We don’t know times for the other games, but the Canes will lead off the Stanley Cup Playoffs
The NHL announced on Wednesday Night that the Stanley Cup Playoffs will begin this weekend for all eight teams in the Eastern Conference, and finally announced the times for Game 1 of each series. In it, the Canes and the Isles will be the first ones out of the chute, starting at 5 PM Saturday. The game—like all round 1 games—will be broadcast both locally on Bally’s and nationally on the ESPN/ABC/TNT/TBS combo depending on the day. Saturday will be TBS.
All eight Eastern Conference teams will begin their First Round series this upcoming weekend. Which teams will be playing when? We have you covered. #StanleyCup
More details: https://t.co/JriEhmfKwR pic.twitter.com/HkhaIYrjfx
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 17, 2024
If you’re interested in trying to figure out when the rest of the series may play out, the NHL has the entire TV schedule mapped out for Round 1.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs TV Schedule has been updated with April 26–28th windows, which includes a TBS quadruple-header on Saturday, April 27th, and more.
Click here for the full Stanley Cup Playoffs TV Schedule (which will continue to be updated): https://t.co/U8sq69To2w pic.twitter.com/vics9gKJ16
— Braylon Breeze | NHL Zone (@Zone_NHL) April 15, 2024
The hold up for the rest of the schedule is the Western Conference. While that conference has all of its teams, it doesn’t quite have all the seeding. Specifically, the Vegas Golden Knights have a tenuous hold on third place in the Pacific, with the LA Kings just one point behind and currently holding the second wild card. Nashville sits in between in the first wild card, but they don’t play while the Kings and Golden Knights do on Thursday. Thus, only one series is locked in—Winnipeg and Colorado.
Leave it to the NHL to make it to where some teams finish their season on a Monday and some don’t finish until Thursday.
The schedule linked above is a familiar one by now—a 7/7:30 window and 9:30/10 window for a couple days, then a day with just two games, and presumably the league is hoping to use that Wednesday to even out the series. With that window set it seems pretty likely Canes fans should at least plan on Game 2 being Monday Night in Raleigh, and if it’s paired with the Boston/Toronto series, they’ll get the ESPN2 7:30 spot—but trying to actually predict with the networks and the NHL will do is fruitless.
The shift the playoffs should be helpful for Canes fans in the local footprint who don’t have access to the Bally’s broadcast for one reason or another. Any game that is on a Turner station is also being streamed on the Max app, and any game that will be on ESPN will be on the ESPN app.
So, Caniacs, get your tailgates ready for a Saturday…evening…in Raleighwood.