The instant-replay rule hasn`t yet taken effect in the National Hockey League, but already it`s causing controversy. Even at SportsChannel.
The NHL Board of Governors wasted little time last month in approving the measure under the supposed goal of aiding on-ice officials and goal judges to determine whether a goal has been scored.
Says veteran SportsChannel hockey producer Lisa Seltzer: ”It`s really good for the sport to move ahead.”
Says veteran SportsChannel hockey announcer Pat Foley: ”We don`t want to slow down the fastest game.”
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Seltzer, as producer of Blackhawks telecasts, looks forward to the new rule.
”The Hawks had a game in October in Boston Garden,” she says, ”and Chicago scores (a tying goal) with two seconds left (only to have it disallowed). We clearly have the replay. As it turns out, the Hawks won the President`s Trophy (for best overall record) by more than one point. But, in October, you don`t know. So that really could have helped.”
On that point, Foley agrees. But with little else.
”The intent of getting things right is proper,” he says. ”But the big concern is there has to be a way to do it in a quick and very efficient manner.”
With the proper equipment. Foley recalls sitting in the Stadium penalty box during the All-Star Game festivities in February when there was a dispute as to which player won the ”fastest skater” contest.
”We had to look at a video screen” to determine the winner, Foley says. ”You`ve got a little 6-inch monitor there. You couldn`t tell which body was across the finish line first. So how`s he (the referee or goal judge)
going to see if the puck is over the line?”
Seltzer, however, doesn`t see any technical problems, no matter the arena. ”Every team shoots its own games,” she says, ”and has for several years.
”Every arena is different, like every ballpark is different. But you still have your play-by-play angle, your tight-follow angle and your end-zone angle. Those three camera positions exist in every arena I`ve been in.”
Foley says, ”Even using video, it certainly will not be a perfect world. There are countless times during the season when it`s a goal-no goal situation, and you can`t tell if the puck`s clearly over the line. The goalie`s body might be in the way, depending on the angle of the camera.”
It`s the added pressure of getting the right angle that intrigues Seltzer.
”It`ll be neat to see how it works,” she says. ”When the NFL started its replays, that had to be interesting for the people doing the NFL telecasts, to watch it grow. They`ve implemented it better each year.”
Foley, however, points to the NFL as the perfect example of an imperfect world. ”It`s the biggest league in the world,” he says, ”and they`re not sure they`ve got it right.”
”By far, the good points outweigh the bad,” says Seltzer. ”You don`t want a game to end in a controversial manner.”
But Foley is concerned with how long it takes to reach that end.
”We can`t be sitting there all night with the referee traipsing back and forth to the penalty box to say, `Let me see that again,` ” he says, adding that the equipment will be important.
”You`ve got to give (the official) the same chance the guy in his living room has,” Foley says. ”A guy`s sitting there (at home) with a regular 28-incher, and (the official may be) sitting there looking at a Watchman.”
– De Paul`s new conference, the Great Midwest, has a network TV contract. Sort of.
ABC Sports and Raycom have entered a multiyear agreement for college basketball next season whereby Raycom will produce the telecasts and sell the advertising while ABC supplies some of the talent and makes sure the productions are up to network standards.
Why the new deal? ”We had one glitch in our coverage last year,” said ABC programming boss David Downs. ”We lost a considerable amount of money. We had a choice to present college basketball as a loss leader or do fewer games.”
Enter Raycom boss Rick Ray, who met with ABC officials. ”We thought by combining strengths,” Downs said, ”we could put together a terrific package. We (ABC sales people) have so many things to sell. They (Raycom) can concentrate on basketball.”
Raycom, in effect, will be buying time from ABC. ”Raycom will pay ABC for the use of the network,” explained Downs.
Thanks in large part to existing Raycom contracts, eight conferences (not the Big 10, but including the fledgling Great Midwest and the Atlantic Coast Conference) will be represented. De Paul is tentatively slated for at least two appearances and Marquette one.
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The network will telecast up to 30 games between Feb. 2 and March 8 in 11 time slots. Last year, ABC telecast 27 games in 18 time slots and had a 3.0 rating, but it lost the Big 10 network contract to CBS starting next season.
– Weekend wonderings: NBC`s only network sports offering was a tape Sunday of the NHRA Summernationals. Does NBC miss baseball? Do the Cubs need pitching?
. . . Best case of eavesdropping was Meg Mallon telling her caddie, ”Gee, that`s nice,” after she won the U.S. Women`s Open. . . . Second-best was the five-day-old tape of All-Star managers Tony LaRussa and Lou Piniella conversing in Spanish with some of their players.