Montréal forced into a Game 7

For those who don't follow sports, coming back from a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-7 series is rare, but not completely outrageous. Well, Boston has forced a 7th game with the Montréal Canadiens, set for Monday night.

And yes, Game 6 was on Versus. I was hoping (pleading, begging) for CBC coverage, but it wasn't meant to be. I realize there are accusations (yes, I read the feedback) that I want CBC coverage since they would be pro-Canadian. Well, not exactly.

The folks at CBC do acknowledge both teams, and quite frankly, know the sport much better than the folks at Versus. After watching Versus' coverage of Game 6, I'd rather have watched the Boston announcers at NESN (New England Sports Network). Yes, they are rooting for Boston, but they have more of a sense of the Canadiens than the national announcers that are supposed to be neutral. The Versus announcers were way more excited about Boston's goals than Montréal's.

The "funniest" moment was when the sideline reporter was interviewing Tomas Plekanec after the second period. Plekanec had scored a goal to put Montréal up 2-1. He asked Plekanec about coming into this series about being physical with Montréal. Well, Plekanec plays for Montréal, but he ignored the mistake by the reporter.

You can argue that reporters make mistakes, and that it was an innocent mistake. Since they talk so infrequently with the Canadian teams, perhaps he really thought he was talking with a Boston player. But they wouldn't have made that mistake in talking to a American-team player, and if they did, someone would have caught it. It's not the mistake so much as the refusal to acknowledge bias against the Canadian-based teams.

The announcers were rooting for Boston to win and Montréal to lose throughout the game. But only part of that is the bias against Canadian-based teams. Versus isn't a successful network in just about anything it does -- the network sees its only chance for success if American-based teams do well.

In other words, Versus roots against Canadian-based teams not because they are from Canada, but because they perceive their ratings will go down. I want the playoffs in my home, and I'd rather have CBC and TSN, fair and impartial. The Canadian announcers are fair to both teams. In the Calgary-San Jose coverage on CBC, they are very fair to both sides. In the Calgary-San Jose coverage on Versus, the bias goes to San Jose. To be fair, the West Coast announcers have been less biased than the Boston-Montréal crew.

But if I can't get CBC/TSN, at least give me the home crew of the American-based team. I know they're biased, but they are upfront about that, and I will scream less at my television.

Tonight, it's Game 6 for the Flames-Sharks on Versus (give us CBC) and in a surprise move, Game 7 of Canadiens-Bruins will be on Versus. Either give the Versus announcers some Valium (so they will root less for Boston) or give us professional unbiased announcers.

* Note: Versus' Web site listed Flames-Sharks Game 6 as being on the channel. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. So you just never know.