Watchdog

That's good news for hockey and their fans. I won a hockey stick once when I was a kid from Gary Howatt he was at an in store appearance at a local sporting goods store, never was a big hockey fan myself but I respect the game and the players.

This is when I first watched hockey ... when the Islanders in their third year had a little goalie named Glenn Resch who stunned the Rangers ... and national tv looked like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYq2vGzeLrU

with this at intermission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnCO33mBUpA

Hooked for life.

Hey Neil...

I always try to identify a local broadcaster with his team whether it be play by play (obviously Emrick with the Devils, Rosen with the Rangers and Rose with the Isles), colour (Resch, Micheleti, Jaffe) or host (Cangelosi, Gianone I suppose and Kaufman)....but pray tell, who does Fiscler broadcast for....last night he was at the Devils game and talked about being worried about something and talked to several players as if he was a Devils broadcaster...Saturday night he will be in the studio with Trajutwig and of course the emphasis on the show will be the Rangers (that show always revolves around the Rangers oh yes, the Devils and Isles are playing too) and we always, when this occurs, get the impression Fiscler is a Ranger broadcaster!

Just wondering.

Stan is just an all-around hockey maven, and has been since before I was born!

Fantastic baby boomer nostalgia links, Wawa! Thanks for that.

Glad to hear hockey is doing better...was a big Islander fan back in the day...That said, i still think virtually no one watches hockey. It's a niche sport now. Maybe the ratings are up only because they were so poor last year...

Glad to hear hockey is doing better...was a big Islander fan back in the day...That said, i still think virtually no one watches hockey. It's a niche sport now. Maybe the ratings are up only because they were so poor last year...

Smitty's my Godfather, so it's always nice to see pictures of him on the Net, especially ones where he still has hair.

I have a hockey book by Stan Fischler written in 1972. The man has been around since the beginning of time!

It's doing better because baseball in NY ended sooner than anticipated. People had a chance to get re-aquainted with their respective teams earlier.

James Dolan's Garden released these numbers, not Nielsen.

Which means it's a lie.

Neil,

Have you seen any numbers on how Versus did with Isles-Rangers on November 6th? When they met in October, Versus' telecast was the highest rated show in NY on cable.

You're right, Eric. I think I did a note in the paper or a blog item about that at the time.

Any idea on the ratings for Round 2 (a terrific hockey game btw)?

No. But I will keep an eye on all this stuff all season.

Why is it so tough to do the game by game, channel by channel ratings from Nielsen so we get the real numbers, not something as phoney as a James Dolan press release on ratings or some suit at versus who's tired of hearing his network get reammed.

Seems like Dolan's expanding from phoney Ranger attendance reports to phoney television ratings reports.

Is it that expensive to place a call once a week and compile each games numbers. I think that would draw this blog a ton of interest because it's something else no one does but for some reason no one wants to place a telephone call.

Or would Newsday get in trouble to prove Dolan is lying again and limit Knicks access?

Hey! Rangers had better ratings then knicks in some of there games last year! crazy