St. Louis Blues: Gearing Up For The World Cup of Hockey

The World Cup of Hockey is fast approaching. However, you wouldn’t know it now that Reg Carling’s commercials have disappeared from the airwaves.

In a somewhat frightening turn of events, the World Cup of Hockey television schedule was released about three weeks ago and there was not a peep about it. Whether it was from lack of looking constantly at ESPN’s NHL page or the simple idea that they buried the news, it went unnoticed.

It’s a worrying idea, especially given the fact that the network is only placing two primetime games on their flagship station. The other ones are on ESPN 2.

Now, unlike the old days when only a handful of people got “the deuce”, it’s a channel almost everyone with a sports package that would carry ESPN has. So, it’s not a huge difference. It’s the optics of it.

ESPN 2 doesn’t need the bump in awareness that NBC Sports does in relation to NBC proper. So, not carrying it on ESPN seems like a bump down in their eyes.

What’s ESPN need to keep those slots open for anyway? Midweek college football games are usually featuring teams that half the fans that actually care are in the stands already. The NBA will not have started up yet. So, in actuality, ESPN is pushing aside a special event that could draw hockey fans back to their network in favor of baseball in all likelihood.

Even if we ignore the slight of the primetime games being on other channels, it’s a bit disappointing that the schedule release got so little fanfare. Was there even a note that went by on the ticker that scrolls by constantly under all ESPN programming?

Anyway, on to the actual schedule courtesy of ESPN.com.  I took the liberty of switching it to Central Time since they were all listed in Eastern on the site.

Saturday, Sept. 17
Team Europe vs. Team USA, 2:30 p.m., ESPN2
Team Canada vs. Team Czech Republic, 7 p.m., ESPNEWS

Sunday, Sept. 18
Team Russia vs. Team Sweden, 2 p.m., ESPN
Team Finland vs. Team North America, 7 p.m., ESPN2

Monday, Sept. 19
Team Czech Republic vs. Team Europe, 2 p.m., ESPN2
Team North America vs. Team Russia, 7 p.m., ESPN2

Tuesday, Sept. 20
Team Finland vs. Team Sweden, 2 p.m., ESPN
Team Canada vs. Team USA, 7 p.m., ESPN

Wednesday, Sept. 21
Team North America vs. Team Sweden, 2 p.m., ESPN
Team Canada vs. Team Europe, 7 p.m., ESPN2

Thursday, Sept. 22
Team Finland vs. Team Russia, 2 p.m., ESPN
Team Czech Republic vs. Team USA, 7 p.m., ESPN2

Semifinals (single elimination)
Saturday, Sept. 24
A1 vs. B2, 6 p.m., ESPN2

Sunday, Sept. 25
B1 vs. A2, 12 p.m., ESPN

Final (best-of-three)
Tuesday, Sept. 27
Final Game 1, 7 p.m., ESPN

Thursday, Sept. 29
Final Game 2, 7 p.m., ESPN2

Saturday, Oct. 1
Final Game 3, 6 p.m., ESPN2 (if necessary)

Clearly with all the afternoon games, those that have 9-5 jobs or later will either have to program their DVR or the workplace is going to lose a lot of productivity. Fortunately, Team USA only has the opening game against Team Europe as an afternoon affair.

Obviously, the game ESPN knows will draw ratings and the game the fans will want to see most is USA vs. Canada. Sadly, it’s on a weekend.

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Since the games are all in Toronto, attendance won’t be an issue, but it just seems to take a bit of the steam out from behind the game. However, the tournament probably wanted both teams going into that game with a win, so the option of playing it on a weekend went out the door.

Outside of watching Team USA, simply because ‘Merica, St. Louis Blues fans can spread the love. Interestingly, there are no more than one Blues member on any of the international teams.

Former Blue, David Backes is sporting the red, white and blue. With this being his first action since leaving the team, watching him in a non-NHL jersey will ease the transition.

Jori Lehtera is on Team Finland. While the SUOMI are hit or miss, they tend to play a fairly high flying style, so he might rack up some points.

Alexander Steen is listed on Team Sweden, but his status is in doubt with his shoulder still healing from surgery. They likely already have his replacement chosen if it comes to that, but Patrik Berglund could be a late call-in since we don’t know what the leaders of the Swedes have in mind.

Colton Parayko was named to Team North America, which will feature the best 23 and under players. Dmitrij Jaskin will suit up for the Czech Republic and Alex Pietrangelo will represent the leaf as he sports the red of Canada.

Of course, though it’s a rivalry politically, it will be hard not to support Russia as they have our very own Vladimir Tarasenko with them. It will be intriguing to see who his linemates are as he could have so many dynamic pairings.

It should be a fun tournament. Clearly many fans will be hoping their stars come through all of it unscathed and ready for the season.

From pure matchup standpoints, USA vs. Canada will always be a highlight. Sweden or Finland vs. Russia usually provides entertaining games. Any of the games with Team North America should be a good watch, if for no other reason than to see how the young bucks fare against the more established players.

I’m excited to see hockey return to ESPN. Outside of watching Blues games on local television, some of my fondest memories of watching the game are when they were the main national broadcaster of the sport.

I loved listening to Steve Levy or Gary Thorne and NHL2Nite was one of the first dedicated highlight shows I can remember. Outside of maybe the old NBA on NBC song, there’s still no beating ESPN’s NHL theme.

Perhaps some of the old voices will return. I just hope the network gives this event a proper push.

I know they would not have spent money for the television rights only to bury it. It’s just worrying that a few commercials that ran during the playoffs are the only promotion of the tournament we’ve seen.

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I’ll still be watching and I know all of us hockey nuts will be. It will be a nice break from the normal late summer/early fall things while we wait for the league to restart.

Even with a couple snubs, the Blues are well represented. They are likely to represent well too. As long as it’s not treated like an All-Star game, it should be a fun event that could be a nice tradition.