NBC Sports Network has announced its schedule of NCAA hockey broadcasts for the 2012-13. The cable channel will broadcast a slate of 20 games, spanning a cross-section of the various regional conferences and the post-season tournaments. If you are a Flyers fan who follows the prospects in the organization, there will be plenty of chances to see various draftees in action.
Friday, Oct 12 -- University of Nebraska Omaha (Anthony Stolarz) vs. Army, TBD
Friday, Nov 16 -- Harvard (Petr Placek) vs. Cornell (Reece Willcox), 7:30 PM
Friday, Jan 4 -- Nebraska Omaha (Stolarz) vs. Colorado College, 7:30 PM
Friday, Jan 11 -- Union (Shayne Gostisbehere) vs. Princeton, 7:30 PM
Friday, Jan 18 -- Harvard (Placek) vs. Yale, 7:30 PM
Friday, Jan 25 -- Cornell (Willcox) vs. Yale, 7:30 PM
Friday, Feb. 1 -- Union (Gostisbehere) vs. Dartmouth, 7:30 PM
Friday, Feb. 8 -- North Dakota (Michael Parks) vs Nebraska Omaha (Stolarz), 7:30 PM
Friday Feb. 22 -- North Dakota (Parks) vs. Denver, 7:30 PM
Friday March 1-- Nebraska Omaha (Stolarz) vs Wisconsin, 7:30 PM
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When I was a kid, my most hated Flyers rival teams were the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Boston Bruins, in that order. Nowadays, I can honestly say that I don't "hate" any team in the NHL. I may not like 'em, but I don't hate 'em, either.
There are particular players and coaches I dislike. There may be certain fan bases and media markets that are a little more grating than others on the whole. But I've been around long enough to know there's good and bad everywhere.
Within the hockey realm itself, most of the participants are good people away from the ice. Hockey people are typically down-to-earth, approachable and just basically regular folks. Besides, with so much turnover of personnel, there's a pretty good chance that at least one or two current members of any given rival team will eventually play or coach in your city -- and vice versa.
In recent years, I have enjoyed the heck out of the Flyers-Penguins rivalry. Last season, the dormant Flyers-Rangers rivalry that once burned intensely in segments of the 1970s, 1980s and mid-1990s got rekindled.
I try to stay as objective as possible in my writing. Even so, I'd be lying if I said the born-and-raised Flyers fan in me got no satisfaction from seeing the Flyers beat the favored Penguins (with all of their key players in the lineup) in the playoffs last season. It was a tremendous accomplishment. Although there's no cheering in the pressbox, I was personally pleased by the outcome. I was also glad the Rangers failed to advance to the Cup Final; mainly because of John Tortorella.
Even so, I can also honestly say that as soon as I started writing about hockey on a semi-professional and, later, full-time basis, I lost a piece of the passionate, this-game-is-life-and-death rooting intensity that I once had. I can still feel every pang of emotion I felt in the 1970s to mid-1990s. It's harder for me to be objective when writing about the teams of the past.
Nevertheless, I've come to realize something in my 42 years: There will always be the next game and, eventually, the next season. Everything eventually comes back to equal footing, and every single team goes through its ups and downs. The sting of a playoff loss or jubilation in victory fades each summer and is replaced by anticipation of what's to come.
Beyond that, there is hockey played all over the world. The NHL is just a piece -- albeit the most cherished and most visible -- piece of a huge puzzle. But there really is no off-season in the bigger picture of the hockey world. There is always hockey being played somewhere.
Example: You may or may not know that the Wells Fargo Center frequently has local late-night hockey games that start roughly an hour or so after the conclusion of a Flyers game. On the night of Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup on the Flyers ice, there was a local game that started after the despondent Flyers had left the building and the jubilant Blackhawks had moved their celebration from the ice.
I'm sure that many or most of the local players were Flyers' fans. I'm sure they were disappointed in the outcome of the Cup Final. But all they really cared about at that moment was their own game to be played in front of empty stands that had been packed and boisterous just a few hours earlier. The cycle of hockey continued.
My view of the impending lockout is similar. I hate the thought of it. I don't see any benefit to it for the health of the league and certainly not for the good of the game. But in the big picture, this, too, shall pass.
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