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A National Dozen

August 13, 2018, 2:23 PM ET [18 Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
“Wednesday Night Rivalry” is dead.

And the congregation said… “AMEN!”

USA Today’s Kevin Allen is reporting that NBC is changing up their regular season hockey broadcasts, jettisoning their “Rivalry Night” format and expanding out the scope of the teams covered… thank heavens.

According to Allen, the national Wednesday night game will be “Wednesday Night Hockey” and feature a “roaming studio” that will try and bring more of the local flavor to the broadcasts. Solid idea… another solid idea is that more than 60% of the Wednesday Night Hockey games will have a Western Conference participant.

The schedule was released this morning and I have to admit… it’s kinda decent. Overall the Predators appear 12 times. Here’s the Nashville breakdown…

10/4 @ New York Rangers
10/23 San Jose
10/30 Vegas
11/7 @ Colorado – Wednesday Night Hockey
12/18 @ Chicago
1/9/19 @ Chicago
1/23 @ Vegas – Wednesday Night Hockey
2/10 St. Louis – 11:30am – National NBC game
2/21 Los Angeles
3/3 @ Minnesota
3/5 Minnesota
3/25 @ Minnesota

A franchise record 12 total national appearances… one on NBC, two Wednesday nights (none at home… but that’s a small quibble) and five of the twelve at home… not bad at all.

It’s about time. It’s impossible to grow a national footprint if you only show Pittsburgh, Washington, Boston, Philly and the Rangers. The interesting thing is that the last two Cup Finals… with new markets involved, were highly rated. Without Original Six teams and without LA or New York or Chicago involved.

Gee… ya think folks will watch good hockey, no matter where the team is?

The other piece of good news on this announcement today is that the All-Star Game will air in prime time on broadcast television for the first time in 22 years. NBC Sports will be carrying a lot of games involving Canadian teams as well… especially given that teams like Edmonton, Toronto and Winnepeg have some of the brightest young stars on them.

All that being said… you will still get your fill of Pittsburgh and Washington… the 13 game NBC TV schedule features the New York Rangers 5 times, Philadelphia and Washington four times. Chicago three times… Pittsburgh, Boston, St. Louis and Minnesota twice, Tampa Bay and Nashville once. Same old same old there, but it will be nice to get a solid selection of other teams on NBCSN.

It’s getting closer…

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Random Notes

- Wow… four national TV games for Nashville in the first month of the season… that’s a new one… glad to see it.

- The NHL Network relezed their list of the top 20 defensemen in the league… P.K. Subban, Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis are all in it.

- Big congratulations on David Polie’s selection for the US Hockey Hall of Fame.

- Season 11 of SSR is getting close, but if you need a hockey fix… check out our co-host Zack’s podcast “Central Divided” … Zack hosts it with Mason Masters who happens to be a Blackhawks fan… I know… but it’s still a lot of fun…

- Brooks Bratten is celebrating his 4th anniversary with the Predators… he and Thomas Willis have done an amazing job on the Predators website, delivering outstanding content. Congrats Brooks… wishing you many more!

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