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Game 1 of Cup Final Might Not Air in Tampa Bay Area
May 29, 2009, 8:29 AM ET [74 Comments] AddThis

Jon Jordan
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger •

"What, what, WHAT?!?!?!?"

That's right, folks. As of right now, hockey fans in the Tampa Bay area will not see game one of this year's Stanley Cup Final on Saturday.

Newschannel 8 WFLA, the local NBC affiliate, will be running the 26th annual All Children's Hospital Telethon rather than the opener of the Detroit/Pittsburgh return engagement. The same charity event usurped game three of last year's Cup Final on NBC, but a local channel picked it up (with very little notice to the masses, who scrambled to find the game early in the 8:00 hour). No such arrangement has been made for game one this year as of yet.

A spokesman for the Tampa Bay Lightning has informed me that he has spoken to the league and is working on a solution.

In the meantime, what can we do? Well, for starters, we can hammer WFLA's phone lines and email inbox (but, please, be respectful. After all, they are doing something great for the community, albeit at the expense of NHL hockey.) The plea should be for them to do anything they can to facilitate another local station picking the game up.

And, by "we", I mean all of us - not just the local Tampa Bay hockey fans. I urge anyone who reads this to place a phone call, drop an email or both. This is our sport - together - and for any NHL market not to air any game, let alone the opener, of the league's pinnacle series is absolutely unacceptable. There simply has to be a way.

WFLA Sales and Administration: 813-228-8888
WFLA Newsroom: 813-221-5788
WFLA email: news@wfla.com

I would also suggest contacting the NHL itself in an effort to get the CBC feed picked up by another local station.

A call to arms, hockey fans. Please do your part.