Sabres Announce 2011 Broadcast Plans – Sylvester & Gare Join The Booth

The Buffalo Sabres have announced their announcing pairings for the upcoming season. As previously announced, Rick Jeanneret and Harry Neale are moving to a part-time schedule. They will call 57 games with Rob Ray as a rinkside reporter/analyst.

The bigger news is who will be calling the other 23 games that MSG plans to produce. The Buffalo News reports that current MSG Buffalo studio host Kevin Sylvester and part-time Sabres studio analyst Danny Gare will get the call.  Sylvester has filled in for RJ a few times the past couple of seasons to some middling reviews.  Gare was with the Sabres’ Empire Sports before becoming the Columbus tv analyst. He worked there for a few seasons until being let go in 2009. He returned to the Sabres fold in 2010, filling in for analyst Mike Robitaille after Robitaille suffered some health issues.  The pairing between Sylvester and Gare should make for an interesting contrast to RJ/Neale/Ray. While RJ can get quite excited, Sylvester seems more calm. Neale on the other hand is the calm one to RJ while Gare should be the opposite as he showed great enthusiasm during his time with the Jackets.  Good luck to Kevin and Danny as they will be under plenty of pressure, trying to fill some very big shoes.

Jeanneret’s schedule: 57 games – Sabres Edge – The Buffalo News.

 

Pacific Division TV Season in Review

The Pacific Division ends our season in review of NHL television teams.  I hope you’ve enjoyed our look back at the 2010-11 season in terms of each team.  Our final review is after the jump.  For our previous reviews, click on the following links -

http://paranoidpuck.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/attv/      http://paranoidpuck.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/netv/

http://paranoidpuck.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/nwtv/    http://paranoidpuck.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/cetv/

http://paranoidpuck.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/setv/

 

 

NHL, Molson Win Appeal

In some breaking news, the NHL and MolsonCoors have won their appeal in a battle over league sponsorship rights with Labatt.  The ruling opens the door for Molson, Coors Light and Miller Lite to take over as official league sponsors.  The deal was a major boon for the league after breaking all NHL sponsorship records.  In response to the Molson deal, Labatt and parent company InBev later made deals with numerous NHL teams, replacing Molson as team partners in several NHL cities.  There is still the possibility for Labatt to dispute the ruling, but for now, the Molson deal is on and the league and it’s partner can start making marketing plans for the new season.

Labatt Brewing Company Limited v. NHL Enterprises Canada, L.P., 2011 ONCA 511.