The NHL released the 2005-06 schedule yesterday (or was it Tuesday?). Anyway:
Good: "rivalry" scheduling. While I hope this isn't taken to the extremes of baseball (19 games against a divisional opponent is too many, especially if it's the Devil Rays), it should help to revive interest that was diluted when teams spent more time playing everyone. Speaking of dilution, though:
Bad: there are still 82 games in the regular season. This number needs to go down, though the league's worrisome financial status makes it impractical. Hopefully, they'll get some TV money and be able to pare back to something in the high 60s.
Speaking of TV, I'd read yesterday that OLN might wind up with NHL games, apparently at the behest of the network's owner, Comcast. That would be interesting.
Good: there is a break in February so players can compete in the Olympics. After missing the most recent Worlds, I look forward to this tournament.
Bad: the new NHL logo color scheme. I sincerely doubt that anyone will become more interested in the league now that the NHL shield is black and silver instead of black and orange. But I do think it'll further irritate long-time fans who still pine for the days of the named conferences and divisons. Like me.
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Comcast appears to be very serious about turning OLN into an ESPN rival -- something FSN tried to do a few years back (and screwed up royally).
OLN currently has the Tour de France, which will see ratings plunge next year as Lance Armstrong heads into the sunset.
Comcast is reportedly not just looking at NHL coverage. It's reportedly considering a bid for late-season Thursday/Saturday night NFL games starting in 2006 if said games go to cable. There are also talks of OLN battling ESPN and TNT/FX for the next cable NASCAR contract.
Comcast already has some decent sports programming on its local sports channels, as well as CN8, so who knows? Maybe Cooch will finally go national :)
It'll be weird if there are NHL games alongside Survivor reruns, which they were plugging heavily during the Tour coverage.
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