By Joe Haggerty
CSNNE.com
BOSTONThe Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning will begin the Eastern Conference finals Saturday night at TD Garden.
The Vancouver Canucks and the winner of the San JoseDetroit series won't start the Western Conference finals until Sunday night due to a System of a Down concert and a Sears Stars on Ice show later this week at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. By starting BostonTampa Bay on Saturday instead of Thursday, the NHL avoids the two conference finals being staggered by three days and two games. (If they'd started Thursday, the Bruins and Lightning would have played Game 2 on Saturday . . . meaning they'd have already played twice before the Western teams had played once.)
The "Toy Story 3" ice show will be at the St. Pete Times Forum from May 19-22, but Games 3 and 4 will still be played there during that time.
The schedule:GAMEDATE
SITE
TIME
1
Saturday, May 14
Boston
8 p.m.
2
Tuesday, May 17
Boston
8 p.m.
3
Thursday, May 19
Tampa
8 p.m.
4
Saturday, May 21
Tampa1:30 p.m.
5
Monday, May 23
Boston
8 p.m.
6
Wednesday, May 25
Tampa
8 p.m.
7
Friday, May 27
Boston
8 p.m.
-- if necessary.All games will be televised on VERSUS except Game 4, which will be televised on NBC.Joe Haggerty can be reached at jhaggerty@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http:twitter.comHackswithHaggs