Un/Necessary Sports Research

NBC will try to party like it’s 1999 tonight. The ratio of people to cake is too big.

Every time I write today's date as 3/2, I want to end it with 1/liftoff.

NOW: John Garrett handles his 600th national telecast to the U.S. and/or Canada as the analyst. He’s the 12th person to do that.

🏒 @nhl-flames.bsky.social at Kings

🎫⬅️ Sportsnet West (@sportsnetpr.bsky.social)
🕖 7:00 PM EST

🎙️ Jon Abbott
👨‍🏫 John Garrett
🎤 Brendan Parker

For the first time since Jan. 31, it's a full slate of Saturday night NHL games, and of course, several of them are on TV across Canada. More on that shortly.

TONIGHT: Emily Kaplan passes Allie LaForce for the 19th-most U.S. national telecasts of the four major pro sports by a sideline/rinkside reporter. This is her 225th.

🏒 Flyers at Rangers

📺 @espn.com
🕗 8:00 PM EST

🎙️ Sean McDonough
👨‍🏫 Ray Ferraro
🎤 Emily Kaplan

TONIGHT: Sean McDonough calls his 162nd national NHL telecast as the play-by-play announcer, breaking a tie with Rick Peckham and Chris Cuthbert for 15th-most to the United States.

🏒 Flyers at Rangers

📺 @espn.com
🕗 8:00 PM EST

🎙️ Sean McDonough
👨‍🏫 Ray Ferraro
🎤 Emily Kaplan

The Los Angeles Clippers and Kings are both home on national TV tonight. There was a time, not so long ago, when this would not have been possible because they shared an arena.

It's the first day of NHL action after the end of the Olympic Winter Games.

In related news, that means we have to start dipping into something other than Cool Runnings quotes for the text part of these posts.

Basketball carries the primetime sports load for the next few nights until the NHL gets back in full swing.

Since Tokyo 2020 was postponed a year, we've seen four complete Olympics in the last 1,680 days (about 55 months). The LA28 opening ceremony is July 14, 2028, or 873 days away.

Gentlemen, a bobsled is a simple thing. Yeah, so is a toilet!

Hey, Jamaica! Watch out for Number Twelve turn. Scary, ja?

Great moments are born from great opportunity.

Always remember, your bones will not break in a bobsled. No, no. They shatter.

So let’s talk about this billsled team.
No, bobsled.
Whoever. Now about the Wheaties box. I’m going to be on it myself, right?

Coach, I gotta go.
Hold it!
Hold it? Coach, I can't hold it. We're not bobsledding yet.
Oh, yes, we are.
Coach! COACH! Slow it down! Slow it—slow it down! Oh, my God! Oh, Derice, oh, Derice I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!

(Transcribing this one kind of dampens the energy.)

I see a problem. There's no such thing as a three-man sled.

Hey! Hey! What are you doing?
This is what the Swiss do to psych themselves up.
They also make them little pocket knives, too, but I don’t see you doing that!

Who are you and how did you get in here?
I'm a locksmith ... and I'm a locksmith.

Maid service, sir! Would you like your bed turned down? Mint? Perhaps I could dust your head!
Whatever is wrong with you is no little thing.

The key elements to a successful sled team are a steady driver and three strong runners to push off down the ice. Ice? Ice!
You mean winter, as in ice?
You mean winter, as in igloos and Eskimos and penguins and ice?
I'm gonna take a hot bath. I'm getting cold just thinking about all this ice.

I'm feeling very Olympic today.

Happy Brass Fanfare Awareness Fortnight to those who celebrate with the opening of the XXV Olympic Winter Games.

Tonight is the last night of NHL action before the three-week Olympic break.

Do you believe in rock ‘n’ roll? Can music save your mortal soul? And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

NOW: Mike Tirico calls his 622nd national (U.S.) telecast of the four major pro sports, matching Thom Brennaman for the 16th-most by a play-by-play announcer.

🏀 Lakers at Knicks

🦚 @nbaonnbc.bsky.social
🕖 7:00 PM EST

🎙️ Mike Tirico
👨‍🏫 Jamal Crawford, Reggie Miller
🎤 Zora Stephenson

NOW: Ray Ferraro’s 398th national (Canadian) NHL telecast as the analyst ties Brian McFarlane for 11th-most in our records.

🏒 @nhlbruins.bsky.social at @tblightningnhl.bsky.social

📺 Sportsnet (simulcasting @espn.com)
🕡 6:30 PM EST

🎙️ Sean McDonough
👨‍🏫 Ray Ferraro
🎤 Kevin Weekes, Emily Kaplan

TONIGHT: Sean McDonough calls his 161st US national NHL telecast, tying Rick Peckham and Chris Cuthbert for 15th-most by a PBP announcer.

🏒 @nhlbruins.bsky.social at @tblightningnhl.bsky.social

📺 @espn.com @espnpr.bsky.social
🕡 6:30 PM EST

🎙️ McDonough
👨‍🏫 Ray Ferraro
🎤 Kevin Weekes, Emily Kaplan

There is a lot of basketball on TV today, capped off with NBC's entry into Sunday Night Basketball, and also an NHL Stadium Series game in Tampa.

One more day of January.