It is rare that a spoiler alert warning might be necessary in a sports section, but soon, that is likely what’s going to be happening in Toronto’s dailies.

HBO’s 24/7: Road to the Winter Classic kicks off this weekend, and features the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings as they prepare for their Jan. 1 game at Michigan Stadium, but the show’s television airing is going to be a staggered affair across the 49th parallel.

HBO will premiere it on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 10 p.m., while Sportsnet has picked up the exclusive Canadian rights, but plans to air it on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

The decision to move it is because of an obvious conflict with ratings juggernaut Hockey Night in Canada. If Sportsnet tried to simulcast, the quandary it would give fans is whether to watch real hockey — and in its four-episode run, the Leafs play twice on HNIC — or the stellar reality series that captures the behind the scenes of the teams.

Asked for a comment about their thinking, Navaid Mansuri, Vice President of Broadcast Operations & Sportsnet Programming, wrote, “Sportsnet’s programming strategy for 24/7 was developed with the Canadian hockey fan top of mind. Presenting 24/7 on Sunday night significantly reduces programming conflicts for Canadian hockey fans, allowing them to consume live game content in real time followed by experiencing NHL story-telling at its finest the following night.

“The nature of the content of 24/7 isn’t such that viewers need to watch it ‘live’ — it reveals the personalities behind the players and teams as they prepare for the NHL Winter Classic, and this is not time sensitive. It’s a win-win for the viewer.”

Unless the show is incredibly boring and nothing of note comes out of it, there are few problems with that thinking. First off is the absolute hunger for anything and everything Leafs-related in this market, and with 24/7 getting unprecedented access to the team, the rest of the media in town will cover it.

That’s exactly what happened in the show’s previous two hockey incarnations, where blogs, GIFs and memes were up online immediately after it aired. Many things in 24/7’s past have gone viral — in particular, the bizarre ramblings of former Philadelphia Flyer goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, who is now with Edmonton.

It is just not realistic in a Twitter/Deadspin world to expect hockey fans not to have the showed spoiled with a delay of a day.

Rogers is probably right in that the majority of Leaf fans are likely not on Twitter and will be fine waiting to watch it on Sundays, but the younger, tech-savvy fans who follow American hockey pundits online will likely be exposed to all sorts of commentary before fans here in Toronto will be able to see the show.

That’s not the only issue about timing with the Leafs; let’s remember that 24/7 is showing up a year late, thanks to last season’s lockout.

In that time, we’ve gone from the notoriously media-prickly-but-always-quotable Brian Burke to the much more reserved Dave Nonis. That’s the viewing equivalent of going from watching a Michael Bay explosion-fest to watching paint dry. The film crew showed up a week and half ago, and the press box rumours are that Phil Kessel looks to be in the early spotlight.

Burke was the one who often said that he would only allow 24/7 access if the Leafs got in to a Winter Classic. HBO does do a wonderful job with the beautifully shot and well-made series, to the point that it’s spawned many imitators — although plenty are in-house productions that would never actually show anything negative about a team. For instance, the Montreal Canadiens have 24CH and the Edmonton Oilers have Oil Change. It is actually is a wonder that the Leafs haven’t bothered to start one of their own.

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The other issue is, of course, the current state of the team. The wheels look to have fallen off to some extent — which, to be honest, could make it much more interesting to see what’s going on. Fans would potentially get a high-definition bird’s-eye view of the unravelling.

Whatever happens, it is sure to be must-see TV.

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