April 2, 2009
by Stephen M. Lepore
Thanks to reader Dave Sullivan for pointing to this on NBC Sports’ Website. NBC has posted it’s entire playoff schedule for this year on it’s website, and if you’ll direct your attention (post-jump) to the Stanley Cup Finals, there is some interesting news, we’ll comment after you read it.
Saturday, April 18
Conference quarterfinals, Game 2, 1 p.m. ET
Sunday, April 19
Conference quarterfinals, Game 2 or 3, 3 p.m. ET
Saturday, April 25
Conference quarterfinals, Game 5, 3 p.m. ET
Sunday, April 26
Conference quarterfinals, Game 5 or 6, 2 p.m. ET
Saturday, May 2
Conference semifinals, Game 1 or 2, 1 p.m. ET
Sunday, May 3
Conference semifinals, Game 2, 2 p.m. ET
Saturday, May 16
Conference finals, Game 1, 1:30 p.m. ET
Sunday, May 17
Conference finals, Game 1 or 2, 3 p.m. ET
Saturday, May 23
Conference finals, Game 4 or 5, 3 p.m. ET
Sunday, May 24
Conference finals, Game 4 or 5, 3 p.m. ET
Friday, June 5
Stanley Cup finals, Game 1, 8 p.m. ET
Saturday, June 6
Stanley Cup finals, Game 2, 8 p.m. ET
Friday, June 12
Stanley Cup finals, Game 5, 8 p.m. ET
Sunday, June 14
Stanley Cup finals, Game 6, 5 p.m. ET
Tuesday, June 16
Stanley Cup finals, Game 7, 8 p.m. ET
So there it is. NBC will not only air Games 1 & 2 on back-to-back days (the lowly rated Friday & Saturday), but they will take one of it’s games outside of primetime (Game 6, airing at 5PM ET). Now, this is fairly radical and it’s not without problems. First of all, Games 6 & 7 will air on the same nights as a potential Game 5 & 6 of the NBA Finals on ABC. Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals’ 5PM ET airtime cancels out it’s challenge with Game 5 of the NBA Championship series, which airs at 8PM ET. But there is that Game 7 on the Tuesday night at close to the same time as an NBA Game 6. How hard will Gary Bettman get hammered when this comes to fruition?
Another problem. You saw that the Conference Finals will at least be at Game 4 or 5 by May 24th. That means there will be a minimum of six days between a Game 7 of a Conference Final and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup. There could be as many as TWELVE days! And NBC isn’t rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic for what could be one of the biggest weeks in the network’s history.
Gary Bettman is going to get a lot of negative press for this. But there are positives, in that the NHL keeps most of it’s championship series on national TV. Also, with it’s network TV situation in flux, why not try something different? Most of all, and likely much to the delight of hockey fanatics, no more going with two off-days between games. It has happened at least once in every Stanley Cup Final since 1996, and has been scheduled every year since 1994.
What’s your reaction to this?
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