I’m not revealing a dark secret when I say that hockey is often regarded as “Canadian.” Accordingly, Americans tend to avoid the sport. My theory with Americans is that they really enjoy rooting for Americans. Put gymnastics on TV on a Saturday in April and you’ll get a (-0.8) rating. But put it on during the Olympics and everyone is a Nastia Liukin fan. During the World Cup, everyone stops what they’re doing to watch the National team. Once the world cup is over?  MLS games draw worse ratings than strong man competitions.

Hockey is no different. We rallied around the US National team during the 2010 Winter Olympics. We were pained when they lost. Some of us more than others. When the NHL regular season resumed though, we all went back to comparing hockey to Canadian bacon and Alanis Morissette.

Little did most people realize, though, that two of the best players in the NHL are not only Americans, but also play on the same team. And a team based in the most American of cities: Los Angeles, California.

The LA Kings are captained by Dustin Brown, who, if you read the previously linked bit, you’ll know was already one of my favorite players. Brown, born in Ithaca, has owned the NHL playoffs thus far. He is an all-everything player.

Between the pipes is Jonathan Quick. Quick was the third goalie on the 2010 Olympic team. He didn’t play. Come 2014, he’ll be the starter. Quick is a Connecticut kid who went to UMass and at only 26 is one of the NHL’s best goalies.

Led by Quick and Brown, the Kings have been one of the most surprisingly dominant playoff teams in recent memory. The Kings barely qualified for the playoffs. Now, as the 8^th seed in the Western Conference, they’re one game away from the Stanley Cup Finals, this after a 2-1 win last night over Phoenix. Once they close out the Coyotes (and they will) the Kings will have defeated the top 3 overall seeds in the West. To this point, they’ve played a total of 12 games in the playoffs. They’ve won 11 of them.

So why not celebrate this team as though they were our national team. They epitomize team hockey. They’re fun to watch. And their two best players happen to be from a country that eats real bacon and got rid of “Jagged Little Pill” a long time ago.

Today, someone will have to break some unfortunate news to Dwyane Wade. When the Heat guard showed up to Not-Market Square Arena in Indianapolis last night, he assumed that the Heat would be scrimmaging the Pacers for a game tonight.

As it turns out, the NBA had scheduled an actual playoff game between the two teams. With Wade scoring a total of 5 points, the Heat were unable to score more than 80 points, en route to a 19 point loss. Miami now finds itself in a 2-1 hole to a team most people assumed they would sweep. Now, the young Pacers have won two games in a row from the Heat and could realistically head back to Miami with a chance to close out the series.

That is all.

Thankfully, for the Washington Nationals, they will not have to face the Pittsburgh Pirates again this season. More importantly, they will not have to face Pirates CF Andrew McCutchen again this season.  Following last night’s 5-3 Pirates win, McCutchen brought his season line against the Nats to this: .647 avg, 4 HR, 6 RBI.

The Nats loss, combined with an Atlanta victory has the teams see-sawing again. Atlanta enters the weekend with a ½ game lead on Washington.

The Nats will begin the home leg of the Beltway Series tonight at the Navy Yard. The Orioles comes in tied with Tampa for the AL East lead. They’ll send Jake Arrieta to the hill to oppose Edwin Jackson. Game time is 7:05 on the MASNs.

Of course, the NHL and NBA playoffs will continue. All of those are “games of the weekend.”  For something a little different:

Soccer: UEFA Champions League Final: Chelsea v. Bayern Munich (Saturday, 2:30 p.m./FOX)

MLB: The Nats/Orioles series is a good one. Also look for the Braves/Rays series. This is a potential World Series matchup.  The Friday and Sunday games provide very good pitching matchups as well. Plus you can watch the games best manager and its worst go head-to-head.

A safe weekend to all. Enjoy!