Flyers are fun to watch on CSN!

I've got some things to say about last Thursdays Flyers game and also I've got a new invention I'd like to propose that maybe one of you could build and make millions with.

So, the flyers played the Devils last week. It was a great game in a lot of ways. But first I want to talk about the coverage. The game was broadcast on Comcast Sports Net (CSN) like it usually is during the regular season. Unlike the Rangers game on OLN, this broadcast was much, much better in a number of ways. First off was the image. The CSN video quality was far superior. It was brighter, more defined and in focus (not due to camera work, but probably signal processing quality). I used to be a video editor for 12 years so I know image quality. For this game CSN was doing HD and down converting it. In some cases this can end up lessening image quality but CSN did quite well and the image was excellent. This is strange since OLN is owned by Comcast and the Rangers game was in the same building so I would have assumed that they would have used the same trucks, cameras and gear. I was obviously wrong in that assumption.

Second, was the commentating. The CSN crew (Jackson, Dornhoffer and Coats) was just way better than the 2 stiffs OLN had. The excitement level was way higher, the commentating skill level and the knowledge of the game was an order of magnitude over the OLN guys.

My only complaint is that during most of the first period the main camera was a bit too tight on the action. I suspect that's due to them seeing the picture in HD with SD lines on the viewfinder which could lead to a tiny inaccuracy of the image selection, but they eventually fixed it and all was great.

Now on to the game. This won't take long… The Flyers were a bunch better than they were against the Rangers. This was mostly due to the fact that they didn't look as tired by the midpoint of the game. All of these games really don't matter much in the standings so I'm not worried at all. I would guess the first 10 or so games are primarily focused on getting in "game shape" and tuning up the lines, etc. What I have to say impressed me most was #21. He was simply amazing to watch. He is going to make Simon Gagne into the Flyers top goal scrorer. I am predicting that (assuming they stay healthy and on the same line) he will get more than 35 goals this season and if I had to pick a number I'd say 45. These 2 are going to be great together. Also awesome are all the call-ups from the Phantoms: Sim, Niittymaki, Richards, Carter.. I'm psyched..

Ok. So now on to my invention…better yet, let me put it in the next post so they are more easily searchable. Stay tuned…