Marlies play at Ricoh. No, they won't move them.

Toronto games have been on Rogers some. Perhaps the same for the finals. Norfolk hasn't done TV at all though....so it might be only the games in Toronto.

Canada loves their CHL. Their AHL interest is poor. That's just how it is and will always be. Although St. John's packed them in all season and fans have been coming out strongly for the Toronto playoff run so that's pretty good. Such a large market to sell inexpensive and quality hockey to. It's a really great place to see a game as well which helps.

AHL finals always have to be dragged out more because there are more difficult travel considerations. They don't typically take charters. If they do fly they have to buy flights for an entire team at the last minute for something like Hershey to Austin which isn't going to be a direct flight of course.

Norfolk uses a sleeper-bus for all of their trips except St. John's...and they might not fly to Toronto either. It's just a lot more hectic pulling it all off in the minor leagues which is the type of thing that most fans might kind of forget.

The games have been on the local Rogers channel. Pumped for finals

The Admirals flew up to Connecticut and bussed it back for that series. I would assume travel arrangements would be no worse than that. Ken Young usually is willing to shell out some money come playoff time to fly the team.

June 15th isn't too terrible, hopefully it doesn't go that long, though. I'd imagine that the arena issues are mostly for the Marlies, as there ain't **** going on at Scope for the next month.

As for TV here, I wouldn't hold my breath. That being said, one of the Admirals sponsors, Big Woodys, a sports bar, has pretty much shown every road game this season, getting standing room only crowds for the playoffs. I'd imagine they might have to start turning people away for the finals.

Interesting they flew to CT. Not surprising though. I believe it was just one day off between games. Norfolk on Sunday and then CT on Tuesday or something like that. So for that quick a turn-around they had to do it.

Yeah, showing the internet feed of the road game on a big screen at a local bar isn't exactly the same thing.

Many teams that get that far will scramble to put together some sort of locally televised production of the game if even at the last minute and even if they haven't done much television during the season. Kind of a shame that wouldn't be the case in Norfolk apparently.

Short of that, a local cable station SHOULD be trying to pick up the feed of the away game to show in their market. CT and St. John's both televised their home games.....but not picked up at all in Norfolk? C'mon. That should have happened.

I understand that Norfolk isn't exactly the same kind of hockey market as up north, but there are so many good fans there and they've had the Admirals for a long time. Charlotte would figure it out (for example) although that could be related to their close ties with Time Warner. But in Norfolk, where I think they do a LOT of things right, the market does not seem to get this part so well.

And it's really a shame because this really is a once-in-a-lifetime team that Norfolk has this season. You aren't going to have any more 28-game win streaks and then cruise all the way through the finals kind of scenarios again.

Sadly, until the streak, the Admirals have kind of been treated as the red-headed step child since making the jump from the ECHL to the AHL. Local news crews that actually came to home games usually stayed until the 2nd period, if that, and left, despite one of their stations being literally within walking distance of Scope. Half the time, they even got the score wrong (and even once or twice didn't even get who won the game correct). The local paper wouldn't even bother having a write up of a game, especially for road games. We would usually be lucky to get a small corner that read the score of the game, and that's about it.

Since the streak, at least, coverage has been a lot better. Interviews with the players, news crews staying for the entire game, full stories on games and even other interesting articles, so it's nice to see the team just get some exposure for once.

Yeah, I'm aware of all that. It's nice that they're on the bandwagon now. But it won't last. Especially with the forthcoming affiliation change which is just mind-blowing and disappointing.

This team is going to win a freaking championship and most likely not a single one of these players, that the fans have absolutely gone gaga over, will be around for the banner-raising or a rings ceremony next October because Norfolk won't be with the Lightning anymore.

Can you say awkward? Will be really weird raising the banner without being able to introduce any of the champions. Maybe they can arrange it to take place during a Norfolk game against Syracuse and they just bring all the ex-Admirals onto the ice.

I know, it's incredibly irritating. Even moreso because Yzerman's main argument has been that travel doesn't leave enough time for the players to practice. The team won 29 straight and is possibly about to win the Calder Cup ffs *cue Allen Iverson practice rant*

We keep trying to tell ourselves that half the roster has a legit chance to make the Lightning and wouldn't be here anyways, but it's not really helping.

If it does come to fruition, I would hope the league would be kind enough to schedule us against Syracuse for our home opener, or at least make it possible, somehow, for the team to be able to come down and see the banner being raised.

Epic playoff beard is epic.

Not even the best beard on the team

https://twitter.com/#!/JacksonsBeard/

Also, can't wait for game 1 tonight

Calder Cup begins tonight. I have Norfolk in 6 as my pick.

TV coverage:

Canada: Leafs TV (1-3, 6-7) and Sportsnet One (4-5).

Leafs TV will be available on cable systems throughout Canada as part of a free-view promotion so you'll have to figure out what channel it is and if your system has the free-view promo.


Europe and Middle East - ESPN America

USA - National TV plans for 3-7 will likely be announced soon (I'm guessing NHL Network since they have televised Calder Finals before)


Radio - NHL Home Ice channel on SiriusXM Satellite Radio (Sirius 207, XM 92)

Also on the internet via theAHL.com which has links to both the Norfolk and Toronto announcers.

Norfolk takes Game 1 over Toronto. Just three games to go for the mighty Admirals.

Game 1 not as close as the score indicates. Terrible officiating. Not just missed penalties (and all the dives and flopping called, too, for that matter), but linesman 2 feet away from the puck not being able to tell whether a puck went outside the blue line, or if it crossed the line for icing (which lovely big screen replays confirm). 10 PPs for the Marlies and still got outshot 42-24. Tic should have had the shutout though, but he let in a sofffftttteeeee

2 down, 2 to go

Well, my guess was wrong.

CBS Sports Network will be airing the rest of the Calder Cup Finals.

I'm thinking it may be a Marlies broadcast complete with their announcers...but maybe CBS is somehow sending their own. Game 3 is a feed from LeafsTV while Games 4 and 5 are SportsnetOne so that might make a difference too.

Regardless, it's a legit TV broadcast of the games instead of trying to hang in there with an iffy internet feed. Norfolk fans might still prefer the internet feed to listen to their own announcer.

Wish they had aired Games 1 and 2 as well. Looked like a great atmosphere in Norfolk from the pics and video highlights that I saw.

I saw this on SportsCenter. The craziest ending to a game I've ever seen. Norfolk runs good imo.