When the NHL schedule for the first day of the regular season came out, which included multiple contests, many hockey fans were confused about the start time for one of its games.
The Seattle Kraken kicked things off with a home game against the St. Louis Blues, with an odd 1:30 pm PT/4:30 pm ET start time. Given that it was both a weekday and not any sort of holiday, it didn’t really seem to make much sense why the league would schedule a Tuesday tripleheader to start the year.
Turns out, the odd start times worked out perfectly for one Ray Ferraro.
Ferraro, the longtime NHL journeyman and current broadcaster, had quite a busy day to start the 2024-25 season.
First, he was on the broadcast for Kraken-Blues, but his day was just beginning.
Shortly after the buzzer went in Seattle, he was on the plane over to Salt Lake City, Utah, to catch the newest NHL team’s historic first game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
At 4:49 pm PT, Ferraro posted a plane selfie from the ground in Seattle. Multiple projections put the flight time from the two spots at around 90 minutes to two hours, giving Ferraro not much wiggle room to make the second game of the day.
Game 1 in the books..On to Salt Lake for the opener @utahhockeyclub pic.twitter.com/m3ek8g0VbB
— Ray Ferraro (@rayferraro21) October 8, 2024
And while he was probably sweating a little on the ride in from the airport, Ferraro posted that he’d arrived at the Delta Center in Utah at 7:08 pm PT, just in time for puck drop.
Annnd, made it! Let’s go!! @utahhockeyclub debut pic.twitter.com/yQIagJ3bR7
— Ray Ferraro (@rayferraro21) October 9, 2024
The idea appeared to have come from Ferraro himself.
“It came out of an offhanded conversation at lunch one day that, ‘hey, that would be neat to do two games on the first day,’ and the good folks put it together at ESPN,” Ferraro said on a media call, as per Davy Jones’ Locker Room. “Logistics are not my strong suit.”
Ferraro, who will also be working at least 22 Vancouver Canucks games this season for Sportsnet, will probably hope that his employers give him a bit more of a break every so often.
But for someone who seems to be enjoying every second of his job, there’s a good chance Ferraro will never forget his start to the 2024-25 campaign.
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