NHL Playoffs: Pens/Caps schedule released, begins Thursday

UPDATE 2: The series will begin Thursday night in DC, followed by Game 2 on Saturday. Both games at 8 PM

UPDATE - The Caps PR team has issued a short tweet about this. Looks like we should know more later today.

@JapersRink @Pensburgh That is incorrect & as you mentioned not an official VC website. NHL planning on releasing the schedule later today

— Sergey Kocharov (@SergeyKocharov) April 26, 2016

Also, from Pittsburgh:

Everything I'm hearing points to Thursday night for Game 1 and Saturday night for Game 2. But not official. That would be a lot to ask.

— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) April 26, 2016

Stay tuned...

--

It's not official yet, but everything on the internet is true, right? According to the Verizon Center calendar, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals will start their 2nd round NHL playoff series with back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday.

This scheduling isn't ideal, but what can you do. Round 1 of the NFL Draft is Thursday night and the NHL probably doesn't want to make their marquee 2nd round Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin matchup to go up against such a big event, which sucks but is a reality against the NFL machine. Friday, as you can see, Verizon Center is booked with a Justin Bieber concert (who might be the new Yanni).

Again, we'll point out that the NHL (still) hasn't released the official and full schedule for Pittsburgh and Washington, but if the Verizon Center website can be trusted, it looks like we're going to have to clear our schedules this weekend for the beginning of the series.