Pat Foley, the play-by-play announcer for the Blackhawks, went off about NBC's scheduling of his team's first-round series on Thursday night.It was great. The games have been tied or one-goal games 96 percent of the time so far, but this is the third time in five games that a start time of 8:42 local was mandated. I can say with certainty: Players cannot stand these late starts. Coaches cannot stand them. Most importantly, the fans cant stand them. So as we approach midnight Eastern, again, on a work night, a school night, a simple question an 8:42 puck drop serves MORE: And then, the NBC Sports feed cut to commercial. It only mi sed one word, which Comcast SportsNet Chicago, naturally, : who? It was well-delivered, andhelpful to anyone who, uh, may have been starting to doze off. It's also a fair enough question. Teams hate late starts, as do the media covering them, and there are a lot of kids in Chicago-area schools right now who are either sleepy because they stayed up to watch the end, or . Three 8:42 Angel Felipe Jersey puck-dropsout of five isn't fair to local fans. The answer is pretty simple, though: It serves people who want to catch the relevant parts of several games each night. Risking overtime and a post-midnight ET finish isn't any dumber than increasing the odds that multiple games endat the same time. People should have the option, once one game is finished, to flip to the conclusion of another one. On the East Coast,Chicago-St. Louis had an 9:30 broadcast start because Anaheim andNashville's started at 8:00. That is good. That, during the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, is how it should always work. It isn't, though; there were still two 7 p.m. starts, in New York and Tampa. On Tuesday, there were four games: two at 7 p.m.and two at 9:30. It seems so easy 7 p.m., 7:30, 9:00, 9:30. Simple. And yet ... The other i sue Foley's rant draws attention to though it's not one we care about is NBC's practice of, when they can, using local Comcast Sportsnet feeds for somes of games on CNBC and USA. Foley is the Blackhawks' home announcer, and the only people in the country watching a feed without him on it were in St. Louis. He's great, and listening to him is a treat, but if NBC pays up and decides to a semble another corporate crew or two, most of us never hear it. So, to NBC, thanks for being cheap. Stick with that. Live on the edge.Don't worry that Turner Sports or ESPNwouldn't be caught dead doing anything of the sort. Withrespect, though, don't listen to Foley on this one. Staggered start times are cool. Just don't screw the same teams over and over. Michel Otanez Jersey