This is the Weekend Watch. It’s a guide of what to watch this weekend.
Saturday: Vancouver at Boston, 1pm ET
I feel as though PHT’s sufficiently hyped this Stanley Cup rematch...but just in case we haven’t, here’s a series of links to get you amped!
Luongo to sit, Schneider to start versus Bruins
To fight back or turn the other cheek — Sedin says “it’s a no-win situation”
PHT talks Luongo or Schneider vs. Boston
Julien on Stanley Cup rematch: “I ton’t hink it’s as much as people think it is”
Stanley Cup rematch goes Saturday in Boston
Saturday: Tampa Bay at Montreal, 7pm ET
Thanks in part to a Quebecker-laden roster, the Lighting tend to put on a good show in Montreal.
There’s captain Vincent Lecavalier (Ile Blizard), associate captain Martin St. Louis (Laval), defenseman Bruno Gervais (Longueuil) and the guys with direct ties to the organization: former Habs Marc-Andre Bergeron (Saint-Louis-de-Frace) and goalie Mathieu Garon (Chandler) -- and, of course, head coach Guy Boucher (Notrea-Dame-du-Lac), former bench boss of Montreal’s AHL affiliate in Hamilton.
Saturday: Washington at San Jose, 10:30pm ET
Fun fact: The Caps haven’t won in San Jose since Oct. 30, 1993.
To give you an idea of how long ago that was...
-- The goalies were Rick Tabaracci (Washington) and Arturs Irbe (San Jose). Up until last year, Irbe served as Washington’s goalie coach.
-- Washington’s goalscorers: Peter Bondra, Mike Ridley, Craig Berube and NBC Sports Network NHL analyst Keith Jones.
-- San Jose goalscorers: Sergei Makarov and Tom Pederson.
-- Amazingly, one current NHLer actually participated in that game: Ray Whitney.
Sunday: Philadelphia at Ottawa, 5pm ET
This will be the second game of a home-and-home/back-to-back series (lots of hyphens there), which usually leads to some nastiness. Another fun fact: Did you know the Flyers and Senators are the two most-penalized teams in hockey? It’s true. Philly leads all teams with 231 total penalties, Ottawa’s right behind with 223.
Sunday: Detroit at Chicago, 7:30pm ET
Amazingly, this will only be the second meeting of the season between the two heated division rivals. (Even more amazingly, their first meeting was on Dec. 30.) Be sure to keep an eye on the officiating in this one -- last time out, Chicago had five powerplay opportunities to Detroit’s one and was awarded a penalty shot that Jonathan Toews converted to open the ‘Hawks scoring.