Your TV Guide and Open Thread For Game 1 of the Western Conference Final
May 17, 2009 6 Comments
3:00 PM ET, Chicago vs. Detroit, Game 1
National TV (US): NBC (HD)
Play by Play: Mike Emrick
Color: Eddie Olczyk
Inside the Glass: Pierre McGuire
National TV (CANADA): TSN (HD)
Puck The Media 
Looking forward to this game, except, well, there’s no way to watch it on TV in much of Ohio, because of a Cleveland Indians baseball game on the NBC affiliate out of Cleveland. No alternate channels, nothing – wouldn’t even have it on Center Ice if I had it.
I guess if I’m lucky we’ll get the 3rd period. Fabulous. What a great television deal the NHL has with NBC where the local affiliates can bump the games whenever they want. I don’t care if the Indians game gets better ratings – it’s still totally unacceptable, especially for the conference finals! And I know it’s not just out here – in Missouri they do this with Cardinals games. This alone would make me happy to see the league on ESPN instead.
The Cardinals do bump NHL on NBC on Sundays… but at least now there is an agreement with another channel to carry the game. That channel, however, is unable to do so in HD, but hey…
That arrangement came about after one day when the head of NHL Broadcasting was taking calls on XM — I called and gave him teh ST. Louis situation…. 3 weeks later it was resolved. However, St. Louis *is* an NHL market. Not knowing where you are in Ohio, they may or may not consider you an NHL Market.
My suggestion would be to call the Blue Jackets on Monday, and ask for contact info for someone at the NHL office you can call to air your concern. They *will* listen.
One other thing… Unless I’m incorrect, I think it’s the stations Affiliation agreement with NBC that allows them to periodically bump network programming. I don’t think that’s specific to the NHL deal. Our CBS Affiliate here bumps network programming once in a while for some local cooking show…… go figure….
I know it’s 3pm when the game is televised but what time actual puck drop?
Puck drop on NBC is usually about 20 minutes after the hour, I think.
I like the NBC team but they do talk too much. This is TV and allowing the pictures to tell the story with the crowd providing the sound track is not a bad thing.