Watching sports is not supposed to be this hard. Taking the idiots at Shaw at face value, I faithfully program the VCR for channel 94 and the supposed live broadcast of the Roughnecks game, knowing I have to be out working on the race car. Get home, fire up the tape, find static, check channel 94, find nothing, freak out. Surf down to channel 10…ahhhh rebroadcast…third quarter…close game..no worries….4th quarter….suddenly….game gone….replaced by Lara Hurrel brutal outtakes of an interview on war brides……call Shaw……wait on hold…no…it`s not a reception problem ma`am…it`s the pinhead in the control room who has teh job skills of a cigarette smoking monkey!!!! Hang up, give up, fire up NLL.com and get the final score…just as the pinhead gets it together and gets the game back on. Thank you Shaw for sucking the life out what should have been an enjoyable if nerve-wracking game watch.

That off my chest….wondering why I pay these idiots 50-odd dollars a month for cable, here`s my thoughts on what I thought I saw.

Of the points I hit on in my pre-game post, most of what I called for in roder for the Roughnecks to win came to pass. Great goaltending, attack off transition (Leading to a penalty shot goal for Tracey Kelusky in one case) discipline (3 minors) and an awesome 4th quarter. Add in Jeff Shattler`s best game of the year….and it adds up to an end to the one and done curse of the last three years . Now, can Portland beat San Jose and give the Roughnecks a home playoff game or am I just being greedy?

One last note. US broadcasting is different than what we do here in that the broadcasters generally work for the teams, as ooposed to a station paying for rights, and having at least a modicum of indepedence and objectivity. Yes, you will tend to favour the home club a little despite your best efforts, especially since you`re working to a hometown crowd, and yes, I ten to be a bit of a cheerleader for the Roughnecks sometimes but please promise me, if I ever end up a butt-kissing boot-licking homer like the guys on the Alttitude broadcast, somebody please kill me.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 12:26 am and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.