B.C.'s shift to permanent daylight time could conceivably cause scheduling awkwardness for teams like the Vancouver Canucks who play in a continent-wide league, but NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is apparently a little nonplussed.
"Nobody asked us," Bettman quipped Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C., when asked about the plan put forward by B.C. to shift permanently to daylight time, which is currently in place, and cease going back to standard time every fall.
"Not that they should have," the commissioner added, grinning.
In practice, this change means that B.C. will spend the sunny parts of the year in sync with the West Coast, but an hour ahead in the darker parts. They will also be in sync with communities in the mountain time zone, like in eastern parts of the province and Alberta, and American states east of the Rockies.
Some have expressed worry about how this will affect start times for games in Vancouver, given how much power TV has over the NHL's schedule. Games on Saturdays and Wednesdays are generally classified as "national" games, so faceoff times are determined outside of the Canucks' control. Games on other nights of the week, such as those broadcast on Amazon on Mondays the past two seasons, are also classed as national games.
Still, the NHL is not all that concerned. "We'll deal with it," Bettman said.
At the time of the provincial government's announcement that daylight time was to become permanent, the Canucks said they had no notice of the change and that they had yet to "get their heads around it," a spokesperson said. They did not seem terribly fussed about the impact of the change, though.
For national games in the mountain time zone, the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames have generally faced off at 8 p.m. local time in order to have three hours of separation from games in the Eastern time zone. So, presumably, the Canucks' Saturday night faceoffs would also shift to 8 p.m. local time when the East falls back to standard time. Unless, of course, the rest of the country, or continent, lines up behind B.C. and makes the same change.
This development comes as the Canucks have made other headlines, including the hiring of Manny Malhotra as new head coach and discussions about why GM Ryan Johnson faces challenges as the 'new kid' on the NHL block.
