A Sports Filled Weekend Ahead

The interminable regular seasons of hockey and basketball are over, and we’re now into the interminable playoffs. Well, we need something to watch and this is our destiny until June.

The National Hockey League’s postseason fun got underway on Wednesday night and continues through the weekend. So, as they say in French, mettez votre extrémité arrière dans une chaise – roughly equivalent to our weekly exhortation to put your heiner in the recliner. Your Weekend TV Six-Pack awaits.

The puck starts here on Friday night with the New York Rangers, up 1-0 on the Montreal Canadiens, looking to steal Game 2 on the road. USA shows this at 7 p.m. ET, though you can opt for the Columbus Blue Jackets-Pittsburgh Penguins at the same time on the NHL Network.

Saturday night brings Game 2 of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Washington Capitals series. The Caps took the opener 3-2 in overtime. NBC Sports Network will present this game at 7 p.m.

The NBA playoffs tip off on Saturday with four games. We’ll suggest the Memphis Grizzlies-San Antonio Spurs matchup at 8 p.m. on ESPN. The Spurs enter the playoffs on a three-game losing streak.

Sunday also features four games. We’ll go with the Oklahoma City Thunder-Houston Rockets contest at 9 p.m. on TNT. The Rockets generally have a tough time getting out of the first round of the playoffs, but this should be fun with Houston’s James Harden and OKC’s Russell Westbrook trading baskets.

Starved for football? Ohio State University’s spring game will be televised by the Big Ten Network on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Hey, it’s something involving a football. We do what we can here.

Can’t have a weekend without baseball. Rites of spring, blah blah blah. The St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees meet on Sunday night at 8 p.m., and we too are shocked to find the Yankees on TV on a Sunday night.

Enjoy. It’s the least you can do (and we strongly advocate doing the least you can do on a weekend).
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman