My neph and Mark Andre F.. He's cut the fro since then, but we're a Penguins family. The Pens can handle back-to-back games.Albom is spot on. The NHL and NBC screw up big time.
The NHL has been completely mismanaged in trying to put teams in places like Phoenix. Hockey is not a southern sport — imagine that, a sport played on ice not popular in the south. Go figure. Same with NBC. Who knows what’s going through Bettman’s mind.
BUT - without saying that NBC/NHL is justified in moving the finals up to this weekend - what the h*ll is the NHL doing playing hockey games in June!?!?
Not only does that just "feel" wrong - watching hockey at home with in shorts and a T-Shirt with the fan running full blast due to the heat - but it leads to soft ice, which affects the play. That's especially true in the last period or overtime, when players are exhausted as it is.
They still play hockey? I stopped watching after the last strike/no Stanley Cup year...that did it for me.
Once upon a time, there was no “advance schedule” for playoff games. When both teams finished up their respective series, they were expected to square off a couple of days later. It was only when they were tied to a TV schedule that this changed, leaving potentially long lulls in the playoff schedule at various points.
So, no, I don’t have any “sympathy” for the players in this regard. The league and NBC are doing the best they can (in their opinion, which could be incorrect, of course) to try and make money, which will help the future of the sport. Truth is, right now the NHL doesn’t draw a high enough share to replace post-sweeps weeknight TV. It’s sad, but that’s not entirely NBC’s fault (one could make the argument that they need to make a stronger regular-season and playoff commitment on weekends, at least, but that’s another issue.)
The Penguins have played more games than the Red Wings (17 vs. 16), and have the extra day’s rest only because they managed to win their conference final in 4 games, as opposed to Detroit needing 5. But I haven’t heard any complaints from Pittsburgh about the shortened schedule — of course, that stands to reason as they are extremely hot right now and would prefer to not have a long layoff.
That’s nothing. Two weeks ago, the Caps hometeam advantage against the Pens was wiped out because they had to play on Saturday after a Friday game, so that they would not interfere with a YANNI concert on Sunday!
And the Caps are almost on par with teh Deadskins in DC.
Yet, the stoke ‘n’ choke Nats get prime time, weekend time, anytime.
NBC = (If it’s) Not Baseball, Can (it)
Go WANGS!
Southern Detroit supporter.
My neph and Mark Andre F.. He's cut the fro since then, but we're a Penguins family. The Pens can handle back-to-back games.