NHL Schedule: Predators and Blackhawks lead national television games

Welcome to Top Shelf TV, a preview of the week’s national NHL schedule and television listings. We comb through the schedule on NBC, NBCSN, and NHL Network to tell you which games are worth your time and which ones to skip.

This week The Mighty Scheduling Gods have thrown us a bit of curveball. While there are no doubleheaders, there are games on five of the next six days.

That’s about it for the good news. There are some really tough matchups this week, as we get another appearance from the moribund Montreal Canadiens and a definite non-rivalry on Wednesday night.

Fret not, Puck Prose readers! There’s still a gem or two as we head toward the weekend. The action starts tonight, so let’s hop to it.

Tuesday

Detroit Red Wings at Buffalo Sabres (7:30 P.M. ET/ 4:30 P.M. PT on NBCSN)

Why you should watch: If Buffalo’s Jack Eichel had come out in, say, the 2012 NHL Draft, he’d be hailed as a star. He came out in 2015 behind a guy named Connor McDavid, and the rest was history.

Eichel is fun to watch, and along with teammate Evander Kane (6-5–11 in 9 games) is carrying the Sabres offense right now.

Detroit is 4-1-1, which is not as terrible as we expected.

Skip it if: These two teams are bad.

Despite their aggressively mediocre start, the Red Wings are rotting from within. Even worse, their cap sheet is just scary moving forward. We’re entering a moribund period for Detroit’s NHL team.

The Sabres notched their second win of the season on Saturday against the Boston Bruins. For Buffalo, this was supposed to be the year they took a step forward. Despite some sterling play from their franchise center, they enter the week seventh out of eight in the Atlantic Division.

Verdict: Skip it. Catch the Eichel highlights on Instagram later.