Each Monday throughout the 2023-24 NHL season, NHL.com will provide fans with a guide of games that will be nationally televised that week. Today, a look at games for the 22nd week of the season.
In total, 19 games will be carried nationally by ABC, ESPN, TNT, SN and/or TVAS. The St. Louis Blues against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Tuesday, carried by HULU and ESPN+, leads a nine-game schedule and the three-quarter pole of the regular season.
The 2024 NHL Trade Deadline is 3 p.m. on Friday. The next day is the second "NHL Big City Greens Classic" featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Boston Bruins, the second game of a doubleheader on ABC with the animated telecast presented on ESPN+, Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney+.
TNT has the Buffalo Sabres visiting the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. Its Sunday afternoon schedule continues with the Penguins hosting the Edmonton Oilers and the Nashville Predators at the Minnesota Wild.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6
Buffalo Sabres at Toronto Maple Leafs (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, TNT, MAX): The opening of a TNT doubleheader with Sabres forward Tage Thompson and Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews, each having ties to the Phoenix metropolitan area. Thompson was born in "The Valley" around the time his father, retired NHL forward Brent Thompson, played for the Phoenix Coyotes and Phoenix of the International Hockey League. Matthews is a native of San Ramon, California, and his family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, when he was an infant. He's seven goals from scoring 60 for the second time in the NHL (2021-22), a feat not yet achieved by anyone born in the United States. He has 17 points (10 goals, 17 assists) in 14 head-to-head games against Thompson, who has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 14 NHL games versus Matthews.
Detroit Red Wings at Colorado Avalanche (9:30 p.m. ET; MAX, TNT, ALT, SN360): The Red Wings (33-22-6) hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They've held a postseason position for 50 consecutive days and hope to end a seven-season playoff drought, their longest in the NHL expansion era (beginning in 1967-68) since seven in a row from 1970-71 to 1976-77.
The Avalanche (37-20-5) are third in the Central Division and close to their seventh straight playoff berth, the second-longest in Colorado/Quebec Nordiques history. They enjoyed an 11-season run from 1994-95 to 2005-06, when they won the Stanley Cup twice (1996, 2001).
Nathan MacKinnon (101 points; 37 goals, 64 assists) is 10 points from tying his NHL career high set last season. He's four behind the League leader, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov, and can become the second player in franchise history to win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL points leader (Peter Forsberg in 2002-03). He starts the week with a 29-game home point streak, second-longest in NHL history from the start of a season behind Wayne Gretzky's 40 games for the duration of 1988-89.
SATURDAY, MARCH 9
Pittsburgh Penguins at Boston Bruins (3 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, TVAS): Sidney Crosby and the Penguins visit David Pastrnak and the Bruins to conclude a doubleheader on ABC, coinciding with the NHL celebrating Hockey Day in Czechia in Pastrnak's home country.
Crosby is 12th in NHL history with 1,565 points, approaching Bruins legends Ray Bourque (11th; 1,579) and Phil Esposito (10th; 1,590). Pastrnak is two goals from 40 for the third consecutive season and fourth time in the NHL. He's three points from back-to-back 90-point seasons, accomplished by two Boston skaters in the past 40 years (Adam Oates, 1992-93 and 1993-94; Cam Neely, 1989-90 and 1990-91).
The game is also the second "NHL Big City Greens Classic," a live, animated telecast airing on ESPN+, Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney+ that will feature real-time, virtually recreated animation of NHL players and teams modeled after characters on Disney Channel's hit series. Commentators Drew Carter, Kevin Weekes and Arda Ocal will wear virtual reality headsets for motion capture to immerse them into the animated environment of Times Circle. Each intermission will have an animated skills competition between the characters.
