Another nice change– the score bug has been moved further into the upper left-hand corner:

More sports broadcasts need to do this. Back when some people still had non-HD, 4:3 TVs, the score bug and other pertinent information had to be closer to the middle of the screen (on 16:9 views) so your grandmom and cheap friend could still see everything. It created a lack of balance on-screen that we just came to accept as a weird hallmark of HD. But now that even the non-HD broadcast outputs at 16:9 with black bars (I think), it looks like CSN has decided to move the thing to a more natural position. Of course, you’ll never see it fully crammed into the corner… because broadcasters don’t want other networks cropping their logo out of the feed when showing highlights. The further from the edges it is, the harder it is to crop and enlarge without destroying video quality. This is why ESPN’s and FOX’s bottom line is HUGE and ESPN stamps “ESPN” in basically the middle of the screen whenever they’re airing a significant moment. Hashtag themoreyouknow.

Wayne Simmonds

What a beast last night. Simmonds is Wayne Gretzky compared to Brayden Schenn, who was supposed to be the main haul when the Flyers traded the LA Kings one of the final pieces needed for their Cup run. Schenn is clueless with the puck, often not aggressive, and about as generic of a hockey player as you can get right now. Simmonds is a man. He’s tough (but not in the hokey Flyers way of being tough– he’s got more of a John LeClair toughness), skilled (more-so than Scott Hartnell), and makes things happen out there. His two goals in under a minute to end the second period were well deserved.

Jaromir Jagr

My God, they should’ve kept him. He may play until he’s 60. He’s so good. So, so good.

Patrick Elias

RETIRE ALREADY!

Chris Pronger

Inexplicably got the job with the league.

Crazies

Where we thinking? Ridley Park?

A couple more Ice Girls pics after the jump, because I like your page clicks.

Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports