As per usual, round one of the NHL Playoffs was awesome. Two straight weeks of nightly hockey, usually with a double or triple header. It is, in my opinion, pretty much the best thing in sports. There were some upsets, there was some (rather annoying) controversy, and best of all, there were even some great games.
Last night, with three game sevens, it was one of the best nights of the season, I don't care who you cheer for. Certainly the Coyotes were nowhere to be found, but I still had a great night.
Except for one thing: My cable provider is shitty. Rogers Cable, who owns half of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and to whom I pay over $250 per month for services, including a "super sports pack" which is supposed to give me access to every NHL, NBA, MLB, OHL, and NFL game, is the worst.
The reason I bring this up is because last night's Rangers/Philly game was on TSN 2 because the Raptors/Nets game was on the main channel. So, Bell (who owns the other half of the Leafs) owns TSN, meaning that you can't just order TSN 2 from Rogers, but instead need to get it in a package, which costs another $40. So, even though I have a $250 monthly bill and pay for every NHL game, I didn't get to watch game seven and instead had to watch Basketball while I waited for the two late games.
So I don't know, the Rangers game was probably good, I woulda liked to have seen it, that much I know. I also was hoping the Flyers would win, but NYR has superior goal-tending and the Flyers are still pretty weak on the back-end.
The Sharks? Man I wish I knew what to say about that team. I honestly feel it's just kind of one of those situations where someone in the league has to be super-unlucky and it happens to be the Sharks. I just do not believe that a team of that much talent and with several hall-of-fame players, is actually, in real life, so prone to choking. I think it just seems that way, 85% of this game is based on luck anyways. Maybe I am wrong. I don't know. But as a fan of the Coyotes and Leafs, I certainly can relate.
For me the most surprising thing about round one was the Minnesota Wild. I thought the Avalanche were going to destroy them, and even if the refs looked like they were trying to help that happen, the Wild - using God knows how many goalies this year - are going to the second round. I have seen stranger things happen, but I don't think they are going to fare well against the Hawks, who just look like a super-stacked, possibly unbeatable team.
Speaking of Chicago, this brings me to my biggest concern: this new playoff format is weak. I get that the idea was to have divisional teams build rivalries by facing off more frequently in the playoffs, but I think there is a problem with the idea. Basically, the point of the playoffs should be to find out who is the best team, but with 2 playing 3, instead of the traditional 1-8,2-7,3-6,4-5 match-ups we saw some tough first round series- specifically St.Louis/Chicago and NYR/Philly.
My concern is that there is already a lot of variance in a seven game series, and if you really want the 82 game regular season to be meaningful and hopefully reward the best team with the Cup, this new way of doing things is rather dumb. Why should two of the best teams in the regular season - Chicago and St.Louis - have to face each other in the first round? Either team would have preferred almost anyone else, and despite Anaheim finishing first, and Colorado second, I don't think anyone really believes either team is better than the Blues or Hawks.
All I am saying is that if you match up two of your best teams in the first round - which is what will continue to happen as long as this system is in place - you are never going to be awarding the Cup to the actual best team in hockey and that this detracts from the value of the 82 game schedule.
If the NHL wanted the best teams to have the best chance of winning and actually reward franchise building and not dumb luck - they would rank the teams 1-16 for playoff seeding. Anyways, it's just a thought because I hate to see probably the best match-up of the playoffs in the first round.
Amazing series though, and I really think people should lay off the Blues - calling for them to make roster changes or firing Hitchcock etc. The team finished fourth in the NHL despite a six game losing streak to end the year and got put out by the modern equivalent of a dynasty team. No shame there.
Bottom line: The first round was great, every series was entertaining and the only real drawback, besides relatively minor problems like TV scheduling and the way the NHL tracks its standings and determines playoff seeding, was people complaining about the referees and Matt Cooke. Both of which are not so bad!
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