Playoff & World Championship Nightlies 5/12/17

Good evening sports fans. A solid night of playoff hockey for us includes the opening of the Western Conference Championship series in both the NHL and ECHL. After a light day in the IIHF Worlds, things get big tomorrow morning with the US and Russia back in action.

NHL

9pm ET - Nashville at Anaheim on NBCSN, game 1

Boy, this seems like a tough pick to root for. Maybe not. After dispatching the Bloos in an unwatchable Divisional Championship series it would be nice to see the Preds back to playing interesting hockey again. The goony Ducks exorcised their game 7 demons vs Edmonton and now look to get back to the Cup Finals for the first time in a decade. This should be a showcase of two of the best young defenses in the league, BAM.

ECHL

7:30pm ET - Colorado at Toledo on ECHL Live, game 1

The beloved Eagles are in Toledo to face the regular season champ Walleye. Colorado is undefeated so far on the road and the Walleye haven’t lost at home. Leading ECHL scorer Alex Belzile returns from suspension but the key to this series might be discipline. Toledo has 12 PPGs in 45 chances, averaging one per game. Just for fun this is also the Avs affiliate vs the wingys affiliate.

IIHF Worlds

6:15am ET Saturday - Team USA vs Latvia on NBCSN

Later in the day we’ll have Russia and newly signed Andrei Mironov playing at 10:15am and Team Canada plays at 2:15.