TV Schedule was released today.
Teams, by appearances.
City Times Boston 8 Colorado 8 Detroit 8 N.Y. Rangers 8 St. Louis 8 Dallas 7 Philadelphia 7 Pittsburgh 7 Minnesota 6 Washington 6 Chicago 5 Tampa Bay 5 Los Angeles 4 N.Y. Islanders 4 Phoenix 4 San Jose 4 Anaheim 2 Atlanta 2 Buffalo 2 Florida 2 Montreal 2 New Jersey 2 Calgary 1 Carolina 1 Columbus 1 Nashville 1 Vancouver 1
See, you know I don’t pay attention to the NHL because I had no idea Boston and the Rangers were the best teams in hockey. This doesn’t include the NBC games, which gives the Rangers 4 more slots.
As much as this probably kills my chances of being a Calgary Flame fan – what’s the fun in rooting for a team you see once a year? – I feel worse for my friend who’s been talking themselves into being an Ottawa Senator fan. They don’t seem to exist.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s regionalization at some point in the season.
I’m surprised that OLN isn’t shoving the Flyers down our throats, since Comcast owns both.
Other then the fact that the Blackhawks suck why arn’t you a fan of them?
Isn’t the fact they suck enough?
It’s the typical anti-Wirtz dissatifaction you’ve undoubtly heard before. I don’t have any unique sort of dislike towards the team, but I also have as much emotional bond with the Blackhawks as I do with the Chicago Bandits.
I feel cheated that I’ve never had the chance to like (or dislike) the NHL on it’s own merits because it’s been as accesible to me as English Football, and feel if I’m going to go out of my way to try and make that connection, why benefit the Blackhawks?
I’m a Bruins fan, but what the hell are they on 8 times for compared to Calgary’s 1? I hope OLN doesn’t think the Bruins have these pockets of fans all over the place like the Red Sox do.
>I’m a Bruins fan, but what the hell are they on 8 times for compared to Calgary’s 1?
Your point is taken, it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s ridiculous to have Boston on 8 times compared to once for the team that was in the last Cup finals.
The thing is, they’ve said that
Really good hockey teams < teams with large built in audiences
and I think that’s the wrong idea in general (the displaced national Bruins fans aren’t going to be in the same numbers as Red Sox or even Celtic fans – those who just want to watch for their team probably are already going to have that option) and the wrong ideas in this situation (you need to show how great hockey, not how desperate you are for an extra .1 rating by scheduling based on population bases)
Boston’s also in the eastern time zone, and Calgary doesn’t play out east all that often due to the new schedules. Aditionally, it’s MUCH easier to sell advertising time based on floating the Bruins than any Canadian team with the possible exception of the Leafs and Habs (and even then, I’d doubt it).
There’s more of factors in Boston’s favour, and additionally they’ll likely be just as much a cup contender as Calgary this year (OLN won’t care about the inevitable playoff choke). Saying that Calgary made the finals two years ago doesn’t mean much going forward, which is how programming is planned. It’s not like ESPN showed the Canucks much when they filled a role similar to that of Calgary (really good Western Canadian team) in the 03-04 season.
Now, Boston v Tampa is a much more intriguing comparison, and any disparity in favour of the Bruins there is probably something to yell about.