What to watch this weekend in sports

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There's a lot going on, so let's get right into it:

NFL playoffs

It seems that true winter weather is arriving just in time to potentially wreak havoc on the opening round. Saturday night's high-wattage matchup between Miami and defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City will be played in a barbaric minus-30 C windchill in K.C., while Pittsburgh and Buffalo could face the full Western New York trifecta of cold, wind and snow on Sunday afternoon.

Mercifully, Saturday afternoon's matchup between Cleveland and Houston and Sunday's Green Bay-Dallas and Rams-Detroit contests will be played in domes. But there's a chance of rain for the Monday nighter between Philadelphia and Tampa Bay down in Florida.

Top seeds Baltimore and San Francisco get to keep their powder dry as they enjoy first-round byes. The Ravens' biggest threats for the AFC title are No. 2 seed Buffalo, whose risk-taking superstar quarterback Josh Allen always gives his team a chance to win — or lose; and No. 3 seed Kansas City, which has an ace in the hole with Patrick Mahomes but hasn't looked the same this year amid Travis Kelce's swift decline. In the NFC, the 49ers should be most worried about No. 2 Dallas, the highest-scoring team in the league.

Hockey

With all 32 NHL teams set to play on Saturday, a pair of Canadian teams sit atop the league. Winnipeg stayed in first place overall last night by beating Chicago 2-1 for its eighth consecutive win and 31st straight game allowing three or fewer goals. Vancouver held onto second with an overtime win at Pittsburgh, its fourth victory in a row.

Edmonton remained one of the hottest teams in the league, beating Detroit in OT last night for its ninth consecutive victory — matching Florida for the longest active streak in the NHL. The Oilers will put it on the line Saturday night at Montreal.

The Professional Women's Hockey League's second weekend features a Saturday doubleheader with Ottawa vs. Toronto at 1 p.m. ET and Montreal's home opener vs. Boston at 3:30 p.m. ET. Watch both games live on the CBC TV network, CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Catch up on the PWHL's best moments of the week, including Marie-Philip Poulin's hat trick and No. 1 draft pick Taylor Heise's highlight-reel goals, in this story by the CBC's Karissa Donkin.

Tennis

The first major of the year arrives Saturday in Canadian time zones with the opening round of the Australian Open. Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime was seeded sixth in the men's tournament last year but is now down to 27th after a disappointing season. The only other Canadian singles player ranked in the top 100 is Leylah Fernandez, seeded 32nd in the women's draw.

Rounding out the group of five Canadians in the main singles brackets are Denis Shapovalov (ranked 116th after missing the second half of last season due to injury), Milos Raonic (317th after returning last June from an injury absence of nearly two years) and 182nd-ranked Rebecca Marino, who advanced to the main draw by defeating fellow Canadian Katherine Sebov in the final round of qualifying. Rob Shaw is the lone Canadian in the wheelchair divisions.

Canada's best chance for a title is in the women's doubles event, where seventh-ranked Gabriela Dabrowski enters her first full season with Erin Routliffe, an Ontario-raised player who represents New Zealand (her country of birth) internationally. They won the U.S. Open in September in just their fourth tournament together. Read more about the Canadians in the Aussie Open here.

Basketball

Coming off Thursday night's 62-point win over Portland (the fifth-largest rout in NBA history), Canadian MVP contender Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder host the improved Orlando Magic on Saturday night. SGA ranks third in the NBA in scoring with 31.4 points per game while OKC (26-11) is tied for first in the Western Conference with Minnesota.

The Toronto Raptors (15-23) wrap up their six-game road trip tonight in Utah after back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers. Coach Darko Rajakovic was fined $25K by the NBA for his angry rant against the referees following the Lakers defeat.

Summer Olympic sports

The first significant swimming meet of the Olympic year is taking place on the University of Tennessee campus, which is hosting the 2024 Pro Swim Series opener. Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh won the women's 200-metre butterfly last night and will go for another gold tonight in the 200m freestyle. McIntosh is also expected to square off with American rivals Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh in Saturday's 200m individual medley.

Other top Canadians competing in Knoxville include Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil, who's in the women's 100m butterfly final tonight, and Taylor Ruck, who's back after breaking her hand last spring. Penny Oleksiak was slated to compete for the first time since last May but was scratched from her events, fuelling worries about the seven-time Olympic medallist's readiness for this summer's Games in Paris.

Canada's men's and women's field hockey teams will try to earn Olympic berths at their last-chance qualifying tournaments, which begin this weekend. Canadian women's marathon record holder Natasha Wodak is among those trying to achieve the Olympic qualifying time Sunday in Houston.

Winter Olympic sports

The main events at the Canadian figure skating championships got underway today in Calgary with the women's short program. Madeline Schizas took the lead as she pursues her third straight national title. The dance, pairs and men's short programs are next, followed by the decisive free skates on Saturday. The results will help decide who represents Canada at the world championships in Montreal in March.

The men's alpine skiing World Cup tour is in Wengen, Switzerland for another downhill on the classic Lauberhorn piste on Saturday. On Thursday, World Cup overall leader Marco Odermatt claimed his first-ever downhill win on tour. Cyprien Sarrazin won today's super-G after fellow Frenchman (and new dad) Alexis Pinturault was airlifted to a hospital after a crash. Toronto's Jack Crawford was the top Canadian, finishing 13th.

The women's alpine circuit is in Austria for a downhill Saturday and a super-G Sunday. Canada's Val Grenier placed 11th in today's super-G.

Watch this weekend's alpine skiing and figure skating action, plus bobsleigh and luge World Cup races, live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Here's the schedule.