A quick glance through our posts would tell anyone that, not much has been written about hockey on this blog (read: nothing). This is not because we don't watch, or dislike the sport, it's simply because we don't know hockey to the extent that we know basketball (and a few other topics). That is, when I discuss the NBA, I have a good idea of what is true and what isn't, how to properly analyze a player, and break down basic plays. I cannot do those things with hockey, at least not yet. What I can do however, is examine the sport on a broad scale and point out three things that make playoff hockey unique relative to other sports.
# 1 Momentum and Seeding
Currently we have the # 8 seeded L.A. Kings up 3-0 on the # 2 St. Louis Blues in the Western semi-finals. A couple of thoughts here. I love how the NHL re-seeds teams after round one, this makes the regular season mean more in terms of rewarding teams that played well throughout the year. It ensures that the high-seeds will get the easiest (in theory) possible path to the Stanley Cup finals, while also (again, in theory) making sure that we get the best match-ups in the conference finals. Of course, the Capitals of Washington and the Kings from the city of angels made all of that a moot point by upsetting the # 2 Boston Bruins, and # 1 Vancouver Canucks respectively, a feat even more impressive when you consider that the Bruins and Canucks were last year's Stanley Cup finalists. In any other sport, it is very rare for the top seeds to be eliminated so early. In hockey, we almost had every low seed win in the first round! Only the Rangers, who were pushed to game 7, saved that from happening. Another thing that rarely happens in other sports (baseball being the only other sport) that happens (at least more regularly) in Hockey is the 3-0 series comebacks. It is at the point where, once Pittsburgh won Game 5, Philadelphia fans were legitimately scared of blowing the series. No other sport can offer that kind of drama, where no lead is safe (although the NBA did its best with the Clippers and Memphis game).
# 2 Officiating
If you've been watching the NBA playoffs, you will know what I am talking about here. The NBA has an annual tradition of ruining quality playoff games with piss-poor officiating, some phantom technical fouls, and a tendency to get super-uptight when a player celebrates a good play, or trash talks his opponent. In hockey? They let them play! I can not possibly describe how refreshing it is to watch referees let players decide games while just doing their job. If an NHL game goes to OT, you aren't getting a penalty unless you try and take someone's head off (and even then you only get 2 minutes in the box). In the NBA, one tough screen by Tyson Chandler on Lebron James almost got Chandler tossed from a game, in the NHL, they let players hash it out and step in at the end to clean-up.
# 3 Presentation
Yesterday, while watching the opening quarter of the Knicks-Heat game 3, I was treated to a 4-minute commercial. This was odd, because NBA time-outs only last a maximum of 2 minutes. "Whatever" I thought. "It was probably an accident or something". Not 2 minutes after action resumed, timeout again! But not one called by coaches, it was a mandatory 'TV' timeout that lasted another 3 minutes. The worst part is that you see the same exact commercials over and over again, before the end of it, you wind up watching as much commercial content as you do game content. At least with hockey the commercials during the period are smaller in terms of length, and we get the majority of them in-between periods. I would be very happy with a 20-minute NBA half-time, full of commercials, if it meant that I could watch the rest of the game in some peace.
There are a few more things I could mention, but these are the ones that jump out the most at me, check back tomorrow for our new podcast. Enjoy your weekend.
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