The Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins advanced to the NHL Stanley Cup Conference Semifinals, and on the way, both clubs did extremely well in the ratings in their local markets. In the Penguins-Islanders series, Root Sports averaged a record 21.3 rating for the six games, with a 23.3 rating in  Game 6 setting the high watermark for a first round playoff game on Root and clocking in at the third-highest rated playoff game ever on the network.

All Times Eastern

Arena Football
Orlando Predators at Philadelphia Soul -- CBS Sports Network, 7 p.m.

Australian Rules Football
Collingwood Magpies vs. Geelong Cats -- Fox Soccer Plus, 5:30 p.m.
Carlton Blues vs. Port Adelaide Power -- Fox Soccer, 11 p.m.

Boxing
Showtime Championship Boxing, Atlantic City, NJ
Jr. Welterweight Fight
Lamont Peterson vs. Lucas Martin Matthysse -- Showtime, 9:15 p.m.

All-Access: Mayweather vs. Guerrero: Epilogue -- Showtime, 9 p.m.

Current Dancing With the Stars finalist and Olympic Gold Medalist Aly Raisman got a surprise drug test when she visited the set of Access Hollywood Live yesterday. Via Yahoo:

The 18-year-old gymnast said the drop-in tests are "random," but questioned their timing, as she's about to compete in the "DWTS" Season 16 finale.

"It's the World Anti-Doping Agency. They haven't [tested me] since the Olympics, and they choose the finale week of 'Dancing with the Stars' to come!" she said. "Out of all the days since the Olympics, they choose like, the craziest week."

I understand the point of drug tests. I even understand the point of random drug tests. What I do NOT understand, is doing them live on Access Hollywood. Especially because the results take 4-6 weeks, so it's not like they can do a reveal at the end of the show. 

It seems like Raisman handled it well and has nothing to hide. But yeah. Weird.

[Yahoo]

ABC is really hurting without the benefit of the Miami Heat on their airwaves. This past weekend, ratings for the Spurs-Warriors and Knicks-Pacers games suffered sharp declines. Sunday's San Antonio-Golden State matchup drew a 3.4 rating and 5.3 million viewers, down 29% in ratings and 30% in viewers from last year's Heat-Pacers game and 36% and 40% from 2011's Lakers-Mavericks matchup. The Knicks and Pacers didn't fare any better on Saturday evening, drawing similar marks of a 3.5 rating and 5.3 million viewers, down 29% and 35% from Heat-Celtcs in 2011 (with no comparable game last year).

If you've been online in the last 24 hours, you've likely seen the news somewhere that goofy Toronto mayor Rob Ford is embroiled in a crack cocaine scandal.  Individuals are in the process of trying to sell the video of Toronto's mayor smoking crack, but Gawker and the Toronto Star have balked at the high asking price.  However, both publications have put out articles reporting to have seen the video, and confidently identifying Ford in it.

But there is one detail buried in the Gawker story that has a connection to the sports world.  Almost as a throwaway in the Ford schadenfreude, this tidbit is mentioned that links a "prominent hockey analyst" to the Toronto celebrity drug ring:

Last week, we examined how your cable and satellite bills will pay for Major League Baseball’s billion-dollar TV deals. Now let’s look at what that means for the teams themselves. How does baseball distribute your money?

We know that MLB’s new national TV contracts with ESPN, Fox, and Turner will more than double the amount of money each team received from those three networks. Where the previous contract paid teams an average of $25.53 million each per year, next year’s contract will pay teams an average of $51.67 million per year. Having an additional $26 million on hand seems useful.

Now lets take a look at the local TV deals. Much of this data was compiled by Wendy Thurm of Fangraphs, with some data from around the web filling in the gaps. Some of the numbers are rough estimates, with escalators in place for the New York Yankees (4%) and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2.5%).

NBC hockey announcer Doc Emrick is one of the best in the business.  In fact, if you go by the preferred metric around here, he is the best play by play man in sports.  One of the elements of Doc's announcing that makes him a Hall of Famer is his wide range of vocabulary use.  NBC smartly paid tribute to Doc's oral aptitude by releasing a remarkable list of all the different words Emrick used to describe the action of the puck during Game 1 of the Red Wings-Blackhawks series.  In all, Doc used over 90 (!!!) different descriptors during one hockey game...

How awesome are Green Bay Packers fans? Awesome enough to have their own reality show on cable. TBS announced at its Upfront in New York this week that it is developing an unscripted program featuring cheeseheads that will -- fittingly -- be called "Cheeseheads."

Word actually emerged last December that Packers fans were auditioning for a reality pilot, and now we have more clarity on that. And it's pretty legit. Helping develop the series is Jason Carbone, who according to CNBC has produced reality programs such as The Real World and The Bachelor.

One of the better moments captured by NFL Films this last fall was Chiefs safety Eric Berry's skittish reaction to seeing a horse on the field. As you can see below, Berry's full attention is on the horse (named Warpaint) and not the game itself.

All Times Eastern

Australian Rules Football
Essendon Bombers vs. Brisbane Lions -- Fox Soccer Plus, 11:30 p.m.

College Baseball
Illinois at Minnesota -- Big Ten Network, 3 p.m.
Indiana at Ohio State -- Big Ten Network, 6:30 p.m.
Notre Dame at Cincinnati -- CBS Sports Network, 7 p.m.
West Virginia at Oklahoma State -- Fox College Sports Atlantic, 7:30 p.m.
Texas at TCU -- Fox College Sports Central, 7:30 p.m.
St. Mary's at BYU -- BYU TV, 8 p.m.
Clemson at Florida State -- ESPNU, 8 p.m.
Cal-Irvine at Cal State-Fullerton -- ESPNU, 11 p.m.

College Softball
NCAA Division I Tournament
Austin Regional, Austin, TX
Army vs. Texas -- Longhorn Network, 7 p.m.

College Station Regional, College Station, TX
Arizona vs. Baylor -- ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.
Penn vs. Texas A&M -- ESPN2. 6 p.m.

Tempe Regional, Tempe, AZ
San Diego State vs. Georgia -- ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.
San Jose State vs. Arizona State -- ESPNU, 6 p.m.