Central time zone, ‘ugly stepchild of television’ says veteran broadcaster

It is a complicated puzzle, tougher to solve than a Rubik’s Cube.

Months of planning are involved, with many moving parts and multiple factors that come into consideration — each presenting its own set of challenges.

When the Stanley Cup playoffs arrive, each and every fanbase among the 16 teams left standing is eager to know the schedule — and often curious why their home team might not be playing at its usual time.

The short answer falls under the category of its complicated.

“It’s something that no other league in North America has the same problem as the NHL,” longtime broadcaster John Shannon said Wednesday. “The strength of this league is what it does in Canada and yet, it creates a huge issue when you’re trying to serve those three masters.”

Those masters Shannon mentioned include three national rights holders for Stanley Cup playoff games, including Rogers in Canada and ESPN and TNT in the U.S.

Making things a bit more interesting this spring is the Stanley Cup playoffs and the NBA post-season got underway at the same time, instead of being staggered.

To make things even more challenging, ESPN and TNT also have national rights for NBA playoff action.

Shannon has worn a wide variety of hats during his career, from working with rights holders on both sides of the border, including a prominent role as executive producer on Hockey Night in Canada to working for the NHL.

So his perspective on the topic is an interesting one.

Several cities feature NHL and NBA playoff team and shared buildings provide another layer of juggling — including Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, which houses the Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, each of which is involved in the post-season.

Toss in previously scheduled concerts, which can’t be rescheduled, and it’s easy to see how tough it is to keep every market happy.

The revenue from those concerts is more important than ever, when the amount of money lost during the pandemic is considered.

There are also some late-season twists and turns that can throw a wrench into the best-laid plans, such as when the Vegas Golden Knights lost to the Anaheim Ducks in the regular season finale and ended up facing the Dallas Stars as a wild-card team instead of finishing third in the Pacific Division and having a first-round date with the Edmonton Oilers.

“Steve Hatze Petros would have been working on this schedule for the last 45 days and it would have been a moving target every day, a change in the standings,” said Shannon. “All of a sudden, on the last day of the schedule, something happens, like the L.A.-Vegas thing and everything gets blown up.

“And then, the expectation is that you’ve got to have a schedule ready and you’ve got to get it out. The networks are phoning (and asking), ‘Where’s the schedule? Teams are phoning (and asking), ‘Where’s the schedule?’ It’s exhilarating, but I’ll tell it’s a thankless task and (Hatze Petros) does a hell of a job.”

“It’s not very nice to say, but the central time zone is the ugly stepchild of television… It happens more to the North-South issue, than it does the East-West issue,  and that’s just the reality of where it fits in with market size and with population.”– John Shannon

As the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche see this best-of-seven series shift to Denver for Game 3 on Friday, the times are only set through the weekend, with Game 4 to be played on Sunday afternoon.

Game 5 heads back to Winnipeg, though the puck drop has yet to officially be determined and could depend on how some of the other series are going.

One thing is certain: the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins will play Game 5 in Boston, so they will occupy the early slot — so the Jets are likely to have a third late start in the first five games.

Is it optimal for the Jets to have 8:50 p.m. puck drops for home games in April or May?

Absolutely not.

This isn’t the league or the networks taking it out on Winnipeg, it’s got much more to do than the time zone the Jets are playing in.

On Monday night, the Stars — who frequently feature 7 p.m. starts during the regular season — had an 8:50 p.m. puck drop for their first two games against the Golden Knights as well.

In previous seasons, the Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues dealt with the same time zone issues. That didn’t prevent the Blackhawks or Blues from capturing the Stanley Cup or the Predators from reaching the final in 2017.

“It’s not very nice to say, but the central time zone is the ugly stepchild of television,” said Shannon. “Trust me, I was watching this earlier in the week, Oklahoma City, the No. 1 seed of the Western Conference in basketball, had an 8:50 tip off for the Thunder. It happens more to the North-South issue, than it does the East-West issue — and that’s just the reality of where it fits in with market size and with population.”

For those wondering why the Jets couldn’t stay in the early time slot on Tuesday, since Shannon explained that the Eastern Conference already had a pair of games on the docket in New York City and Sunrise, Fla., so cramming a third game into the early window didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

So, the Jets game on Tuesday was played at nearly an identical time as the one in Vancouver involving the Canucks and Nashville Predators.

“It’s unfortunate and it’s the luck of the draw,” said Shannon.

On an unrelated note, the Jets and Avalanche were involved in the wildest game of the early stages of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs and ESPN announced that the 7-6 thriller in Game 1 played on Sunday night was the highest-rated first-round game ever shown on ESPN2 (with 1.1 million viewers).

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

X: @WiebesWorld