Ah, there’s nothing like Opening Day. The murmured anticipation of the gathering crowd. The green grass, stretching out seemingly forever to the outfield fences. The warmup crack of the bat, the pop of ball into mitt. Playing midweek in the afternoon, a small concession to the crispness of the weather.
Only it’s October, not April, and it’s hockey’s opening day*, not baseball’s. Outdoor weather conditions aren’t the reason the Seattle Kraken will be hosting the St. Louis Blues at 1:30 pm Pacific time on a Tuesday. It’s because sports a long time ago ceded scheduling decisions to the networks which pay so dearly to show their games.
*The 2024-25 NHL regular season technically started Oct. 4, when New Jersey and Buffalo played the first of two games in Prague.
ESPN will air three games on Tuesday, beginning with Blues-Kraken. Anyone not in attendance at Climate Pledge Arena will hear Mike Monaco’s play-by-play, and analysis from Ray Ferraro. And, we’ve come to learn, there is such a thing as doubleheaders in hockey broadcasting. When the game finishes in Seattle, Ferraro will fly to Salt Lake City and be part of the on-air crew for Utah HC’s first-ever game (against Chicago).
Puck drop at Delta Center is just after 7 pm Pacific time, fewer than three hours after the final horn at CPA. “Logistics are not my strong suit,” Ferraro admitted on a conference call. “Somebody is going to get me from the rink to a plane to Utah, where I’ll join Bob (Wischusen) and AJ (Mleczko). It came out of an offhanded conversation at lunch one day that hey, that would be neat to do two games on the first day, and the good folks put it together at ESPN.”
Network executives insist the double-shifting of Ferraro isn’t a gimmick. Yeah, right. Just like Punxsutawney Phil isn’t a gimmick; he’s desperately needed to predict the long-range forecast. Wischusen, on the same media call, joked about the Ferraro’s double duty. “I think first and foremost I’m probably most excited for postgame in Utah because Ray figuring out a way to get paid twice and cash a double per diem, postgame drinks are on him.”
This should in no way be meant to impugn Ferraro, one of hockey’s premiere TV analysts. Though only 5-foot-9, the center played 1,258 games over 18 seasons with six NHL clubs. Ferraro began working at ESPN in 2002 before he’d even retired as a player. He’s also done hockey nationally for NBC and ABC in the U.S., and TSN and Sportsnet in Canada.
Ferraro since 2004 has been married to another former hockey player, Cammi Granato, who at one time was a Kraken pro scout. She’s now assistant general manager in Vancouver, while husband Ray calls some Canucks games. Which we imagine makes for interesting dinnertime conversations.
As an example of the value Ferraro adds to a broadcast, he’s already said the quiet part out loud about the NHL preseason. “Look, I played dozens of exhibition games, and you’re just not quite there. I mean, you’re not as aware. You’re not as focused. You’re not as — quite frankly, it doesn’t mean as much. In this case all you’re looking at is October 8. You want to get to October 8. You want to be healthy. You want to play two or three exhibition games. That’s plenty.”
Or in Ray’s case, announce two NHL games in two cities on the same day. That’s really plenty.