Rumor: ESPN screws NHL on Game 6 between Oilers and Golden Knights.

The National Hockey League has been taking a ton of flack over the past few days for scheduling Game 6 between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers, the only game on the schedule Sunday, at 7pm PST / 10pm EST. Many feel that this will limit the potential viewership of a huge game between these two teams with the game being so late on a Sunday night and with many fans having to work early the next morning.

While it might be easy to point the finger at the NHL, rumblings are now beginning to emerge about the potential responsibility of NHL broadcast partner ESPN in this entire fiasco. This report comes courtesy of Penguins reporter Dan Kingerski, who on Sunday reported rumors he had been hearing from within ESPN.

From Kingerski:

Hearing scuttlebutt from ESPN insiders that NHL asked to move the Vegas-EDM game to 8pm ET.
Hearing NHL asked ESPN to move baseball to ESPN2, but ESPN declined. Same rumor is that ESPN also declined to trade games with TNT.

For now, only a rumor inside ESPN.

Hockey fans have traditionally had a contentious relationship with ESPN for a variety of reasons, perhaps most notably their lack of NHL coverage, and if this rumor proves to be true that will likely only add fuel to that fire.

As Kingerski clearly points out however, this remains only a rumor at this time. Stay tuned for more.