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Here are some things for Canadian fans to enjoy over the next few days:
NHL: The Stanley Cup playoffs are here
Montreal finally clinched the last available spot with its 4-2 win over Carolina last night, sending the Canadiens back to the post-season for the first time in four years and giving Canada five entries in the 16-team bracket. In order of their place in the overall standings, Winnipeg (first), Toronto (fourth), Edmonton (ninth) and Ottawa (14th) join Montreal (17th) in the hunt for the country’s first Cup since Patrick Roy’s Habs won it in 1993.
The NHL this afternoon released the full schedule for the first round. It opens Saturday with a pair of Western Conference games as Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg hosts St. Louis at 6 p.m. ET and Colorado visits Dallas at 8:30 p.m. ET.
The first Battle of Ontario series in 21 years begins Easter Sunday at 7 p.m. ET when Atlantic Division champion Toronto hosts wild-card Ottawa. The other games that day are New Jersey at Carolina (3 p.m. ET) and Minnesota at Vegas (10 p.m. ET).
Three Canadian teams are in action Monday. Montreal opens its series against Alex Ovechkin and the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals at 7 p.m. ET before Winnipeg and St. Louis play Game 2 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Edmonton starts its fourth consecutive first-round matchup with Los Angeles at 10 p.m. ET. Game 2 of the Colorado-Dallas series is at 9:30 pm. ET.
The Battle of Florida between the Stanley Cup champion Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning doesn’t start until Tuesday night, which also features Game 2 of the Ottawa-Toronto series.
Women’s hockey: We’re headed for another Canada-U.S. title bout
At our publish time, defending champion Canada was leading overmatched Japan 5-1 in the last of the four quarterfinals today in the Czech Republic. Earlier, the United States blanked Germany 3-0, Finland clipped Sweden 3-2, and the host Czechs battered Switzerland 7-0.
The matchups for Saturday’s semifinals will be Canada vs. Finland and the U.S. vs. the Czech Republic. The start times are 9 a.m. ET and 1 p.m. ET, though it was unclear how the games would be slotted.
The final is on Sunday at noon ET, and it’s expected that archrivals Canada and the U.S. will meet there for the 23rd time in the 24 women’s world championships to date.
Canada reclaimed the world title from the Americans last year in Utica, N.Y., where unlikely hero Danielle Serdachny scored in overtime for a dramatic 6-5 victory that gave her country a 13-10 edge in the all-time tally. No other country has ever won the world championship.
Assuming it does come down to another Canada-U.S. final, expect a tight game. Six of the last seven worlds finals have been decided by one goal (five of them in overtime or a shootout) along with three straight Olympic gold-medal games (two in OT or a shootout).
Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin, whose clutch goals have decided so many big Canada-U.S. games over the years, remains a force at age 34. Going into the Japan game, Poulin led the tournament with eight points (including three goals) in four contests.
NBA: Let the (real) playoffs begin
The main 16-team playoff bracket tips off on Saturday, following the conclusion of the play-in tournament.
Last night, Miami beat Chicago and Dallas topped Sacramento in the 9 vs. 10 games to advance to the final round of the play-ins for their conference. The Heat will travel to Atlanta while the Mavericks visit Memphis on Friday night to determine who gets the No. 8 seed in their respective conference playoffs.
The Dallas-Memphis winner will open its first-round playoff series on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET against Canadian star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s top-ranked Oklahoma City Thunder. SGA is favoured to win the MVP award after leading the NBA in scoring with 32.7 points per game and powering OKC (with the help of Canadian Lu Dort’s tenacious defence) to a league-best 68-14 record. That’s the most wins by any team since Golden State won a record 73 nearly a decade ago.
Canadian star Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets begin their intriguing series against Kawhi Leonard’s Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. The Indiana Pacers, featuring key Canadian guards Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard, face two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. Feisty Canadian forward Dillon Brooks and the No. 2-seeded Houston Rockets meet Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler’s Golden State Warriors on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. ET.
If you missed Tuesday’s newsletter, here’s our look at the Canadians to watch in the NBA playoffs.
Other stuff to watch:
* The Northern Super League enjoyed a successful debut last night as a crowd of 14,000 at BC Place watched the Vancouver Rise defeat the Calgary Wild 1-0 in the inaugural match for the new Canadian women’s pro soccer league. National-team midfielder Quinn scored the NSL’s first goal on a penalty kick in the opening half. The next game is Saturday at 4 p.m. ET between the visiting Montreal Roses and AFC Toronto at BMO Field. Watch it live on CBC Gem and CBCSports.ca.
* Coming off his eighth-place finish at the Masters, Corey Conners is among the five Canadians competing at the RBC Heritage, one of the PGA Tour’s big-money “signature” events. With a total of $20 million US up for grabs, including $3.6 million to the winner, most of the tour’s top players made the trip to Harbour Town Golf Links on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island. But not Rory McIlroy, who’s taking some well-deserved time off after winning his first Masters to complete the career grand slam. Here’s an updated leaderboard.
* The figure skating season wraps up with the World Team Trophy in Tokyo, where the six countries involved — Canada, the United States, Japan, France, Italy and Georgia — each have two men’s, two women’s, one pairs and one ice dance entry. Every gold medallist from last month’s world championships in Boston is competing — that’s Americans Ilia Malinin (men’s), Alysa Liu (women’s) and Madison Chock and Evan Bates (ice dance) and Japan’s Riku Miura Ryuichi Kihara (pairs) — along with several other stars. Those include Canadians Piper Gilles and Poirier, who took silver in the ice dance at the worlds, and Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, who won the pairs world title last year. Skaters earn points for their country based on their placing, and the country with the most points wins the trophy. The last time the event took place, in 2023, Canada finished sixth. Here’s the schedule and results.
* Canada’s Olympic silver-winning beach volleyball duo of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson are competing in a Pro Tour Elite 16 event in Brazil for the second straight week. They won their first match and continue group play today at 4 p.m. ET in hopes of advancing to the knockout stage. Last week, they were eliminated in the second playoff round. You can watch women’s and men’s matches live on CBC Gem and CBCSports.ca through the finals on Sunday. Here’s the schedule and results.
