NBC Screwed Up--Big Time

Okay, so the world doesn't revolve around hockey. I get it. And I really don't care if someone doesn't like the sport--you can't please everyone. But today, NBC screwed with a significant portion of the population and THEY. ARE. PISSED. I do believe there are enough hockey fans around to cause NBC a bit of grief.

The NHL, in their infinite wisdom, contracted with NBC to air hockey games. Not ALL hockey games, just the ones that NBC wants to carry. AND NBC can determine what time these games air--at their convenience. So, you have Saturday afternoon hockey games, which is okay unless you live in Canada where Hockey Night in Canada is not only a tradition, but an institution. This means that the CBC couldn't air night time playoff games because NBC wanted the games played during the day.

Not only has NBC screwed with the times of the games, they also have decided that the majority of the games will be broadcast on VS--a network that they own. What's that you ask? What's VS? Exactly. There are many cable systems in the US that don't carry VS. There are a lot of people across the country that have never even heard of VS. I believe the only reason that we have VS on our cable system is because there would be a rebellion if we couldn't get every conceivable hockey game broadcast to our area that is possible. We also are lucky because we get the CBC on our system--which I do enjoy watching because their announcers at least understand the game of hockey and aren't airheads spewing a bunch of nonsense just to hear themselves talk.

And so we come today and NBC's big screw-up. Ottawa and Buffalo played today. The series stood at 3 wins for Ottawa, 1 for Buffalo. This game had the potential to be the end of the series--Ottawa could become the Eastern Conference champs and get into the Stanley Cup finals. The teams played 60 minutes and were tied at 2-2. The game was going into overtime. And NBC decided to stop broadcasting the game and go to the pre-race coverage of the Preakness--which was under a rain delay. And those hockey fans that didn't have anywhere but NBC to watch the game missed the overtime period, the SUDDEN DEATH overtime--which Ottawa won to become the Eastern Conference champs. They got to miss the end of a playoff game so that NBC could have a bunch of talking heads describe how muddy the racetrack was, how the weather was, and how much longer it would be before the race started FOR 75 MINUTES! (I was able to see the rest of the game--as I said, our cable system is good for hockey fans.)

I went to the message boards at NBC Sports to read the reactions. People are not amused. I think there will be A LOT of emails to be read on Monday morning. I hope someone gets fired for this.