NBC pulls the plug

"We're in the middle of this exciting NHL contest going to overtime, one team's season on the line, but we're not going to show it to you because we'd rather show you PRE-GAME coverage of a horse race."

This was not the actual phrase used, but this was what happened Saturday when NBC bailed out of the Ottawa-Buffalo action after regulation.

Fortunately, I was in Windsor (across from Detroit, MI) watching the game on the CBC while on a brief vacation. In fact, I turned over to NBC just to see how its coverage was going, and I saw a feature on a horse. I thought "Oh, they must have lost its signal."

If I had been watching the game on U.S. soil, or taping it, I would have been beyond furious. Switching for the horse race itself, maybe I could understand. But PRE-GAME?!?

The long-term solution is digital TV, so when this comes about, one digital signal can carry hockey (ideally, the same stream that started the game) and one digital signal can carry horse racing coverage.

Many questions were asked as to whether NBC would have done this if the New York Rangers were playing the New Jersey Devils. I don't think there is an anti-Canadian bias, but it looks bad when Ottawa's celebration after scoring in the first overtime is moved from NBC to Versus, and NBC never even comes back to say "Here's what you missed."

The CBC would never have done something like that, regardless of who was playing.