SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The 2011 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Capital BlueCross is just days away, with the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, ready to host players, coaches, luminaries and thousands of fans at Giant Center. The two-day event will also reach millions of hockey fans worldwide through extensive television, internet and radio coverage.
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This year’s showcase, with the 2011 Reese’s AHL All-Star Skills Competition set for Sunday (3 p.m. ET) and the 2011 AHL All-Star Game to follow on Monday (7 p.m. ET), will be produced by Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic and televised to more than 120 million households in North America, including a national audience on TSN in Canada and on more than 30 regional networks throughout the United States.
The broadcast crew for the event is headlined by 2008 Foster Hewitt Award winner and former AHL broadcaster Mike Emrick, who is currently the lead announcer for NHL games on NBC and Versus as well as the TV voice of the New Jersey Devils. Emrick will handle play-by-play duties for the All-Star Game alongside analyst Craig Laughlin, former AHL and NHL winger and longtime commentator for Comcast SportsNet’s live-game coverage of the Washington Capitals. Hershey Bears broadcaster John Walton will serve as rinkside reporter for the All-Star Game and will do play-by-play on Skills night, when he will be joined by former AHL player and coach and current Comcast SportsNet studio analyst Alan May as well as the New England Sports Network’s John Chandler with rinkside interviews.
AHL Live (www.ahllive.com) is also offering a special two-day subscription package for live streaming of the 2011 AHL All-Star Classic.
In addition, the 2011 AHL All-Star Game can be heard anywhere in the world with Grady Whittenburg of the Binghamton Senators and Scott Stuccio of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on the call. Pre-game coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on Monday on the NHL Home Ice channel (XM 204, Sirius 208) on Sirius XM Radio and XM Canada with 20 million subscribers across North America, as well as on local stations 1460 The Ticket (Harrisburg, Pa.), 100.1 FM WQIC (Lebanon, Pa.), 1430 The Team (Binghamton, N.Y.) and 96.5 ESPN (Peoria, Ill.). The radio broadcast will also be available at WHP580.com, and through the I Heart Radio app for iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Phone devices.
Of the 528 players to take part in the AHL All-Star Classic since 1995, more than 94 percent have competed in the National Hockey League, including Patrice Bergeron, Dan Boyle, Daniel Briere, Dustin Byfuglien, Brian Campbell, Zdeno Chara, Eric Fehr, Miikka Kiprusoff, Kari Lehtonen, Ryan Miller, Zach Parise, Bobby Ryan, Martin St. Louis, Jason Spezza, Eric Staal and Tomas Vokoun.
