The NHL Conference Finals will start this weekend, but you won’t see any of the action on NBC. Why? Well, it seems that NBC cares more about Golf, Law & Order, and Shrek.

Saturday is Game 2 of the Sabres/Senators series. NBC will be showing Golf from 2:00-7:00, then Dateline (which is pretty much on every day now) & 2 of the many Law & Order spin-offs.

Sunday is Game 2 of the Ducks/Red Wings series. NBC will be again showing Golf from 2:00-7:00 and 2001’s Shrek at 8:00 (who hasn’t seen this 6 year old movie?)

Why does the NHL put up with this? They let NBC push them around when it’s convenient for them. NBC made the NHL completely screw up the Senators/Penguins Round 1 series by moving Game 2 in Ottawa from Friday to Saturday afternoon, even though Game 3 was Sunday night in Pittsburgh. Why? Two words: Sidney Crosby. I bet if Pittsburgh was still in the playoffs, they’d be showing that game on Saturday or Sunday.

NBC has also left themselves open to potentially having no games to air on May 19th & 20th. Now, I don’t think that either of the series will be a 4-0 sweep, but if they are - or even if one of them is - that would leave the National TV audience with one or zero hockey games for THREE weeks (there’s no games scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend)

I don’t write this as a Sabres fan, I write it as a fan of hockey. I want hockey to succeed on a National level, and for that to happen, NBC has to step up & do what they can to make that happen.