We got our first look at the Los Angeles Kings‘ schedule exactly one month ago, and we were already preparing ourselves for the possibility that NBC would gloss over the Cup champs…
Finally: we don’t know the American television schedule yet, but it looks like even a second Stanley Cup in three years won’t convince NBC to give the Kings their due… only one Sunday game in 2015, and it’s against Winnipeg.
As it turns out, the Kings didn’t get much love from NBC, but they will get plenty of exposure on their secondary network, NBCSN. The Kings are tied for the league lead in exclusively nationally televised games, with 12. (It’s misleading; Chicago, for instance, has 21 games across the NBC family of networks, but at least 10 of those will be blacked out locally.) The full NBC/NBCSN schedule is here, but below we’ve listed the Kings’ appearances.
Takeaways:
- For context: after winning the 2012 Stanley Cup, LA played on NBC three times, with the banner raising game being shown regionally. That was a shortened season.
- A grand total of eight teams get an exclusive NBC game this season: New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington, Boston, Detroit, St Louis, Philadelphia. That’s it. LA and San Jose share their single game (on April 11) with a St. Louis-Minnesota matchup.
- That’s right: just one NBC appearance for the Pacific Division. Total.
- On the bright side, NBCSN paid enough attention to set up plenty of playoff rematches. The network will be showing four matchups with San Jose, two matchups with Anaheim, two matchups with Chicago, and one matchup with the Rangers. Get ready for lots of montages of the Kings winning playoff series in dramatic fashion!
- It’s looking more and more like February 21 will indeed be the outdoor game.
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On the bright side, every game that’s not on NBC means less chance of this. Or this.
Thoughts on the schedule? Are you happy to still have Bob and Jim for most of the season? Do you think this is just a consequence of being on the West Coast? Let us know in the comments.