Fabricated Atmosphere

I did a piece a while ago about National Anthems and how NBC, apart from the Stanley Cup Final, rarely embraces the arena atmosphere prior to puck drop. Well, the final round is now upon us and, true to form, NBC has started to televise the player introductions and anthem theatrics. This year is a particular treat because both the Blackhawks and Flyers have arguably the most storied anthem traditions in the NHL – with Jim Cornelison accompanying the famed Chicago organ before Blackhawks games, and the late Kate Smith belting out God Bless America in front of the Flyers faithful. The atmosphere in both arenas is always electric in anticipation of the tune-to-come, and NBC should be congratulated for recognizing these important traditions and bringing them into the living rooms of the U.S. audience:



CBC, on the other hand, made what I consider to be a major pre-game no-no during last night’s broadcast. Instead of bringing viewers the authentic atmosphere inside Chicago’s United Center prior to Cornelison taking the ice, the public broadcaster only provided the video feed from the arena, choosing to replace the audio with the theme song from the Phantom of the Opera. You see, Don Cherry had just done a promotional piece in a phantom costume underneath the bleachers of the arena, and CBC apparently thought it was necessary to extend the musical number throughout the entire player introductions. So, instead of hearing the crowd getting worked-up into a frenzy, Canadian television viewers only got to see them. The authentic audio feed was absent (except for the final few seconds), replaced with something a lot more cheezy:



The pre-game atmosphere at a Stanley Cup Final game is explosive and CBC is usually pretty good at recognizing this. Let’s hope the public broadcaster gets it right as the series now shifts to Philadelphia.

TONIGHT'S GAMES
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