I was just looking at NBC’s NHL Playoffs schedule and something struck me as odd…there’s no games scheduled for May 12th or 13. I though that was very strange, since the Conference Finals will be starting that weekend.

Now what major event could make NBC forget that they have the national NHL TV contract once again? Oh yeah! The ever popular Par 3 Water Hole.

Think about this for a second: all of the 9 games that NBC was generous enough to broadcast for us during the NHL regular season had a 12:30 PM starting time. This horrendous time was not something the NHL wanted - NBC wanted it so that they could show 3-4 hours of golf after. So why not schedule Game 1 or 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday at 12:30? It’ll be on the East coast (Buffalo or New Jersey will be the home team), it’ll be over by 3 or so & then NBC can let everyone watch professional golfers hit balls into the water until 7 PM.

OR - and here’s a really whacky idea: How about a 7 or 8 PM game? Seems to work really well for Canada.

Of course I’ll be sending a version of this post to NBC & the NHL & anyone else I can find an email address for & I encourage you to do the same.