Bruins big winner in NHL/NBC partnership
As a member of Bruins nation and as a fan of hockey in general, I find myself waiting anxiously to see what Fehr and the NHLPA will come up to accept or counter the latest owner proposal. I can’t really do much, other than send tweets to Bruins players and other NHL players telling them thank you for sticking to their principles. No matter what happens with the CBA, the media deals still have to be inked and signed so when hockey continues, we’ll get to watch it on TV.
NBC and its sports affiliates have posted their schedule for the the 2012-2013 season. For the second consecutive season, NHL on NBC will broadcast on the day after Thanksgiving, with the 2012 Discover NHL Thanksgiving Showdown featuring the Boston Bruins playing host to the New York Rangers at one o’ clock (EST). Some people in my family are football people, I am not. The day after Thanksgiving I’ll be able to gorge myself on the different types of stuffing we make and watch hockey. Ah, the bliss of total emotional satisfaction. How will that all break down? Here’s the overall breakdown of the schedule in games played by team.
As you can see by the two above charts, our Boston Bruins do pretty well for themselves. They have seventeen games being televised this year. That’s three more than last year. The Bruins are also tied for the most amount of games being played this year.(Detroit and Pittsburgh have seventeen as well.) Conference wise, the amount of air time is very dependent on what side of the border you are on. The Buffalo Sabres got a four game bump up to fifteen games this season. (As much as I love the Bruins, I have to say that Sabres fans have been the nicest bunch of people you can disagree about hockey with.) Toronto gained two games, but they’re only slated for four games overall. Montreal lost one (now five), and the Ottawa Senators were shut out completely.
So hockey fans, at least we got a schedule up, so we can at least mentally calculate what we won’t be able to watch if the lockout goes forward.