On the first day of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers get the prime time treatment, while the Ottawa Senators get relegated to an afternoon game.
Hello, Canada and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland, it's hockey night in … Pennsylvania?
That's the situation that the NHL finds itself in on the first night of the playoff schedule, when Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will get the prime time slot on Hockey Night In Canada — with no Canadian games scheduled for prime time.
Blame a concert that moved one of the start dates or the scheduler-makers for having the regular season end on Thursday night, or even the Maple Leafs for failing to qualify for the playoffs. But it seems strange that there will not be a singe game featuring Canadian teams on the first — and biggest night — of the playoffs.
After all, Saturday night is supposed to be reserved for Canadian hockey fans. It's been that way since the days of Foster Hewitt and Bob Cole were calling games on CBC. The last time hockey fans were shutout from Saturday night was 20 years ago, when no Canadian team qualified for the playoffs.
Any one of them should be playing on Saturday night. Heck, all three should be scheduled for a night that is synonymous for watching hockey.
Instead, the 8 p.m game will feature Pittsburgh against Philadelphia, with nothing scheduled later in the evening for Western Canada. And if you think it's just a one-off, think again.
Next Saturday is the same thing, with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia as the only game scheduled for 8 p.m. across all networks.
There's, of course, a reason for all of this.
The Oilers played their final regular-season game on Thursday night, so they get three days off before starting their series against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday. The Canadiens should have started their first-round series against the Lightning on Saturday night, but there was a concert already scheduled at Benchmark International Arena, so Game 1 got pushed to Sunday.
Which leaves the Senators.
Ottawa is ultimately the biggest loser in all of this. With the Maple Leafs out of the playoffs and the Canadiens having to start their series on Sunday, the Senators should have received the prime time treatment. They should be playing at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, when all of Canada is in front of their televisions.
Instead, Ottawa will play Carolina at 3 p.m., with Dallas and Minnesota scheduled afterwards, before the main event of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia at prime time on Sportsnet, TVAS and ESPN.
What were the NHL schedule-makers thinking? From here, it certainly doesn't look like they were thinking about Canadian fans. Or maybe they figured hockey fans in Canada will watch whatever games are on TV.
It's a bit of a slap in the face. Not just to Canadian fans, but to Oilers fans who are hoping that Connor McDavid can take the team back to the Stanley Cup final for a third year in a row. It's a slap in the face to Canadiens fans, who just watched Nick Suzuki reach 100 points and Cole Caufield score 50 goals. And it a huge slap in the face to Senators fans, who watched their team go 15-5-3 since March 1 to secure a playoff spot, only to be relegated to a sleepy Saturday afternoon.
Next weekend, Canadian fans will get more of the same, as Game 4 in Ottawa is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, while the Canadiens and Oilers will play on Sunday, April 26.
Maybe the NHL is right. Maybe Canadian fans who are living outside of Ottawa care more about the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia rivalry than watching two small-market teams, such as the Senators and Hurricanes, play for the first time in the playoffs. Maybe Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who was also the captain of Canada's Olympic hockey team, is a bigger draw than Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, who happens to be American.
Either way, the decision to have two American teams playing on a Saturday night is another reminder of how much the networks are missing the Toronto Maple Leafs from being in the playoffs.
No question, had the Leafs been in the post-season they would be playing in prime time on Saturday night. It wouldn't matter if there was a concert already scheduled in the arena or if the team had played the night before. The NHL would move heaven and earth to ensure that the Leafs were playing at 8 p.m.
Instead, with the Leafs out, the rest of the Canadian teams are taking a backseat. And ultimately, it's Canadian hockey fans who are get the short end of the stick.
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