Hockey Night is dead. Long live RDS

So there you go. CBC’s Hockey Anthem Challenge winner, out of almost 15,000 entries submitted, is Colin Oberst’s Canadian Gold. The one with the bagpipes. Hockey Night in Canada made a big thing about it, with loud congratulations from Don Cherry. And Oberst takes home a $100,000 cheque.

UPDATE: CBC has posted the announcement, new theme and a season intro montage in Quicktime format.

With the new theme comes new intro graphics as well. This season, rather than go the classic route of showing hits, goals and saves, CBC has gotten its computer graphics department on overdrive, recreating classic moves so they could look at them from impossible angles (even simulating Bobby Orr’s Stanley Cup-winning goal, which created the best sports photo of all time). Unfortunately, this kind of computer animation still has a long way to go, and it just ends up looking like they’re showing scenes from EA’s NHL 09 video game.

Meanwhile, on RDS, the original Hockey Theme reigns. They paid a lot more for it, and their re-recording doesn’t sound as good as the most recent CBC version, but it still sounds better. It’s still the one with that special place in our hearts.

Real Canadiens fans have been watching RDS for years now. Even Leafs fans have moved to TSN or Rogers SportsNet. Many people I know turn to CBC to watch the opening theme and switch to RDS for the play-by-play.

Now, with the hockey theme on RDS, does Hockey Night in Canada have any purpose anymore?

6 thoughts on “Hockey Night is dead. Long live RDS

  1. Scoos

    I can’t stand RDS. If I want to hear two Quebecers froth at the mouth for everything the Habs do, I can watch the game at any piece of shit bar.

    Reply
  2. Tim

    Hockey Night in Dallas?

    Am I crazy? Is there not a bit of similarity in the two theme songs?

    (K. Shouldn’t have used the ST:TNG version, that just further confuses things…)

    Reply
  3. Jill

    I thought the new theme was pretty good. I didn’t mind the bagpipes — they are musical instruments, after all. Pretty good presentation all around. (Hey, who really cares all that much.)

    Smiles.

    Reply

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