The New York Rangers-Carolina Hurricanes playoff series means a lot to a lot of NHL fans, but perhaps ESPN thinks those fans care more about the series involving the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche.
After all, ESPN did cut away from the Rangers-Hurricanes game for 15 seconds of a critical moment. It suddenly instead showed some Avs-Stars pregame coverage.
"Viewers got a glimpse of Mike Monaco and AJ Mleckzo in Dallas while missing almost 15 seconds of the game at a critical juncture," Michael Blinn of the New York Post wrote.
Not surprisingly, no one was thrilled.
"Maybe the craziest network f-k up I've ever seen," ex-NHLer and Barstool Sports podcaster Ryan Whitney posted on X, via the Post.
The outlet forwarded some other reactions as well ...
Here was the full cut away that aired on ESPN during the 3rd period of the Rangers game.
Nearly 15 seconds of game play was missed to go to the Dallas Stars gamepic.twitter.com/9CGMVwxD9K
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) May 8, 2024
"Did anyone else's ESPN feed switch to the next game for a few seconds while the Rangers were tied with under a minute left in the 3rd and on the power play," Audacity radio host Maggie Gray wrote. "Holy hell that was almost a disaster."
"OMG, they temporarily Heidi-gamed the Rangers game," The Post's Peter Botte wrote, referencing the 1968 AFL game between the Jets and Raiders that infamously cut away to the movie "Heidi" for East Coast viewers, preventing them from seeing an Oakland rally.
That said, nobody missed a goal, as the teams went into overtime tied at 3-all. But man, yeah, it was almost a colossal broadcasting mistake by the Worldwide Leader.
Of course, ESPN has come under fire these days for many things, some fair, some not so much. But criticism here is justifiable and don't you just know someone, somewhere is in deep doo-do0.
The Rangers ended the night with a double-overtime win and 2-o lead in the best-of-seven series.
