NEW YORK—NBC officials announced Tuesday that the new Friday Nights Lights spin-off Saturday Morning Ice will follow an underfunded Dillon Panthers hockey team that is ignored by the football-obsessed Texas town as it struggles to practice without a rink. "We have an attractive ensemble cast, plenty of brooding, and some familiar faces—like Lyla Garrity, who has a locker just three down from starting left winger Josh Porter," said NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman. "Eric Taylor's role as Dillon athletic director will be explored in the pilot as he locks eyes with his pest of a hockey coach, who quits after complaining that the only equipment his program has is a deflated ball the girls' soccer team didn't want." Silverman promised numerous uplifting dramatic moments in the series, such as when Eric Taylor personally drives the hockey team to Play It Again Sports to look for usable pucks, and later when Taylor forces the misbehaving football players to build a hockey rink in the school's basement.