St. Louis Blues Gain And Lose With National Exposure

The St. Louis Blues will be featured several times on national television this coming season. It’s a toss up as to whether that is a good thing or not.

They say any exposure is good exposure. In most cases that is true. When it comes to the St. Louis Blues being on NBC Sports, it becomes more of a gray area.

Whether we like it, love it, hate it or don’t care, the Blues will be on NBC and NBC Sports a total of 10 times. That’s good for fans around the country. It is not so good for those of us still in the St. Louis area.

Give them all the guff you want, but you cannot say NBC does not know how to pick matchups. They will show the Blues against the Chicago Blackhawks a total of three times.

NBC is showing the Blues on their opening night showcase game for the second year in a row. There is no denying the Blues have done well in the ratings.

They’re going to show the budding rivalry with Minnesota twice. NBC will also carry the Blues home game against Boston, when by no coincidence, David Backes will be in town.

Unfortunately, the number of Chicago games televised means Blues have to suffer through the incessant butt-kissing of the Blackhawks. As someone who has a broadcasting background, I usually try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

There is just very little other way to see it. It’s Blackhawks this, Chicago that. Pierre McGuire goes on and on about any little positive they do and any good other teams do must have been a Chicago mistake. It grates on the ears after awhile.

While being televised nationally is a good thing to expose your team to neutrals and potential fans, it robs us of a more Blues-centric broadcast on Fox Sports. The Blues only play the Blackhawks four times this year, so only one game will have John Kelly and Darren Pang.

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Also, the Blues always have a mixed bag of results when playing on national television. It’s changed more toward the positive the last few years. However, there was a stretch where it seemed like the Blues saved their worst performances for games on NBC.

That’s what made the playoffs even more painful. It was purely coincidental and anecdotal of course. Still, it just seemed like when you had more non-Blues fans watching, the team played like they had no business there.

Still, you can’t argue with any revenue earned from being on national television. Like their broadcasters or not, NBC has been good to the sport.

Whether they have been good for the sport remains to be seen since NBCSN is still only a destination for the NHL and those of us that watch the Premier League. There is little else on there of interest most times.

However, they have treated the NHL like a jewel instead of like a second hand t-shirt, easily discarded. If they would just be a little more open toward smaller markets, there would be a lot less complaining about their coverage.

Forgive us if we are not Chicago, Pittsburgh or Los Angeles. It makes us no less deserving of unbiased coverage.

At least the radio matches up pretty well to NBC’s video feed for those that want to go that route. Here is a listing of all the games on NBC/NBCSN, courtesy of the Blues website.

Oct. 4 at Pittsburgh Penguins – 7 p.m.
Oct. 18 vs. Chicago Blackhawks – 7 p.m.
Nov. 21 vs. Edmonton Oilers – 7 p.m.
Dec. 12 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning – 7 p.m.
Feb. 6 vs. Minnesota Wild – 7 p.m.
Feb. 27 at Minnesota Wild – 7 p.m.
Feb. 28 vs. Detroit Red Wings – 7 p.m.
March 18 at Chicago Blackhawks – 7:30 p.m.
March 21 vs. Boston Bruins – 7 p.m.
April 4 vs. Chicago Blackhawks – 8 p.m.

Next: Blues All But Officially Affiliated With San Antonio

Many of us like to hate on NBC, often deservedly so. Still, at least we can see all the games now and many are broadcast nationally for those that cannot afford the Center Ice package.

I’m not old, but I remember the days when you were lucky to get one game a week on Channel 11. Now it’s hard to miss them. Additionally, NBC’s app seems to work a little better than Fox’s, so we’ve got that going for us…which is nice.

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