For those who think not a lot of sports will be on televsion on Sunday, Feb. 20, think again. It is an official Hockey Day in America.
NBC Sports and Versus have are teaming up to bring America nine hours of hockey coverage plus stories from all over the country about the impact hockey has on each community.
“It is a celebration of hockey," NBC's Doc Emrick said. "We try our best to make sure that people understand that we are passionate about the sport."
Coverage of how hockey helped inner city youth in Washington in 1978 to the Pond Hockey Tournament in Minnesota will be broadcasted starting at noon on NBC.
The early games will be regional coverage of either Washington at Buffalo, Philadelphia at New York Rangers or Detroit at Minnesota. Then the second game will be Pittsburgh at Chicago.
After those games are played, the Heritage Classic, pitting the Flames and Canadiens, will be broadcasted on Versus while NESN's own Andy Brickley will be providing analysis with Brian Engblom during the game.
"And for the first time, we can take advantage of the NBCU synergies with this new company and tell the audience that there is a big outdoor hockey game north of the border that takes place as soon as Pittsburgh-Chicago ends. So again, we’ve got this hockey crazed audience celebrating the game for the day and ending up in Calgary for the hockey under the lights in the open air. And nothing could be more fun than that," said NBC and Versus Executive Producer Sam Flood to ProHockeyTalk.
