Flyers

Coverage: FAIL

By Kyle Scott

Published: May 16th, 2010 · 8:06 PM EDT

---

You might be asking yourself what the hell this is.  Well, this is our TV screen at 7 o'clock, what was supposed to be the start of game 1 of the Flyers/Canadiens Eastern Conference Finals series on Versus.

Let's face it, Versus is a shit network, but they have still been given the opportunity to broadcast the league semifinals for one of the four major sports.  You don't bump the start of coverage for the awards ceremony of a bike race.  It doesn't matter if it's the Tour de France, you don't cut into the broadcast of such an event, especially when the main market (the series is being shown on CBC in Canada) has such a rabid fan base like Philadelphia does.  The network didn't cut to the game until 7:04, which was still before the puck was dropped, but could you ever imagine this happening on a network like ESPN or ABC?

Versus FAIL.

UPDATE: As some readers pointed out, no hockey was missed, but likely the game was delayed to accommodate the late start, allowing for a pre-game segment on Versus.  That makes this even worse, the NHL delaying the start of a conference finals game (if true), so the end of a bike race can be shown.