RALEIGH, N.C. — When the national television schedule came out before the season, the Carolina Hurricanes got the usual cold shoulder, even from the NHL’s new partners. ABC and ESPN each grabbed one game in March, and TNT passed entirely.
There’s nothing new about that for the Hurricanes, of course, and it’s the kind of thing fans complain about — disrespect! — even though they just end up complaining about all the things the national announcers get wrong about the team and franchise and players and Triangle and so on anyway.
So it was both a mild shock and genuine tribute that, when the NHL started rescheduling games during the erstwhile Olympic break, TNT added Wednesday night’s game between the Hurricanes and Florida Panthers — who might be two of the best teams in the league but were all but ignored by NBC in the old TV deal.
