We’re Back, and With Some Info

Well that was the world’s least accommodating week off ever.  We’re glad to be back.

Anyway, we have mostly opinion pieces the first half of the week.  Then it’s all 2009 NHL Schedule speculation for the rest of the week.

Oh, about that?  The NHL schedule is coming out Wednesday.  Count on it, beyond any massive screw-ups by the league.

The 2009-10 NHL Season, according to various sources, will begin October 1, due to the Olympics forcing a schedule squeeze.  Expect the Penguins, Maple Leafs and Canadiens to be in action.

Some things we’ve been speculating on during the week off:

• Maybe NBC and the league could get around to announcing that extension?  The good buzz the NHL has from it’s 8 Million viewer performance for Game 7 of the Final is gone, since Sunday’s Federer-Roddick match drew a better rating at least, if not more viewers.  Perhaps they’re waiting for the Winter Classic to do something.  Maybe the NHL is holding out for more coverage.  Maybe NBC is holding out for less coverage.  We might never know even when this thing gets done.  All we’re saying is, the longer this doesn’t get done, the more we should worry about the NHL jumping networks again, just as they’ve found one they can deliver viewers on.
• Moving to ESPN, which people always strangely suspect will replace NBC.  You know, you have John Buccigross, Steve Levy, Matthew Barnaby and Barry Melrose on staff.  That’s two well-known hockey people at the anchor desk and two well-known analysts at the company.  Why not throw on 30 minutes of hockey highlights featuring them folks at 1AM every night on ESPNNews or one of your even lesser channels?  Oh, you don’t have to call it NHL2Night, but maybe just “NHL Tonight” or “NHL from the Night Before”.  Just saying, hockey fans all have such a supposed hard-on for ESPN, let’s see them put their money where their mouth is.  If they’ll watch NHL2Night on ESPNNews, then maybe ESPN really is the right place for hockey.