Through the fog of sleep, I mostly ignored some mumbling over the loud speaker, but the loud shouting from the back of the plane shot me straight up in my seat.

What’s going on? Is someone sick? Is someone being attacked?

Nope. San Jose just took the lead against Detroit in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semis.

There’s nothing like NHL Playoff Hockey. Nothing. That’s why I’m happy to announce the 2011 NHL Playoffs version of the Game Tracker. So far, three out of five of the Conference Finals games have already gone HOT. In a pivotal Game 3, what will the Sharks and Canucks do tonight?

It may not have a catchy name, but mid-April to mid-May is at the top of my favorite sports “months” of the year. With the NHL Playoffs starting off in style last night, the NBA starting its playoff push on Saturday, and the MLB season in full swing, there are a slew of games each and every day.

Standing against that backdrop of joy makes it that much harder for me to break the following news:

The Sports Ticker that we know and love is dead.

Never to be faulted for effort, that reliable friend seen everywhere from our living room TV to our favorite smartphone app, had dutifully churned through each and every score of the day for decades. Sure, it took up room on your beautiful new flat-screen even when you didn’t need it, and sure, if you missed the actual game you’re looking for it was another 12 minutes before you realized you just missed it again, and sure…well, you get the point.

The cause of death is still being speculated, but the culprit has been confirmed.


I’m thrilled to introduce the Are You Watching This?! Game Tracker, the new application that revolutionizes sports fan multi-tasking. At a glance you can easily track dozens of games at a time, and with built-in TV listings and the ability to rewind individual games back in time (drag the dot), or rewind the whole tracker back in time (click the date), it’s Christmas in April for the Superfan.

Today we’re launching as an embeddable widget, a historic excitement viewer (check out Butler vs. Florida or what a No-Hitter lost in the 8th looks like), and in our featured sports Chrome Web App.

In just five days we’ll have T.O. and the Bills go up against the Titans in the Hall of Fame Game on NBC. Granted they’ll all be just going through the motions, but it’s football, people. Nothing says “The dog days of summer are over!” like Football and a good ol’ YouTube Tuesday, and thankfully our friends from across the pond have the perfect video for it.

March was a major letdown.

Whew. Finally got that out.

I don’t know if it was just me, but it just seemed like March was a month full of total snoozers. March Madness was so Badness I even sat down to watch the Women’s title game hoping for something good—22-point blowout.

But boy, has April stepped it up. We seem to be having at least one great game every night, and today we have 4(!) NBA playoffs games, 2 NHL playoff games, Yanks/Sawx at the Fens, 500 miles of Talladega, AND the 2nd day of the draft!

It’s a smörgåsbord of great games on TV today. Check the snack situation and slide on the sweatpants. No reason to leave the couch today, kids.

Fresh off of a 10-3, rolling through the playoffs to win it all performance in my NFL Fantasy league last year, I put up a big stinker in 2008. I’ll finish under-.500, miss the playoffs, and I’m still blaming Eli and the Giants D for costing me a must-win back in Week 6.

And just as a side-note, you shot yourself Plax? Really? Really?!?

Anyways, without Fantasy to keep me occupied my productivity on Sundays is threatening to skyrocket, and I just can’t have that. So to keep things interesting I’m dipping my toe into the world of BetUS.com, out first NFL sport sponsor at areyouwatchingthis.com. I’m a sportsbook n00b, but I figure this is a great way to add some spice to the rest of the regular season. This week? I’m liking the Colts giving 6½ at the Browns.

This should be fun.

Are you looking to reach the most passionate sports fans? Start advertising on RUWT? Sports today!

Just add ruwtbot@areyouwatchingthis.com as a new contact, and you can ask him for sports scores for the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB. This is new for him, so be friendly. You can get the whole story straight from the source at ruwtbot.com.

Examples of what you can ask him: suns scores, yankees news, nba news, nhl scores, tv espn2, tv tnthd

Try it now!

You can’t talk hockey though, without talking Canada. Yes, I know that not all Canadians like Hockey, but my market research consisted of renting Strange Brew—forgive me. Our benevolent neighbors from the North have made their feelings known that they’d love to join the party, so I’m psyched to announce that in time for the NHL season, RUWT? will support Canadian TV listings at the end of next month.

In a perfect world I’d be announcing Canadian support today, but my funding is from American Express and Capital One, not Austin Ventures.

If you’re wishing there was a way to get Canada on board faster than 6 weeks…well…there is: get 100 Canucks to email us. That’s right, take it to the streets. Tell a friend. Post it on your blog. Heck, post it on MySpace, if you’re still using that crazy thing. If we get 100 Canadians to email ruwtbot-should-invade-canada@areyouwatchingthis.com, I’ll suck it up, go back to a Ramen diet, and you’ll be seeing TSN logos post-haste.

update: we have a facebook group now! join us and help spread the word!

The reference is to Sabres second-year winger Jason Pominville. The running joke with the PBP team is that whenever he scores the population of “Pominville” increases.

And the play-by-play guy that rocked my world is named Rick Jeanneret, the longest-tenured announcer clocking in at 36 years straight broadcasting the Sabres. But don’t think Rick is a one trick pony—no, no, check out some more choice calls care of Wikipedia.

“Top shelf, where Momma hides the cookies!” most famous recurring call

“There have been more cheap shots in this game than in a Mexican Cantina during Happy Hour!” 2001 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals

“Pominville better open a Planned Parenthood ’cause it’s population is out of control!” reaction to Jason Pominville scoring two goals in a period

And since it’s a NHL lovefest today, the best sign of the playoffs so far.

Unfortunately, I won’t get to watch much playoff hockey (the only hockey I watch) because I don’t get Versus. There’ll be an occasional game on NBC, but for the most part, most of us will miss out. Keep an eye on the Video page for the most recent NHL recaps.

For YouTube Tuesday this week, here’s a playoff appetizer as the Islanders squeeze into the playoffs in their final game.

I am psyched to announce that Comcast and RUWT? are teaming up for the homestretch of the NHL season to get Hockey fans more great games. Comcast’s Hockey Live service is streaming a bunch of great matchups in the final couple weeks, and we’ll be integrating their broadcasts into the site.

Find a game on the site sporting a Red Light, and it’s available for streaming for free online. RUWTbot will be watching too, and will add these online games to the list of games you can get an alert for. For more info, check out the official page at areyouwatchingthis.com/hockeylive.