NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on OLN

Today was game one of OLN's coverage of this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs. I think OLN has done for the most part a fairly good job since the playoffs began, but tonight one of the commentators (I think it was John Davidson) made what I thought was such an *inane* comment that I just had to share :o)

Davidson and a fellow commentator were at ice-level, after the pre-game analyses and before the anthems, and talking about the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes. To paraphrase, Davidson said something like, "Edmonton is the last Canadian team, so Carolina will be facing off not just against the Oilers, but all of Canada". Eh? Now, I realize that commentators need to fill in the time sometimes with senseless chatter--it's their job, afterall--but I thought this comment was particularly silly. It gave the impression that Carolina had the tougher opponent, having to go up against an entire country of hockey-crazed citizens. Davidson could just have easily said, "Carolina is the last U.S. team, so Edmonton will be facing off not just against the Hurricanes, but all of the U.S."

Perhaps it's just me, but I'd almost wish they continued with a commercial break rather than having to listen to this kind of stuff while waiting for the puck to drop. At least I know it's safe to ignore commercials, while with commentary I'm stuck paying attention to meaningless talk on the off-chance they say something interesting.

Still, with the commercials-commentary-commercials cycling over and over, I had the impression OLN was caught out with a delay in the start of the game and was forced to say something to fill in the time.