NBC will juggle NHL, Olympic matchups

NBC Sports executive producer and president Sam Flood recalls exactly what he was thinking immediately after being told NHL players weren’t going to the 2018 Olympics.

“My first thought was 1980 and how cool that was,” Flood said. “And this is an opportunity to have a real unique hockey tournament and have some fun.”

In 1980, the USA, made up of amateurs, shocked the Soviet Union in the “Miracle on Ice” en route to the gold medal.

The NHL’s decision not to send players to Pyeongchang, South Korea, after attending five consecutive Olympics angered a collection of NHL stars. But no entity felt the ramifications of that decision more than NBC because it owns broadcast rights to the NHL and the Olympics.

Instead of seeing the NHL’s decision as an obstacle, Flood opted to view it as an opportunity. He added three Sunday NHL noon ET games on NBC that will serve as the lead-in to the network’s Olympic coverage.

NBC will telecast the Pittsburgh Penguins at the St. Louis Blues on Feb. 11; the Philadelphia Flyers at the New York Rangers on Feb. 18; and the Nashville Predators vs. the Blues on Feb. 25.

“The way the day falls it allows us to cover every Olympic hockey game live in important windows,” Flood said. “And we can still honor the NHL and give them airtime. At the same time, we can tell important stories about the Olympics and vice versa. When we are doing Olympic games, we can remind people there is good stuff coming up on Feb. 11 with the Penguins and Blues.”

NBC’s esteemed broadcaster Mike Emrick, 71, has decided to stay at home and call the NHL games. Eddie Olczyk, still receiving chemotherapy for colon cancer, is scheduled to serve as color analyst in two of those games.

The other key NBC television personalities, including Pierre McGuire, recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, Mike Milbury and Jeremy Roenick, will be in South Korea.

Besides juggling the NHL and Olympics coverage, the other challenge for NBC is figuring out how to best present a hockey tournament that will be different from what we’ve seen lately at the Olympics.

You have to be 30, or close to it, to remember what Olympic hockey was like before NHL stars began showing up in 1998. The 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway, was the last Winter Games without NHL players. The U.S. roster for 2018 will include players from European leagues, the American Hockey League and colleges.

“Part of our read is that big ice games are always different anyhow,” Flood said. “It’s a different brand of hockey than you see in the NHL. I thought the Sochi tournament (in 2014) was different than the NHL because players can go in the corner and dillydally with the puck a little bit more.”

The international ice surface is 15 feet wider than NHL rinks, and that provides players more time and room to make plays.

The Olympics have been a big stage for hockey. About 4.1 million people watched the USA-Russia Olympic semifinal from Sochi on NBC Sports Network in 2014, according to Nielsen. NBC’s prime-time Olympic coverage averaged 21.3 million viewers.

By contrast, the three NHL games on NBC in February would be expected to draw nearly 1 million viewers each.

The Olympic hockey tournament also draws many non-NHL fans.

“You get to expose players to a broader audience because it’s a much wider net you are casting,” Flood said.

Think about Washington Capitals winger T.J. Oshie’s notoriety after he had the memorable shootout success against Russia in Sochi. Even non-hockey fans were talking about that for days.

“He is a very good hockey player,” Flood said. “But is he one of the top 10 players in the NHL? I don’t think anyone would say that.

“But after the Sochi Olympics, he might have been the best-known player in the NHL because of the shootout and (the USA’s) dramatic win.”

That’s the kind of opportunity that intrigues Flood.

“I could see (U.S. player) Ryan Donato,” Flood said, “playing in these Olympics and showing up a week later for the Bruins with the glow of an Olympic medal around his neck. It would be a good story, and everyone would pick up on that.”