Dear Comcast,

I’m giving you a “thumbs down” on what was an overall awesome day in sports.

I recently made a purchase of an HDTV and today was a great day to view multiple different things in very clear 1080i.

* Flyers vs. Capitals
* The final round of The Masters
* NBC Poker Heads-Up Championship (Which didn’t need to be in HD, but was more awesome because it was.)
* PBA Motel 6 Rolls to Riches (While not in HD, was still pretty cool)
* Yankees vs. Red Sox
* Heck, there was even a Maroon 5 concert in HD

What was NOT cool was when I really wanted to watch the one sporting event of the day that REALLY interested me, which was Game 3 of the New York Rangers vs. the New Jersey Devils in the first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs.

As a game recap, the Rangers tied it up in the 3rd period and forced overtime.  And everyone knows that overtime playoff hockey is pretty much the most awesome thing ever.  The Devils ended up winning, and it SOUNDED really exciting from the streaming radio feed I listened to on nhl.com, but I couldn’t WATCH it.  Why?

Because the game was blacked out.  Now, why in the world would the game be blacked out?  Regional blackouts happen when a local team is being broadcast on both a national channel AND a regional channel.  Let’s fill in some blanks here with a real-world example from the other night.

The Mets played the Phillies the other night in a game of baseball.  Both ESPN (a national network) and CN8 (a local network) were showing the game.  The local network has rights over the national network, so ESPN was “blacked out”, therefore forcing people to watch the game on CN8.  That’s fine by me, because I still got to watch the game.

I live in Philadelphia.  The New York and New Jersey hockey teams were playing each other.  I turn to Versus, and I am greeted with a program about recapping this year’s Professional Bull Riders season, along with a scroll on the bottom saying “Because of Blackout Regulations, the New York Rangers vs. New Jersey Devils game will not be shown this evening.”

So, what I ask of you, Comcast, is why were you blocking a game that didn’t showcase a local team?

It’s bad enough that for the first two games of this series, the only national broadcast of the games were in Canada, so that game was being show in New York, New Jersey, and ALL OF CANADA (Which is more of a knock on the NHL for doing a bad job getting American national coverage of hockey).

That means that if I were 3,000 miles away in Vancouver, BC, I could have seen the Devils and Rangers play in crystal-clear HD.  But no, I live in Philadelphia, which is 50 miles away, and I forced to listen to a grainy AM radio feed.

To bring this back to tonight, however, Comcast, you get a major “thumbs down”.

Epilogue

A call to Comcast reveals that, for whatever reason, Comcast was broadcasting NEW YORK’S Versus feed, which resulted in the game being blacked out in the Philadelphia area.  Comcast, please make sure this is resolved before Wednesday’s Game 4, please?