Fox Sports Carolinas will televise 65 Canes games this season, all in high definition, the team announced today. The 65-game package will include 35 of the team's road games.

John Forslund again will handle the play-by-play and Tripp Tracy will provide analysis. The network’s coverage will begin for the Canes' Oct. 14 game at Ottawa and will continue with each of the team’s seven remaining games in October.

Following eight televised games in November, FSC will cover 10 of the Hurricanes’ 12 games in December. A total of 41 of Carolina’s final 46 regular-season games will be televised, including 19 of 20 road games and 30 of 32 games following NHL All-Star weekend.

Fox Sports Carolinas now says that Game 3 of the NHL playoff series between the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes — and Game 6, if necessary — will be shown in high definition. The original television schedule had listed all of the games as being broadcast in standard definition, prompting numerous complaints from fans.

Game 3 will be 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the RBC Center and Game 6, if necessary, on Sunday April 26.

That means Time Warner Cable will show the game on channel 50 and in HD on channel 272. Dish and DirecTV subscribers will have to check on the alternate channels the two satellite providers will use. 

Fox Sports Carolinas is trying to do something about the no-HD first-round playoff series between Carolina and New Jersey, and Dish changes the channel. Read more here.

Fox Sports Carolinas is trying to get at least one of the Hurricanes' first-round playoff games televised in high definition, and the word is in on which Dish Network channel will show Game 2.

Fox Sports Carolinas will televise the Carolina Hurricanes' NHL playoff series against the New Jersey Devils, starting with Game 1 on Wednesday. Sadly, none of these games will be shown in high definition. The Eastern Conference series:

Game 1 at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Game 2 at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m. Friday
Game 3 at RBC Center, 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Game 4 at RBC Center, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Game 5 at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m. April 23*
Game 6 at RBC Center, TBD April 26*
Game 7 at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m. April 28
*If necessary.

When top-ranked tennis player Rafael Nadal was in danger of being upset, Fox Sports Carolinas stuck with his match in the Sony Ericsson Open, causing hockey fans to miss the first few minutes of the Carolina Hurricanes' 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday, including Eric Staal's goal that made it 1-0.

Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina upset Nadal 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 in a match that took longer than expected. Hurricanes spokesman Kyle Hanlin said FS Carolinas made the decision to stay with the match as it went into a tiebreak at about 6:55 p.m. By the time the tennis match ended, the hockey game was 4 minutes, 17 seconds old (about 7:15 p.m.). Staal scored at 4:28, and cable subscribers got the telecast at 4:52, Hanlin said, adding that satellite TV subscribers could see the game from the start.

The HD telecast was delayed, too, on cable.

The network has informed the Canes that viewers in North Carolina will be switched to the Penguins-Canes game at 7 p.m. Saturday, regardless of how long the Florida-Vanderbilt baseball game goes.

That said, FS Carolinas simply has to do better by hockey fans in a hockey market. Even when things go right, there aren't nearly enough Canes games in HD.  

March seems a little empty without Billy Packer to rile up college basketball fans, but the former CBS analyst hasn't completely disappeared. And he's no more subdued than he ever was.

This caught my eye yesterday: Fox Sports South and SportSouth will televise a combined 105 Atlanta Braves baseball games this season, including 25 on Sundays that also will be shown on Fox Sports Carolinas — yeah, that FS Carolinas, the one we get. The first thought that crossed my mind: Can they do that? No, they can't. The Triangle is outside the Braves' television rights territory, as defined by Major League Baseball, so we won't see those games. We're in Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals territory. Their games can be seen by DirecTV and Dish satellite customers here but not on Time Warner Cable. For local baseball fans, this feels like a cross between an episode of "Twilight Zone" and the movie "Groundhog Day."

The Carolina Hurricanes, fighting for the playoffs, are facing the rival Washington Capitals, who lead the Southeast Division, tonight in a good late-season matchup on the road — one Canes fans would definitely want to see. Alas, this is one of the 16 this season not being televised locally. Fox Sports Carolinas is carrying two ACC basketball games. Still, you'd think this kind of NHL game would be on TV in the local franchise's market. Only two Caps games aren't being televised in their market.

Just daydreaming: Maybe next time, the Canes let MASN compete for their TV rights, which greases the wheels for an end to the MASN-Time Warner Cable dispute, and local sports fans get not only more hockey on TV, they get a lot more major-league baseball.