ESPN NHL analyst P.K. Subban appears on Get Up, screengrab via ESPN.
ESPNNHLBy Awful Announcing Staff on

It’s become more evident over the years that ESPN’s daytime lineup is really only equipped to cover two things – football and basketball. Predominantly, the network’s focus is on the NFL and the NBA all 365 days of the year with the occasional college games given some love every now and then. Outside of that axis, ESPN may air games, but it probably won’t spend a lot of time covering them. Baseball found this out the hard way after ESPN gave the Wild Card round no analysis or airtime even though they had exclusive television rights to the games.

That seemed doubly odd at the time. First, ESPN excels at being a promotional vehicle first and foremost for itself. If ESPN has the rights to an event or league it has a much higher chance of being promoted and discussed by other shows on the network. When was the last time you saw any MLS or soccer talk? Second, the MLB Postseason should be (or at least used to be) a really big deal on the sporting calendar. So one segment here and there instead of the weekly segment on Dak Prescott’s future in Dallas could go a long way.

Enter another one of ESPN’s partners – the National Hockey League. Maybe the network had a period of self-reflection after ignoring the baseball playoffs or they want to merely check it off their list for the year to say they did it, but ESPN has given more time to the NHL than usual as the first puck drop of the new season is upon us.

First, Blackhawks rookie and #1 overall pick Connor Bedard appeared live with Pat McAfee.

Then it was Vegas Golden Knights star Jack Eichel’s turn as he showed up for Monday Night Football that was also emanating from the home of the defending Stanley Cup champions. And he even brought a guest with him for the interview.

Speaking of the Golden Knights, there’s a new This is SportsCenter commercial with Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault.

ESPN NHL analyst P.K. Subban made a rare appearance on Get Up in the middle of football season to preview the upcoming campaign and also did a crossover segment with Jeff Saturday on the biggest hits of last year as “pancakes” because if the program didn’t reference the NFL every five minutes a National Emergency Alert System alarm would have gone off.

https://twitter.com/GetUpESPN/status/1711734881552662581

ESPN’s even been airing a commercial with Sidney Crosby hyping Bedard’s debut as the Penguins and Blackhawks will face off in the season opener on Tuesday night on the network.

The NHL has to love the extra effort that ESPN is putting in to promote the league before the start of the regular season. There’s also the first ever Frozen Frenzy to look forward to later this month on the network. We’ll see if the hockey love keeps up with any consistency or if the network’s daily lineup will check back in for Stanley Cup parade time.