It's not that I don't like the NBA or what it offers. I'm a fan of the Portland Trail Blazers and of course I'm checking in on their games and seeing how they're going. But if I have to choose between watching a Trail Blazers game or watching my favorite hockey team, the Chicago Blackhawks, play then I'm going hockey every time during the playoffs. To me, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are infinitely better than the NBA Playoffs due to these three reasons (three is a good number so that is why I'm going with three).
1) The Playoff Beard: There is no greater tradition in sports than that of hockey players growing out their beard until they are eliminated from the playoffs. By the time the Stanley Cup Finals begin, all you see are a bunch of mangy, unkempt beards that look incredibly manly. You also get to learn more about the players, such as "how does NHL player x grow facial hair? Is it spotty is some places? How quickly does their facial hair grow? Can they grow a full, bushy beard?" I mean, there is so much to learn by a man's beard!!!
2) The Competition: The NHL has not been immune to dynasties (see Red Wings, Detroit) but there is still plenty to be excited about if your team even gets into the playoffs. For example, if we look at the NBA this year, there are really only three or four true title contenders and only one of them, The Cleveland Cavaliers featuring LeBron James (They are no longer "the LeBron's" but rather the Cavaliers featuring LeBron) that everyone agrees will win the title. In the NHL, all eight series started off 1-1 and there are two upsets that are about to occur in the East. While in the West there are three series that are at 2-2 and hopefully there will be a fourth in the West when Chicago beats Nashville tonight. The NBA has all four series in the East headed for either a sweep or five game resolution with no upsets. The West is the exception with three series at 1-1 although only one of the two games in those series was exciting and the other was a blowout (except for the battle between Denver and Utah that was exciting in both games and has white people all sorts of riled up in their mountainous suburbs). In the NHL every team has a chance of beating another in a series and it truly messes up people's picks for who will win the Stanley Cup. You also see games that go into overtime with regularity and there is nothing more exciting than overtime playoff hockey where the next goal wins the game and possibly the series. The intensity in those games is palpable and the body checks and fights are twice as exciting to watch. The Stanley Cup Playoffs feel like a life and death affair in every game, as opposed to every seventh game in the NBA.
3) The trophy: There is no greater trophy in sports than the Stanley Cup. The MLB, NFL, and NBA can not come close to the trophy tradition of the NHL. Watching each member of the winning team pick up the trophy and skate around the rink hoisting it above their head and showing everyone in the building that they have finally climbed to the NHL mountaintop is a great moment to watch and one that I look forward to every year (granted that it doesn't involve the Red Wings, Penguins or Blues because those teams can eat a bag of dicks). Plus, you get your name etched into the trophy for eternity and people will know your name as the name of a champion every time they look at the cup. Finally, each player on the team gets to spend a day during the off season with the cup in their hometown and do whatever they want to do with it. Do you hear that kind of stuff regarding the Larry O'Brien trophy? Did you even know that the NBA trophy was called the Larry O'Brien trophy? Exactly. Stanley Cup for the win!
So there are three reasons that I have presented. I am fully aware of the rebuttals that will be posted such as "Hockey is a Canadian sport and Canada sucks so therefore hockey sucks." Or "No one cares about hockey which means it can't be better." Well, I don't care. The NHL playoffs are the best playoffs in the spring and in professional sports in my humble opinion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Easy argument, especially considering the NBA playoffs aren't that exciting, even when not comparing them to another sport. I mean, when the college version of a playoff is more heavily followed, televised, and publicized, then you know that the professional equivilent just isn't that exciting to begin with, hence March Madness versus NBA playoffs.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, NHL = much more exciting. Amen Rene.