The New Jersey Devils and their fans are ecstatic that they made the playoffs for the first time in six seasons. Despite a wonderful season full of great storylines, the Devils were still regulated to the Golf Channel for one of their playoff games.
Respect is something that’s hard to come by for the New Jersey Devils. One doesn’t have to look far to see what were talking about. Literally every single day there’s a Rangers or Flyers fan asking a Devils fan about attendance on Twitter. The Devils are called the little brother, the forgotten franchise, the one that should go back to Kansas City, the insults go on and on.
While we all hear hate on Twitter, and some of you like to give out some hate (yeah, I see you), the Devils also feel the disrespect when it comes to national TV coverage. It started with nationally televised games for the 2017-18 season.
The Devils were chosen for one nationally televised game in 2017-18. One. It was a Tuesday Night double-header in which they played the Tampa Bay Lightning. This is ironic, but we’ll get to that in a second.
Listen, I understand that the Chicago Blackhawks get 17 games, and the Pittsburgh Penguins get 16. That all makes sense on a national scale. But Taylor Hall and the number-one overall pick couldn’t get more than one game?
Whatever, let’s move on to the present.
The New Jersey Devils are now in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Coming into this season, it had been five long seasons without a playoff berth. Maybe this team didn’t deserve a national stage. But now, now this is a playoff team. Everyone knows how exciting it is to watch this team on a nightly basis. And, they are playing those same Lightning in the first round. It will be a fun, fast-paced series that people will want to watch. That is, if they have the channel.
Nothing says "Stanley Cup Playoffs" like the Golf Channel. pic.twitter.com/wDPwsMZEKx
— Steven Shepard (@POLITICO_Steve) April 9, 2018
So, you read that right. The Devils, playing the favorites to win the Stanley Cup coming into this season, has one game on either NBC or NBC Sports Network. Actually, let me look at that again. Nope, it will probably be played on CNBC in favor of Nashville Vs. Colorado. In fact, one of the games are on the GOLF CHANNEL. I’m not sure if you know this, but golf and hockey are different sports.
On Wednesday, the NHL put the Devils game against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. We all know which game will get better coverage. It should. The Pens and Flyers are a rivalry of epic proportions. Last time they played, each game was much watch. However, nothing is airing on the NHL Network. It is literally highlight shows. On USA, there’s now WWE wrestling on Wednesdays, so what usually plays that night? Law & Order SVU re-runs. On CNBC, it’s Shark Tank re-runs.
This is literally pathetic. Playoff hockey is one of those things that people watch no matter who’s playing. The Devils against the Rangers in game five of the Eastern Conference Final did a 6.47 rating in New York back in 2012. At that time, it was the best local rating ever for a game on NBCSN.
It doesn’t make sense for those saying that NBC is trying to get the Golf Channel some publicity. Probably because they won’t play any other hockey for the rest of the year (outside of Ducks vs. Sharks which comes on right after).
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The Devils-Lightning series has two of the favorites for MVP (Hall and Nikita Kucherov), the number one overall pick (Nico Hischier), Steven Stamkos, Brian Boyle returning to his old team after one of the most inspiration seasons on record, and a real possibility of an upset (the Devils are 3-0 against the Lightning).
Maybe this is a move that’s been in the making. NBC technically gets nothing from NHL Network games. They don’t own that. They own USA, but maybe there’s a rights thing we don’t know about. I can’t give a legitimate reason why CNBC wasn’t available. It just looks so bad on paper. And of course, the Devils are the losers in this situation.
All we can do is prove them wrong. Watch the game in droves, show them it should get more coverage, and maybe we’ll get some respect.