ARTHUR:
Tonight is technically the Ducks' "national game" (though the team has been broadcast to the nation of Canada a couple of times this season already), and so I suppose you could argue that fans who haven't yet seen the 2010-11 Ducks and have yet to draw conclusions about the team will do so tonight.
There's also a hefty amount of coverage (for a west coast team, at least) on the game thus far: some nice front page time on NHL.com, including stories and an All Access Pre Game Show video (that focuses on Chara, of course).
I'm always torn by the idea of national media covering the Ducks. The idea of it is, of course, pleasant, but in practice, they often do so little in terms of research or factchecking that they disrespect you more by fumbling their limited coverage. Bobby Ryan scoring with Mikko Koivu's stick made it to PTI, but they featured the young winger in front of a Mighty Ducks logo. In the aforementioned All-Access video, it will be Chara's job to shutdown the unstoppable trio of Getzlaf, Perry and Ryan. Except-- and I'll leave the unstoppable part alone --Selanne's practicing with the top line again, according to Stephens.
National coverage of west coast teams is often the media equivalent of "better to be thought a fool..."
I get it. We play while you sleep, and the age of TiVo and Gamecenter Live hasn't fixed that. You don't care that we play sports, and you're happy picking injured members of the team as "players to watch" in every game then just shrugging it off because your colleagues do the same. It's pathetic, but I get it.
Anyways, this being a VERSUS broadcast, I'm bracing myself for whatever misconceptions the booth team may have and whatever nonsense they decide to pick out of the media guide that they've barely perused or the pre-game interviews they didn't bother to take notes on or record.
You'd think our ONLY national game would be like Monday Night Football. Instead, it's more like when they have Buccigross do the Frozen Four.
FOWL!