from Phillip Bupp of Awful Announcing,

According to Sports Business Daily, the NHL is scheduling more regular season games on weekend afternoons in order to cater to a European audience. Sure, NHL games played on weekend afternoons is nothing new, but the league has changed the start time of nearly 50 games this season for the purpose of broadcasting games in prime time across the European continent. This started on October 13 with an Oilers/Rangers and Golden Knights/Flyers doubleheader. The afternoon games will be dubbed as the “European game of the week” in those foreign markets....

The NHL has been playing international games off and on for decades, but they picked things up in 2017. While a couple exhibition games are played in China, the NHL has had exhibition and regular season games in various locations around Europe. In fact, the Florida Panthers and Winnipeg Jets are playing two regular season games in Finland this Thursday and Friday, and the Devils and Oilers played a regular season game in Sweden earlier this month.

But this international outreach, where teams travel and play in another country, can only go so far. Holding games in Europe is great, but due to the difference in time zones, any game played in prime time in the United States will be shown in the middle of the night in Europe.

more