Catching Up on the Playoffs

Both the NHL and NBA playoffs are in full gear now and while we can start to see who may prevail in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I think the first round in the NBA is scheduled to end sometime around Memorial Day. In all seriousness, I know the NBA spreads its games out for national TV purposes but come on now…nearly three weeks for the first round to be played out is ridiculous. David Stern and his office need to come up with a better plan for this schedule. Why not use staggered start times like the NHL or NCAA tournament does so that TNT or whoever is covering that night’s games could air the fourth quarter of every game if it is close? There is no way that the Magic-Hawks game on NBATV last night was watched by many households outside of Orlando or Atlanta. Why in the world did they need three days between games one and two? I consider Stern the best commissioner in sports but he needs to shorten the amount of time this first round stretches to keep fans interested and to get to the more juicy match-ups in the later rounds.

Now that we got today’s rant out of the way, here are some other thoughts from around the NBA and NHL playoffs:

NHL

• The Penguins lead their series with the Lighting 2-1 heading into game four tonight despite having the worst special teams play amongst all playoff teams so far. The Pens are 0-15 on the power play and their penalty kill has given up 4 goals on 11 tries (63.7% kill rate), both good for last among the teams still playing. If the Penguins want to continue playing, they better find a way to even this disadvantage out in a hurry.

• There really have been no surprises so far in the NHL playoffs. The only higher seeded teams to trail in their series right now are Anaheim and Boston who are both down 2- 1. Being that these two series were looked at as the most even coming in neither comes as a big surprise and both favorites have plenty of opportunity to come back. The other perceived evenly matched series between Buffalo and Philadelphia has also been close and the difference in Philadelphia’s two games to one lead was inserting backup goalie Brian Boucher in net in the middle of game two. Boucher led the comeback in game two and was the starter in the Flyers’ game three win. All three of these series could easily come down to a game seven.

• Detroit and Vancouver look like the class of the Western Conference, ignoring the Canucks beating last night at the hands of the Blackhawks in what I saw as the defending champions’ last gasp. Detroit goes for the sweep tonight in Phoenix and the Canucks should close out Chicago on home ice tomorrow. If the two should meet in the conference finals it should be an unbelievable series. San Jose was my pick to come out of the Western Conference and the Sharks are up 2-1 on the Kings but they needed overtime in both of their victories and have not inspired a ton of confidence the way they have played against a depleted Los Angeles team.

• If we could skip ahead for a moment and assume the Penguins get past Tampa Bay, - I know, a big assumption right now and a terrible jinx on the Pens! - I think Pens’ fans should be pulling for Philadelphia and Montreal to win their respective series. That would set up the Penguins to play the Flyers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, a series the Penguins could win with or without the return of their captain. I would much rather see Philadelphia and their goaltending situation (not to mention a team that the Pens have owned in the playoffs) than go up against either the Canadiens or the Capitals in the next round. Let’s allow those two teams to beat up on each other for a couple of weeks and have the Penguins take on the winner in the Eastern Conference Finals.

NBA

• In stark contrast to the NHL playoffs, the NBA has been chalk full of surprises with three heavy underdogs taking game one on the road and the other five giving the higher seeded team everything they could handle. While all five home teams have won their game two so far, the Celtics, Mavericks, Bulls and Magic were all put to the test before ultimately pulling out home victories. Only the Heat have shown any semblance of being the vastly superior team in their series. Three more game twos take place tonight with, and this is weird to type, both the Spurs and Lakers trying to even up their respective series.

• The biggest shock among the game one upsets was the Lakers losing at Staples Center against a Hornets team that could more accurately be called “Chris Paul and a bunch of nobodies”. New Orleans’ second best player, David West, is out for the year with a torn ACL and the Hornets relied heavily on Aaron Gray in the post. Yes, that is the same Aaron Gray that some Pitt fans are still wondering if he can even dunk. Paul is an unbelievable player and hopefully those that so quickly wanted to anoint Derrick Rose the best point guard in basketball witnessed Paul’s 33 points - 14 assists- 7 rebounds - 4 steals effort on Sunday but there is really no excuse the Lakers could have for losing this game. An overwhelming favorite to come out of the West for a chance at another three-peat, the Lakers proved that they are more vulnerable than many of us may have thought. I think the loss also opened the eyes of the rest of the Western Conference that this thing really is up for grabs.

• The team that could really be licking their chops is the Oklahoma City Thunder. I know I mentioned them as a dark horse in my playoff preview but nobody else in the Western Conference has the personnel to match-up with either Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook. The Nuggets and their 10-deep rotation are going to give the Thunder everything they can handle in round one but ultimately I think we end up with a tremendous Western Conference Finals between Ok City and L.A.

• In the East we are still tracking for a fantastic final four of Chicago, Miami, Boston and Orlando. Although, as I said earlier, only the Heat have shown even a glimpse of their tremendous potential through the early parts of round one. It is just a shame that we have to wait another two weeks until the playoffs can really begin in the Eastern Conference in all likelihood.