Tonight's Blue Jackets game against the Florida Panthers is set for a 6:15 puck drop. If that start time seems odd on a Tuesday night, you're not alone in believing so. Somewhere, someone in the NHL thought having one of their premier events in the middle of the week in October made sense.
Today is the league's Frozen Frenzy, which has all 32 teams in action with start times staggered every 15 minutes. It's a wonderful idea, one of the best they have come up with in recent years. However, like most everything else in today's NHL, it's poorly executed.
The confusing thing about it is, it doesn't seem all that hard to do this thing the right way. They could schedule this date sometime in January or February, when the rest of the sports world is relatively quiet. You know, pick one of those Saturdays where the only thing they would have to compete against is the NBA (obviously, avoiding Super Bowl weekend).
Instead, they set this date for an early in the season Tuesday evening, with games starting as early as 6:00 PM Eastern time-and as late as 11:00 PM. They chose to do it while competing directly against the MLB playoffs, and during the heart of football season.
Now, I'm one of those die-hard hockey fans that will watch as much of the sport as I can. But, am I really going to leave work early this afternoon to make sure I'm set up for the very first drop of the puck? Probably not.
Even less likely is the chance that I'm staying up until almost 2:00 AM to see it through to the final whistle. In fact, the only game I plan to tune into is the one at Nationwide Arena.
I may switch over and check out some of the other games during intermission, which is what this whole staggered start time is set up to do. That's great. But again I ask: why on a Tuesday? And why so early in the season? We aren't going to see teams at their peak, especially after a shortened training camp.
Also, why aren't more of these games featuring rivalries? I have a hard time believing that many people are tuning in to see the Kraken visit the Flyers. Or the Canucks make their annual trip to Long Island. Honestly, having the Panthers in Columbus is an odd one while we're at it.
Why not give us a Saturday in February with games starting at noon, then stagger accordingly so the latest start time is 10:00 PM Eastern? If my math is mathing, that would allow them to stagger starts by 30 minutes, meaning fans could flip between more games and catch more of the action.
They could also set this date so that teams could get their CBA mandated week off at either end of it. Wouldn't that be WAY more enjoyable than an All-Star game where most of the guys don't even want to show up? I have to believe so.
Rivalry day?
Finally, don't give us the Blues visiting the Senators. Give us the battle of Ontario, the battle of Alberta, the battle of Florida, the battle of New York, and so on. Rivalries. People want to see good hockey games when they matter, not early season cross-conference snoozers.
Once again, this league has the right idea in mind, but it's horribly executed. We should not be surprised. I think about the NHL Draft, which used to be one of the most unique days on the sports calendar. Now, it's completely ruined because the teams hate to pay for travel.
Heck, at this point, lets just say it outright: this league hates fun.
There is so much the NHL could do with a day to celebrate hockey, be it the Frozen Frenzy or the Draft. It's a shame they can't get out of their own way and do it right.
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