Hating On Hockey Haters

I can’t believe it happened again. I feel like I have just been given the shaft again after making a sports-related purchase. Allow me to explain. Since I have been in Ithaca, every year, before hockey season, I subscribe to the NHL Center Ice package on my dorm-room TV. Besides gaining the access to watch “every” NHL game for the season, it ensures me that I can catch every single Islander game which for me of course is a life necessity. In Ithaca, we have FSNY (channel 69) and MSG (channel 28) and although both of those channels air Islander games, between the Sabres, Devils, Rangers, and Knicks, the Islanders become a 5th team that must share those two channels and on nights when more than 2 teams play, the Islanders usually are given the axe. In those cases, I turn to my handy Center Ice package. And considering the Islanders do not play until next Friday, my Islander hunger which is of my life necessities will be fulfilled. I am not worried about that. But as I write, I have just been given the information that my Center Ice package will not cover the Los Angeles Kings against Anaheim Ducks from London which as a game is the opening of the 2007-08 hockey season.
This is so preposterous! More than advice, this is a personal rant! Apparently, I am unable to have the access to this game. It turns out that US TV (Versus) will be in England, but although they are making the cross an ocean journey, they will only be covering the second Ducks vs. Kings game on Sunday. No opening game. CBC in Canada is doing the game. CBC is the only North American outlet covering the game. Under these circumstances, Center Ice would feed its viewers with the CBC broadcast. But not for the opening game this season! For some reason, it has been blacked out. It turns out, as I am in an Ithaca dorm room, the only way for me to watch the season opener would be if I bought HDNet channel 812.
My plans were to order HDNet today and cancel my order tomorrow allowing me to get the game and avoid most of the cost burden—my level of savvy is vast. But apparently, I can’t even do that. As my dorm room TV is not an HD TV, I am actually unable to even buy HDNet. As I am unable to buy HDNet, as Center Ice has blacked me out, and as US TV has refused to cover the game, I as a hockey fan am left out in the cold.
Unfortunately, as a hockey fan, I am used to this. This leads me back to last spring. Last May, I was in Villanova, Pennsylvania on a Saturday afternoon as part of a weekend of attending my sister’s college graduation. But also on that afternoon, the Ottawa Senators were playing the Buffalo Sabres in game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on NBC. With a win, the Ottawa Senators would advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.
First let me set the stage. It is a Saturday afternoon 3:00 game in May. NBC ordered that this be a day game as opposed to the original 7:00 designated start time. NBC would only air the game if it was a day game. At 3:00 what’s more. But there were a few things that NBC didn’t account for. For one thing, the game was on a Holiday weekend in Canada and as one of the game’s two teams was Canadian, they were putting millions of Canadians ( the team from Montreal is spelt Canadiens) and Ottawa Senators fans in a precarious position in terms of being able to get themselves in front of a TV while fulfilling family obligations. Second, NBC scheduled this game at 3:00 on a Saturday which at 5:30, they would also be airing the Preakness Stakes. Does anybody think allotting 2 and ½ hours for a sporting contest with no time limit is a bad idea? I did and the inevitable came to fruition. The game went to overtime. Just minutes before overtime without announcement, NBC pulled the potentially conference deciding game for PRE-RACE COVERAGE. It took until 5 minutes into the overtime period until I found the hockey game placed on Versus. But it turns out, as Versus is based out of Philadelphia which was only 10 miles away from me, I was able to get the hockey game while many cable outlets in the US who don’t carry Versus—including Buffalo!—left their viewers out in the cold. Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa promptly scored the game winning goal to win the Eastern Conference for the Ottawa Senators. Most of the US was unable to watch this game.
Networks complain about and ESPN analysts mock hockey in every way, shape, and form. They mock its lack of popularity. But how can they expect hockey to grow if you don’t air the most important games of the season? Well, although I love the sport, I know the sport will never gain popularity in the US with this type of treatment. So my message is to US TV executives, “GET YOUR F****** ACT TOGETHER! JEEZ! ESPECIALLY YOU NBC! AREN’T YOU THE SAME NETWORK WHO GAVE US THE HEIDI GAME!”

P.S. I find it semi-ironic that as I was at my sister’s college graduation during this NBC blunder and as I now speak, my sister works for NBC.