The NHL has released their national television broadcasting schedule for the 2011-2012 NHL season. I immediately scanned the 178 games scheduled to be played live on American TV for the Jets in the USA.
I'm disappointed, but not surprised. They will appear on the NHL Network in the US twice (opening night October 9 at home against Montreal and away at Pittsburgh on February 11). They are also slated to appear on the Versus Channel on March 5 hosting the Buffalo Sabres. The other national broadcaster of NHL hockey in the USA is NBC which does not currently have Winnipeg on the schedule.
How does that compare to the rest of the teams as far as coverage in the US? Let's look at this season's schedule of Versus and NBC scheduled teams. I am not including the NHL Network because not everyone has that.
Anaheim Ducks: 6
Boston Bruins: 14
Buffalo Sabres: 11
Calgary Flames: Zero
Carolina Hurricanes: 4
Chicago Blackhawks: 11
Colorado Avalanche: 9
Columbus Blue Jackets: 2
Dallas Stars: 7
Detroit Red Wings: 14
Edmonton Oilers: Zero
Florida Panthers: 1
Los Angeles Kings: 6
Minnesota Wild: 9
Montreal Canadiens: 6
Nashville Predators: 2
New Jersey Devils: 7
New York Islanders: 1
New York Rangers: 16
Ottawa Senators: Zero
Philadelphia Flyers: 11
Phoenix Coyotes: 4
Pittsburgh Penguins: 14
San Jose Sharks: 5
St. Louis Blues: 8
Tampa Bay Lightning: 11
Toronto Maple Leafs: 2
Vancouver Canucks: 2
Washington Capitals: 14
Winnipeg Jets: 1
Okay, that's a lot of games on tv here with the more "popular" teams getting more air time, naturally. If you look at the number of games from last year broadcast per team, it's pretty much the same in terms of high profile teams getting more love from the networks (duh). By the way, the Thrashers were only on once, this year it's only one for Winnipeg.
Actually, let me clarify. The AMERICAN high profile teams are getting love. Good, historic and storied CANADIAN teams are not shown the love on American television. How much love are they getting in the states (nationally at least)?
Calgary Flames: Zero
Edmonton Oilers: Zero
Montreal Canadiens: 6
Ottawa Senators: Zero
Toronto Maple Leafs: 2
Vancouver Canucks: 2
Winnipeg Jets: 1
I guess I should be glad I'm getting something with regards to my Jets on TV. Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton aren't going to appear on American boobtubes at all. The defending Western Conference Champions in Vancouver are only appearing twice, same as Original Six team member Toronto. The Canadiens are appearing six times on US TV's. That seems like a lot compared to other teams in Canada, but is below the average of American team appearances. In fact, 16 of the 23 US teams have 6 or more nationally broadcast games.
Every US team appears on US TV at least once, most more than that. Only the Panthers and Islanders have a single appearance while Nashville and Columbus are scheduled for 2 appearances each on US national tv.
Nine teams have double-digit timeslots on Versus and NBC with Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Detroit having 14 games each; Philadelphia, Tampa Bay (really?), Chicago, and Buffalo are appearing in 11 nationally televised games here in the States. The New York Rangers are the dominate team with 16 scheduled games on Versus or NBC.
Tampa Bay kinda surprises me for having that many games going coast to coast, especially with teams like Colorado(9), Anaheim(6), Minnesota(9), Los Angeles(6), or even Carolina(4) having less than 10 versus the Lightning's 11. Don't get me wrong, that is a great looking hockey team with Steve Stamkos and Martin St. Louis and many many more, but I'm just a little shocked by that.
I never realized how the American teams dominate the schedule here in the US until I really started looking at these numbers. The average appearances for US teams in the US on national tv (at least this year) is 8.13 games per team. Compare that to an average 1.67 games per Canadian team on US television. And that number includes the outlier 6 from Montreal. I didn't include the Jets because they are a new Canada team and it's not fair to use them with no history in Winnipeg.
Both of those numbers are up from last year. 1.5 was the average number of Canadian teams versus 6.35 average games for American teams. Again, that doesn't include Atlanta, but does include Calgary who only appeared in the Heritage Classic.
All in all, hockey is becoming more and more of a programing choice here in America. NBC will have a Black Friday game this year between the Bruins and Red Wings marking the earliest NHL hockey will appear on the peacock network.
Most US teams have picked up a few games on the national broadcasting schedule. The Blue Jackets, Islanders, and Coyotes each lost a game this season as compared to last year while San Jose lost three in the rotation, for whatever reason. Minnesota, Carolina and Chicago each held on to the same number of games from last season to this one while everyone else picked up at least one additional nationally broadcast each. The Rangers, Lightning, and Ducks were the big movers gaining 5 additional national games each. The Ducks are probably the biggest winner since they only had 1 game on nationally versus a scheduled 6 this season.
A couple of other broadcast news of note:
Hockey Day In America returns on Sunday, February 19. Three games -- Penguins at Sabres, Sharks at Wings, Blues at Blackhawks -- will be played at 12:00, 3:00 and 6:00 respectively.
For those taking note, that just happens to be my birthday. There is a certain irony to my birthday this year and hockey. I have always wanted to have my birthday at a Thrashers game, but the circus was always in town at Philips Arena during that time, so no. Not even close as the circus took over for about 2 1/2 weeks. This was always the west coast trip for the Thrashers. In 2011, they played a game at Edmonton on my birthday. Now, it's Hockey Day in America and guess what? The Winnipeg Jets actually have a home game that day as they host Colorado.
It's great to see hockey getting some respect, but NBC and anyone with a pulse on American sports will agree it's not quite up to football fandom yet. So, the NHL is changing their Winter Classic, traditionally played on January 1 to January 2 since the 1st is a Sunday during football season. In case you haven't heard, the Winter Classic is between the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.
On that note (and then I'll shut up). I am getting annoyed by seeing the same teams in the Winter Classic. I really want to mix it up, but I don't have high hopes of that happening.
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