Your Announcers and Open Thread For Night 28 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs

San Jose vs. Detroit, Game 6, 8:00 p.m. ET

National TV (US): VERSUS
Play by Play: Mike Emrick
Color: Eddie Olczyk
Inside the Glass: Pierre McGuire

National TV (Canada): TSN
Play by Play: Chris Cuthbert
Color: Ray Ferraro

TSN to Air Games 2-4 From Eastern Conference Final

Toronto, ON (May 10, 2011) – The 2011 STANLEY CUP® PLAYOFFS continue on TSN as Canada’s Sports Leader has live coverage of three games from the Eastern Conference Final series featuring the Tampa Bay Lightning taking on the Boston Bruins.

With some of the NHL’s hottest post-season players hitting the ice – including Tampa’s Martin St. Louis and Boston’s Tim Thomas – TSN’s coverage of the Third Round gets underway on Tuesday, May 17 with Game 2: Tampa Bay @ Boston at 7:30 p.m. ET (see below for complete broadcast schedule).

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Conference Final Scenarios Are Here

Enjoy them, after the jump, with full schedules.

Ratings For Night 24 of the Playoffs

Plus an updated Top 10.

Friday, May 6

6:30 p.m. Hockey Central – 251,000 viewers
7:00 p.m. San Jose vs. Detroit, Game 4 –  944,000 viewers
9:45 p.m. Philadelphia vs. Boston, Game 4 – 836,000 viewers
10:49 p.m. Hockey Central – 278,000 viewers

Top 10 Most-Watched Games of the 2011 Playoffs

 

1. Boston vs. Philadelphia, Game 2 (5/2/11) – 1,699,000 viewers
2. Tampa Bay vs. Washington, Game 2 (5/1/11) – 1,261,000 viewers
3. Philadelphia vs. Boston, Game 3 (5/4/11) – 1,234,000 viewers
4. Vancouver vs. Chicago, Game 6 (4/24/11) – 1,157,000 viewers
5. Chicago vs. Vancouver, Game 7 (4/26/11) – 1,130,000 viewers
6. Buffalo vs. Philadelphia, Game 7 (4/26/11) – 984,000 viewers
7. San Jose vs. Detroit, Game 4 (5/6/11) – 944,000 viewers
8. Buffalo vs. Philadelphia, Game 5 (4/22/11) – 931,000 viewers
9. Boston vs. Montreal, Game 7 (4/26/11) – 926,000 viewers
10. Montreal vs. Boston, Game 5 (4/23/11) – 841,000 viewers

(Source: Son of the Bronx) 

Conference Final Schedule Could Be a Mess

From Douglas Flynn of NESN:

The Lightning’s home rink, the St. Pete Times Forum, is booked from Thursday, May 19 through Sunday, May 22 for Disney on Ice Presents Toy Story 3.

And to think, Wayne Gretzky once called the New Jersey Devils a Mickey Mouse organization. What would the Great One think of the Lightning’s own building having so little faith that Tampa Bay would still be playing in late May that it booked Disney’s ice dancers for seven shows over four consecutive days?

If the Sharks and Wings need to settle things in a Game 7 on Thursday, the Bruins won’t be able to start their series until Saturday. That pushes Game 2 to Monday and the series won’t shift to Tampa until Wednesday for Game 3, with no available ice for Game 4 until the following Monday, May 23. That’s a heck of a long wait in the middle of a series, especially a series that followed a break of more than a week from the previous round.

The other option would be to squeeze in the first four games before Thursday, but playing back-to-back games on both Saturday and Sunday in Boston and Tuesday and Wednesday in Tampa is far from ideal, especially with Versus and NBC looking to alternate days between the Eastern and Western Conference finals.