ESPN had two games to cover on Sunday night. The first was the Sunday Night Baseball game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox. The second was Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoff series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers. The transition from one to the other did not go smoothly.
The two events were scheduled to begin roughly three hours apart. So, the hope was that the baseball game in Boston would be over by the time the puck was set to drop in Edmonton. It didn’t work out that way.
The baseball game was a blowout. St. Louis dominated from the outset and routed Boston, 9-1. Despite that, ESPN stayed with the baseball game on its main channel, moving the hockey game to ESPN 2 — something John Buccigross even apologized for on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Buccigross/status/1657927557545865216
ESPN used a split screen to try to keep everyone updated on the hockey game.
Here is how ESPN aired the opening goal in Vegas-Edmonton Game 6. With Karl Ravech calling a split-screen during a 9-1 baseball game. pic.twitter.com/TEaiDaW0Fi
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 15, 2023
That also went poorly. Because while the baseball game was a laugher, the early moments of the hockey game were thrilling. Vegas’ Reilly Smith scored 24 seconds into the game. Edmonton answered with a goal from Connor McDavid 55 seconds into the game and another from Warren Foegele 2:43 in.
The Captain answers ☎️ pic.twitter.com/ZqRO9nnPUz
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 15, 2023
https://twitter.com/EdmontonOilers/status/1657934077750812673
Hockey fans were already frustrated about the game starting at 10 p.m. ET, which is 8 p.m. in Edmonton.
ESPN sticking with a blowout baseball game while relegating what ended up being the thrilling start to a potential elimination game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs did nothing to ease those tensions.
Of course the baseball game ESPN refused to move to ESPN2 for an NHL playoff hockey game is 9-1 going into the 9th lol.
— NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) May 15, 2023
Baseball has never looked worse than when the ninth inning of a premier game was split screened next to back-to-back Stanley Cup Hockey goals and someone at ESPN did that on purpose and let Karl Ravech just call hockey instead of baseball for 5+ minutes.
I cannot.
— Sara Sanchez (@BCB_Sara) May 15, 2023
ESPN is allowing the 9th inning of a 9-1 baseball game to prevent TV viewers from seeing the first two goals of Game 6 of a Stanley Cup Playoff semifinal series.
That is OUTRAGEOUS malpractice.
— Matt Zemek (@MattZemek) May 15, 2023
Just imagine for a moment:
Early-October Red Wings-Bruins hockey, 5-2 in the third period, pre-empts Game 1 of an MLB Wild Card Series on ESPN.
It would never happen, right? Reaffirms the point.
— Matt Zemek (@MattZemek) May 15, 2023
By the same token, baseball fans, particularly those in St. Louis, were not particularly thrilled to have that game on a split screen.
incredible job by espn tonight pissing off baseball fans, hockey fans, baseball/hockey fans, absolutely everybody https://t.co/KXTd63oOw9
— jesse spector (@jessespector) May 15, 2023
If I wanted to watch hockey I’d turn on ESPN2, @espn.
— Kelsey Burd (@kburdtweets) May 15, 2023
It also sparked a question. Why couldn’t either the baseball game or hockey game just be shown on ESPN2? That would have allowed Sunday Night Baseball to keep its normal time slot, while the hockey game could have started at a more tenable hour without juggling the broadcasts around.
Just so everyone is aware, ESPN2 aired the Road to the Women's College World Series, Cornhole and X-Games Japan while ESPN aired a 9-1 baseball game. And that baseball game is why this elimination game started on ESPN2.
Make it make sense.
— Danny Webster (@DannyWebster21) May 15, 2023
ESPN pushing the EDM-VGK Game 6 start time back, meanwhile there is literally cornhole on ESPN2 right now.
In 5 years, pickle ball will have a better TV deal with ESPN than the NHL does.
— Alex Daugherty (@AlexDaugherty1) May 15, 2023
This is one of the busiest times of the year on the sports calendar. That’s going to lead to some occasional awkwardness in scheduling, especially with networks that have broadcasting rights to more than one sport. And if the scheduling conflict was created by something like a thrilling baseball game going deep into extra innings, this would be easier to understand.
ESPN got a little unlucky that a blowout MLB game didn’t end 10 minutes earlier. Even still, this was entirely avoidable.
