Thought we were all existed to see a bit of Ice Hockey with the National Hockey League for free-to-air also lately when 9Go planned to schedule at least one weekend game to start off Saturday this month that was supposed to be the Detroit Red Wings v Toronto’s Maple Leaf (home team) before they decided to push one back a week later than planned.
But over the last day or two, they’ve now decided not to put the game on ahead of tomorrow which would be the 11am AEDT one between Pittsburgh Penguins v Columbus Blue Jackets (home team).
Yeah, it’s a shame this won’t be happening unfortunately when NHL came over to Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne last year to play some exhibition matches there with 9Go previously being their free-to-air broadcaster alongside ESPN. It could’ve been a great time to have another odd NHL game on 9Go during the middle of the day that would have great significance for our NHL fans considering Nine has a great relationship with ESPN Australia with Basketball and US Sports like the weekly WNBL basketball game during Sundays on 9Go as well most other games via 9Now. But at the end of the day though, it would be great if Nine did actually say about this via press release and promoting it before putting this on air rather than someone putting this out of nowhere & then nothing happens.
I know our NHL interest isn’t on the same level as the NFL that 7mate airs every Monday morning during the season including Playoffs and Super Bowl while SBS no longer airs NBA games for like two years now. Again, just didn’t know where that rumour came from as if Nine can be so serious about airing ice hockey again, then perhaps do it during the Stanley Cup Finals or when they come back down under next time.
It’s just a suggestion and then we maybe talking about this after all.
For now, there’s always Foxtel, Kayo Sports and NHL.tv if you do really want to watch the Pens v Columbus game tomorrow morning. Meanwhile on Nine, there’s always the Billie Jean Cup Tennis this Sunday on 9Gem at 8pm involving Australia, as well as a bit of boxing on Wednesday night at 10pm thanks to their own paid streaming partner at Stan, who will be covering the full program.
And yes, we wish we could also watch a bit of Spring Tour rugby (not all games though since most of them are held during the very early morning/overnight) also on free-to-air like it was in the past when there was no live Super Rugby at the time.
It was great to see the Wallabies win over England last weekend at Twickenham including Joseph Suaalii’s outstanding debut straight out out of the Sydney Roosters in the NRL & Nine has been covering league for such a long time.
With the possibility of a Rugby Australia launching third-tier comp involving four existing Australian Super Rugby teams – in the same way we currently see with our U16 and U19 Super Rugby teams – that would begin sometime next year, I do hope Nine can consider putting at least one Spring Tour match to round off the Wallabies calendar year on free-to-air.
Ideally, I’d like to see the 6am AEDT final tour game on a Sunday morning against whichever European team live on 9Gem.
They’re they’re doing this right now with UEFA soccer when it comes to all three club competition Grand Finals plus selected Super W & Club Rugby games (mainly late season + Finals) throughout the year as well.