America Jr. Is Ruining Hockey Night In Canada For North America

Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 5:31 am

Hockey Night In Canada will finally be shown here in the US. Ooh that’s good. However they’re changing the theme song. Ooh that’s bad.

HNIC will be finally be shown on the NHL Network which is great news for hockey fans in the US. For you non-hockey fans, we’re talking about the Canadian broadcast of hockey games and not Principal Joe Clark. Then again maybe he could co-host Coaches Corner with Don Cherry instead of Ron MacLean. Imagine the two of them locking horns. I should be the black Don Cherry this Halloween now that I think about it. Call me Black Cherry. Sorry, I digress.

The CBC is also making some big changes for the new season like broadcasting games in Punjabi for starters. The most blasphemous change is the new theme song. HNIC has been known for its theme song in the same way that we recognize the old The NFL Today or NBA on NBC theme songs. The official story is that the CBC couldn’t reach an agreement with the copyright holders.

“Every brand needs to be a little refreshed,” [CBC Sports Executive Director Scott] Moore said in a telephone interview. “It needs to get a little younger, it needs to get a little more relevant every year.

Instead of imposing a new HNIC theme song on the masses, CBC has decided to hold a contest and let the public vote for the new theme on a show called Anthem Challenge. The contest is down to five semifinalists. You can listen to them here. We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether they’re worthy but the original is still the best.

Iconic theme songs don’t necessarily need to get younger or fresher. How often is the new theme song better than the old one when it comes to the great ones? There’s no question that a large part of the appeal of a theme song is nostalgia especially when it comes to sports. Compare the NBA on NBC theme song with the crap that is the NBA on ABC or Monday Night Football. This Hank Williams/Pink/Rob Thomas bullshit is absurd. Faith Hill doesn’t get me hyped up to watch football. This does.

What do you think of when you think of basketball on NBC? Roundball Rock and the great Bulls run. ABC? Shit songs you can’t stand forced down your throat in order to appeal to people who really don’t care about the game. Those tranny Pussycat Dolls? Rob Thomas? Who’s next? Michael Buble? Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute? I’m not going to front. The John Tesh joint was hot but how often does that happen?

Anyway, it just sucks that the theme song is changing but if it means we get to watch Hockey Night in America, I’ll take it.

It’s just good to have hockey back.