FSSN On The NHL Network

Friday night's North Dakota vs. Wisconsin hockey game was carried live on the NHL Network, using the Fighting Sioux Sports Network (FSSN) (in Grand Forks this is found on WDAZ channel 8) feed. Observations:

1) The FSSN obviously used portions of the between-periods intermissions as a recruiting tool. After the first period, Tim Hennessy gave a short tour of the glorious Ralph Engelstad Arena. After the second period, Ryan Martens provided a little overview of the NHL walls outside the Sioux's locker room - reminders of how many players the Sioux have put in the NHL over the years.

2) NHL Network fans who have never seen a FSSN broadcast got a feel for play-by-play man Pat Sweeney. He used to bore me, but I was used to the (almost-always enjoyable) histrionics of Frank Mazzocco on Gopher TV broadcasts. Now I find Sweeney to be a smooth, understated guy in the booth. Throw in the dry wit and some out-of-leftfield references (the constant phrasing of Jordan Baker's first and last name last season sealed it), and now Sweeney is my guy. Tonight's line was in regards to Badger player John Mitchell, who he once referred to as "Attorney General John Mitchell."

3) Unfortunately, the NHL Network went with their own ads at commercial breaks, so NHL Network fans weren't subjected to the amazingly catchy Home of Economy jingle. (Note: John McCain once had a map to the Home of Economy, but he threw it out the window as he couldn't read the map.)

4) I love it that people across North America tuning in the NHL Network were informed by Sweeney that Kittson County Central knocked off Stephen-Argyle in the Minnesota Section 8 Nine-man championship game. Stephen-Argyle had a 76-game winning streak on the line. (This game was played in the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, gotta love the cross-border help.)

Hats off to WDAZ for continuing to care about the northeastern North Dakota / northwestern Minnesota area. This local coverage got personal last summer when I was up at my parents' cabin an hour east of Fargo. It was a Friday afternoon and a tornado warning in the area and WDAY (WDAZ's sister station in Fargo) was the only one who had a weather guy live tracking the nasty weather and said a tornado had touched down a few miles away from me. I tuned in KVLY and KXJB out of Fargo and they were showing crap like Orpah and Access Hollywood. Oh, and three other tornadoes touched down in northwestern Minnesota that afternoon also, so it's obvious WDAY and WDAZ are the only stations that care about the safety of the residents in the Red River Valley area.

And to add insult to injury to KVLY and KXJB ... my sister, who was in EASTERN WISCONSIN that afternoon, called the cabin to make sure everybody was okay after seeing on TV that a tornado had touched down in the area. People in Wisconsin were getting better weather info than people watching channels 4 and 11 in the Fargo area!