Saint Matthew's

Last night, the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers played a classic hockey game at Madison Square Garden. Tied at 0-0 entering the shootout period, the Devils were able to put their final shot in the net, giving them a 1-0 shootout victory. Goaltenders Martin Brodeur of the Devils and Henrik Lundquist of the Rangers were masterful, stopping every shot they faced in regulation and in the overtime period. The only shot to go in was Patrik Elias’ shot in the fourth round of the shootout.

We Rangers’ fans have dubbed Lundquist “King Henrik” for his goaltending prowess. After last night’s match, I think Devils’ fans should take a little umbrage at that moniker. The real king of the New York-New Jersey goaltenders resides in Newark, “King Martin.”

Of course, if you’re like me and have DirecTV, you missed this instant classic since DirecTV doesn’t carry the semi-sports channel, Versus, that aired this match last night. DirecTV and Comcast, the owner of the semi-sports channel Versus, are in a carriage rights squabble. Essentially, DirecTV doesn’t want to pay as much as Comcast wants for the channel, so they don’t distribute Versus to DirecTV.

But the radio call was wonderful!

(Also posted at reviovine.com)

Yesterday morning as I was reading through my sermon, I had the television on as background noise. For the past week or so, anyone with DirecTV has been bombarded with commercials for the NFL Sunday Ticket and Superfan — the NFL’s “you get every game” sports package. And, as you would guess, as I was reading through Pentecost 17s sermon, this commercial came on. Twice.

I toyed with the idea of signing up for the package since I love football. But the cost was keeping me from clicking “buy” on my remote. To have the opportunity each Sunday of seeing every game in HD, a 6-hour in-time review channel highlighting everything that was going on in each game, a game mix screen where 8 games are shown at the same time, and the chance to watch every game during the week in 30 minutes or less, it was very tempting.

And I fell into temptation yesterday morning — which went along very well with my sermon Sunday morning.

I purchased the package.

At around 12:30pm, I arrived home from church and turned on the TV.

Yes, I had to wait 30 minutes for the games, but I turned on the Game Mix Channel in HD … and I drooled. OK, they were only airing the CBS and FOX pregame shows in the individual game boxes. When the clock struck 12:52pm, the network switched over the games and those 8 boxes lit up. In the left corner, the Jets and Dolphins. Right next to that, the Chiefs-Patriots. And the rest of the boxes had their individual pregame shows being aired.

At 1, the games started. I switched over to the Red Zone Channel. Imagine a channel dedicated to highlights from each game as they happen. For example, just moments after Tom Brady of the Patriots went down with a left knee injury, the Red Zone Channel switched to the game and showed Brady down on the ground.

As this happened, I flipped open my laptop and turned on DirecTV’s new online player. Aaaahhhh!! The same games on TV now on the computer. I turned the Jets game on my laptop while the Red Zone Channel was on the television. Oh, I switched to the various games every now and then, but I stuck mostly with the RZC.

I was hooked.

But it got better. This morning, DirecTV started airing their “Short Cuts” of each game. Basically, each game in 30 minutes. I downloaded the Jets-Dolphins match-up. I started watching it while I was eating lunch (turkey sandwich, lettuce and tomato). By the time I was done, the game was in the third quarter.

As a football fan, this NFL Sunday Ticket package is just too good.

Can’t wait for next Sunday.

This evening, I upgraded from DirecTV’s “Plus HD/DVR” package to their “Premier” offering. Basically, with my former television package, I received nearly every channel they offered, minus ‘premiums’ like HBO, Showtime, and other movie channels. With this upgrade, I receive every channel DirecTV offers — every movie, sports, and specialty channel. Of course, the individual sports packages like MLB Extra Innings, NHL Center Ice (I receive both of those) and NFL Sunday Ticket (holy cow! It’s $389! And I ain’t paying that much for football), are extra.

But now I have to pay individually for their DVR service and HD access. Can’t complain — they bundled the service in my old package, so I was paying it anyway. Overall, DirecTV has provided wonderful service. During the past year, they’ve vastly increased their HD offerings and, according to the message boards, will continue to increase the channels they offer (oh, please, Fox News HD).

The one complaint about DirecTV that people who have cable always make about satellite TV is that sometimes you lose service.

I’ve lost service only during severe thunderstorms, and for only a couple minutes. Otherwise, the picture has been perfect.

And DirecTV has more HD than cable.