The NHL has officially announced start times for each of the game fives, including Thursday night’s Carolina-New York and Edmonton-Calgary matchups. Those will go at 7:00 pm ET and 9:30 pm ET respectively, as Calgary and New York try to even their series. The Tampa Bay Lightning meanwhile have a chance to finish things off tonight on the second half of a back-to-back against the Florida Panthers.
More from around the hockey world:
- KHL club Vityaz Podolsk has announced the signing of former AHL star Daniel Audette, a surprising move given the exodus of foreign players from the league since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Audette played part of last season with the club but ended his year with 18 games for Orebro HK in the SHL. He’ll now go back to the KHL for next season, where he has already proven he can be a difference-maker. In 45 games last season, the 26-year-old forward scored 17 goals and 39 points, continuing his trend of posting strong offensive numbers at every stop. Originally selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2014 draft, he never did play a game in the NHL.
- “Gretsky Signs In KHL” could have been a headline today, as Amur Khabarovsk announced the signing of Vyacheslav Gretsky to a tryout contract. The 25-year-old forward is obviously of no relation to the Gretzky that North American fans are more familiar with (Brent, that is), but did experience a breakout campaign in Belarus last season. The 6’5″ forward had 19 goals and 35 points in 53 games, earning him another chance to play in the KHL.
The NHL needs to get their act together and figure out a way to get that McDavid guy and the battle of Alberta televised at an earlier hour for those out east.
And alienate their own fanbase to please some people who won’t care come next season? If they want to watch McDavid and Co they can stay up and watch at what is a regular time to the Oilers and Flames fan bases. Those fans won’t leave once their seasons are over.
That’s like saying the Leafs vs Bolts series should have started later so the people out west could watch it, but they were instead stuck at work and couldn’t watch it.
“(Brent, that is)”
@Gavin – I’ll bet you thought we weren’t reading all of this today! :)
Nhl is doing what works for espn. reality yes they are on espn but still way down the the list in importance. If Nfl was having a farting contest it gets primetime ahead of nhl. Unlike the people in edmonton and calgary except their last mayor think. gary does not care about fans in canada.