By the way, NBC

I was a happy girl this past Saturday to be able to watch game five of the NHL Eastern Conference playoffs. In an effort to save money to pay for our B-Mets season tickets, we have only thirteen cable channels (plus National Geographic channel that comes in on channel 75), which means we do not get Versus, the network on which most of the hockey playoff games have been shown. It was not an easy prioritization process, but dollar hot dogs, kiss cam, and the spiedie race won out over cable. And we have friends with cable. But back to my story.

I listened to the first four games of round 3 on Internet radio, which is a very nice option to have, but it's just not the same as seeing the boys' bearded faces on the TV screen. On Saturday afternoon, thanks to NBC, I got to watch the game. Schubie, Patrick, Antoine--whose faces I once oft encountered at Wegman's and Uncle Tony's--appeared before me once again in all their Senatorial glory. (Even Daniel Alfredsson was a participant in a conversation between Stacy, Matt, me, Antoine, and Martin Havlat, on the sidewalk by the Holiday Inn-Arena, about wearing skirts. FYI: Martin is pro-skirt. Such occurrences are why I love having minor league sports teams in my town. But I digress. Again.)

Bad reffing aside, the game was a nail-biter. The score at the end of the game was 2-2, so once again Ottawa and Buffalo were heading into overtime. I would be attending a minor-league (of course) baseball game in Syracuse on Saturday night, so this break between regulation and OT was the perfect time to drive to our friends' apartment where we were meeting before the baseball game. Right before we turned our TV off we heard NBC tell us that they would be leaving the playoff game to cover hours of prerace Preakness. NBC would maintain coverage in Buffalo, but everyone else was SOL. At this point the series was 3-1 Ottawa: if Ottawa won the game in this seven-game series, they'd be going to the Stanley Cup finals; if Buffalo lost, they were eliminated. So the game was kind of a big deal. But apparently not as big a deal as talking about a horse race.

The Preakness is a big event; I am not belittling it, but I don't think it would have killed NBC to be a little late in getting to the prerace coverage. And I think it's safe to assume most regular folks would prefer playoff hockey (although this is not based on any published research, so don't quote me). And not all hockey fans have cable and/or Internet, so what were they to do? I couldn't find the game coverage on local radio stations, since the Mets were playing/beating the Yankees on more than one station. So, finally, my point: NBC, you are very lucky my friends had Versus at their apartment on which I could watch Ottawa WIN in overtime, and you are lucky that I had independent plans on going over there, or you would have received a dreaded strongly worded letter. I'm sorry if this makes you lose sleep at night, but it had to be said.

However, if you would like to write a strongly worded letter to NBC, here's some addresses:

nbcsports@nbcuni.com

NBC Universal
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608