NHL Playoffs: Yes, This League Still Has Problems Edition

Hey again. I'd like to welcome myself back from a near month long, Simmons-like hiatus from writing. Sorry to all, got mixed up with the whole finals/summer is finally here thing. Mark wrote enough for 4 people anyway so glad to see the ship isn't sinking. Anyways..

If you’re not an NHL fan, well that’s not surprising. The NHL has been in the backseat of the car that the NFL has been driving for a while now. The NBA and MLB seem to take turns in the front depending on who calls shotgun fastest, while the MLS is stuffed in the trunk. As for tennis and golf, well they seem to be drug along something like this.

As an NHL fan myself, I cheer not only for the Blues but the league to do well. I wanna see game highlights on espn and amazing goals in the top 10. I want the league to generate revenue, expand, gain interest and become basically what the NFL is now.

But watching these 2011 playoffs only reminds me of how incapable the NHL seems to be.

I can hear you now… Wait what? Incapable? Did that sentence even make sense? What do you mean incapable? I mean the NHL is incapable, of well many things. But like these playoffs, it’s mostly incapable of being consistent.

Now to clarify, I am of the opinion that the NHL playoffs are the greatest playoffs of any sport. The physicality, speed, and intensity are unmatched in any other athletic competition.

So looking back at the playoffs, we review round one. The playoffs started with a bang, there were storylines galore: Ovechkin’s Capitals cruised through round one, was this finally their year? The Flyers and their nonexistent goaltending survived a 7 game series vs. Buffalo and their complete reliance on goaltending. The bitter rivalry of Montreal vs. Boston took 7 games but the better Bruins prevailed. The Lighting came from down 3-1 to defeat the Crosby/Malkin-less Penguins in 7. The Canucks clung to dear life, fending off a 3-0 comeback from the cheating Blackhawks who shouldn’t have even been in the playoffs in the first place. (I don’t apologize for my biasness) The Sharks beat a tough Kings team in the California series. The Red Wings (average player age = 67.4 yrs old) swept the feeble Coyotes, beating them two straight years in the first round. And the Predators beat the Ducks for their first series victory in team history.

What a round it was. Overall there were 14 overtime games, many of them going into a second OT, and 25 games decided by one goal (many others being one goal games ultimately ruined by empty netters). Of the 8 series, 4 of them went to a game 7!

You couldn’t ask for a better start to the postseason, especially with the NBA having such a lackluster beginning (minus the Grizzlies upsetting the Spurs). So now we move to round 2 full steam ahead, only for what to happen? This. The Capitals and Flyers got swept, the Canucks never were in doubt, and the only 7 game series was chalked up to the Sharks doing their best attempt at choking the series away as usual. What a disappointment. This was the leagues chance to gain attention and showcase some of the best/most intense hockey it has to offer, only for the series ending up as complete duds.

So now what? We move on to round 3 hoping its better than round 2. And it was, but wasn’t everything it could have been. The Sharks folded and played some soft hockey against the Canucks, falling short of the Finals yet again. What took them so long? However, at least the Bruins vs. Lightning series ended up as a doosy. The Lighting’s star power fell short to the Bruins grit in a fantastic 7 game series that was close throughout. Leaving us with a Finals matchup between the Canucks and Bruins.

So back to this incapable business. The NHL was incapable of bringing a consistently great playoffs in 2011, so what? So I’m left wondering where the league goes now, just as I wonder where the final series goes now.

The league has been capable of developing excellent all-star games (in my opinion that is) with great events. Everything from the rookie game to skills competition and actual all-star game have been fun, exciting, and very fan friendly. The NHL was even willing to take a risk with the new “pick teams like at recess” format, something other leagues (I’m lookin at you baseball) have been too timid to attempt.

The league has been capable of bringing the U.S. the winter classic. An event that I’m not sure anyone predicted to become as big as it is now. It’s become the event to watch on New Years Day with the biggest and best matchups between the biggest and best superstars. It’s ratings have skied throughout the years and is becoming the signature event of the NHL.

The league has been capable of reaching tv ratings past those of the pre-lockout era as of last season. Showing their ability to recapture fans hearts and bring new ones to the sport after a devastating seasonless blow.

However with all the NHL has been capable of doing, it seems to be incapable of harnessing the forward progress.

They have been incapable of marketing allstars such as Ovechkin, or Crosby.

They have been incapable of avoiding the black plague of head shots/concussions. Just look at the chaos the Chara hit on Pacioretty caused. People were accusing Chara of knowing exactly what he was doing leading Pacioretty’s head into the stanchion, calling him the dirtiest player in the league. Heck, the Montreal police even started a criminal investigation to see if there were grounds for prosecution. Yet the league let him go with no suspension. One of about 493 other sketchy judgment calls on discipline in the NHL. There was no decided punishment for illegal hits, the suspensions seemed to be randomly dispersed. Wait, never mind they weren’t completely random; I’ve found the official NHL discipline scale here.

Although lastly, and maybe the cause for most concern, they’ve been incapable of taking advantage of the great momentum the Olympics created. Remember the 2010 winter Olympics? Forget about the whole botched ceremony and awkward Gretzky moment; think about how unbelievable those two USA vs. Canada games were. Think of how the U.S. gave the entire country of Canada an ulcer when they won the first game, and how they gave Canada a run for their money in the final. If it weren’t for a lucky weird angle goal from whiny Crosby, USA could have pulled out an unreal upset in Vancouver. But never mind the fact that we lost. The tv ratings for those games were ridiculous. Americans were watching hockey and were darn excited about it. So what happened? Nothing. The Olympics ended and so did the average Americans interest in hockey. They weren’t interested in hockey; they were interested in the USA. They were interested in their country beating their northern nemesis. Unfortunately the NHL couldn’t capture that passion, bottle it up and open it again for the season.

So here we are again, same old same old with the NHL. One promising thing leads to a downer. What are we gonna get with these finals?