Bloggers' Roundtable: Best Second Round NHL Series

This weekend marks the official beginning of the second round of the NHL postseason. Due to the rules change, this year's second round matchup features exclusively division match-ups. The New York Rangers v. the Pittsburgh Penguins or the NHL's biggest market vs. the league's biggest star. The Anaheim Ducks v. the Los Angeles Kings or the NHL's Freeway Series. The Chicago Blackhawks v. the Minnesota Wild or the defending Stanley Cup Champ vs. the only 4 seed remaining. Lastly, the Montreal Canadiens v. the Boston Bruins or an Original Six Matchup who have met more than any other two teams in playoff history.

With such competitive match-ups and interesting narratives in each series,  this week we asked our bloggers which second round NHL series they were most excited for.

Max Fogle, Editor-in-Chief - Boston Bruins v. Montreal Canadiens

This matchup is really has everything that people who overhype hockey match-ups are looking for: "Original Six", "Hockey's best rivalry", and the whole "Canada's team" angle. I don't know how much I buy into any of that, but this should be a great series, with the Canadiens being significant underdogs and the Bruins finishing with the East's best regular season record. Both fan bases hate each other, and feel extremely entitled. This one could get ugly.

Stephen Dreznick, Featured Blogger - New York Rangers v. Pittsburgh Penguins

I am most excited for the matchup between the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Rangers just came off of an emotional game 7 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers. But goalie Henrik Lundqvist will have his hands full because the Penguins have Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, two of the best scorers in the game. Expect this series to go 6 or 7 games.

Matthew Hakiman, Featured Blogger - Anaheim Ducks v. Los Angeles Kings

Anaheim Ducks v. Los Angeles Kings - the Kings are red hot coming back from a 3-0 deficit to take the series their series against the San Jose Sharks. Just two years ago, the Kings won the Cup by getting hot at the right time as the eighth seed. The Ducks have been considered by many to be the most consistent team in the West this season, but they'll have a tough time trying to get shots by Jonathan Quick. Already one of the biggest rivalries in the league, these two teams will definitely play an exciting series.

Geoffery Rosenthal, Former Editor-in-Chief - Boston Bruins v. Montreal Canadiens

Bruins-Habs is the obvious answer here. That series will be everything that the playoffs are meant to be about - great hockey, great goaltending, hatred between fan bases, and a historic and current day rivalry. Of course, if you're a fan of the trap system, clutching and grabbing, and watching players who end the careers of others, look no further than the Minnesota series. Because when I think of watching exciting, wide-open hockey, I think of Minnesota.

NBA Preview "And One" Playoff Predictions

This is Part II in a two-part series previewing the National Basketball Association season on Sports Business Society's Tipoff Week.  To read Part I, click here. 

All the questions I asked before were mostly human interest.  Now for the question that really matters:

Which teams will complete the playoff picture in each league?

As the season approaches, there appears to be a block of teams in each league we can pencil in as playoff participants without much argument. In the Western Conference, the six seemingly shoo-ins are, (in no particular order) The Rockets, Spurs, Thunder, Warriors, Clippers and Grizzlies. In the East, the teams that will stand atop the standings (again in no particular order) are The Knicks, Heat, Nets, Pacers and Bulls. The last two western conference playoff spots will come down to a battle between Denver, Dallas, Portland and Minnesota.

Sorry Lakers fans  despite Kobe's objections the purple and gold will not be in the playoff hunt. Look on the bright side, next year’s lottery will provide you with a potential successor to the Mamba.

 This past summer the Nuggets lost their coach, G.M. and most prized free agent. However, their acquisitions of J.J. Hickson, Randy Foye and Nate Robinson will sure up their bench, make up for the lost production brought about by Igoudala’s departure and keep the Nuggets’ fast-paced attack relevant until the end of the regular season.

Mark Cuban and company took on the hair pulling frustration that comes with a team lead by the Mississippi Missile, Monta Ellis. Ellis’ inconsistent play and poor shooting percentage historically leads to losing seasons. What Big-D can hang their cowboy hats on this year is that their offense will run through Dirk, Monta will simply provide the secondary scoring option that they’ve lacked in the past few years. What separates the Mavs from the West’s contenders stems from their complete and utter lack of frontcourt depth. Nominees for their best non-Dirk big-man include; Samuel Dalembert, DeJuan Blair and Brandon Wright...Need I say more?

Last season the Blazers’ had one of the NBA’s most competitive starting fives. Unfortunately for them, their bench was the worst in the league, by a lot. Their bench scored 25% fewer points than the next least productive bench. Luckily for the fans in Rip City, they brought in Thomas Robinson, Dorell Wright and Mo Williams, amongst others, to sure up their bench and keep them in the post-season hunt.

The Timberwolves, when healthy, can play with most anyone in the NBA. Adding Kevin Martin to the potentially dominant trio of Rubio, Love and Pekovic provides them with a starting five to be reckoned with. The T-Wolves also have two players on the NBA’s all-name team, Alexey Shved and Gorgui Dieng. If they remain healthy then they have as good a chance as any to make the playoffs.

 In the East the discrepancy between the fifth and sixth seeds, is larger than that of the Ben Stiller led movies Zoolander and Envy. The illustrious four teams vying for the final three spots include Detroit, Cleveland, Washington and Milwaukee.

Of these teams, the Pistons arguably had the best summer. The acquisitions of two of the league’s best lefties (J. Smith and B. Jennings) as well as one Mr. Big Shot, thrust them into a playoff or bust mindset. The NBA’s biggest floppy haired YouTube sensation, might also be their best reserve, this is a problem for D-Town. Their lack of depth will inevitably keep them out of contention for a top five seed in the East. 

The Bucks seem eager at the chance to defend their eighth seed. Despite losing their hyper-quick backcourt, their offseason moves (Ridnour, Neal, Mayo and Knight) potentially improved them at the guard position. If their frontcourt of Ersan Ilyasova and Larry Sanders develop nicely and O.J. can score with consistency, look for the Bucks to make a potential run at as high as a six seed. As things stand currently, however, they’re looking at another battle for the last playoff spot. Once again depriving their fans of drafting a potential new franchise player in the lottery.

Cleveland fans finally have something basketball related  to look forward to besides LeBron’s free agency and the next episode in the Uncle Drew YouTube series. Their signing of Andrew Bynum has Cavs fans expecting postseason basketball for the first time since King James’ departure. Their lack of depth and veteran leadership, however, should keep them at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Leading to a potential first round matchup with their former hometown hero.

Lastly, we have the Wizards. The backcourt of Wall and Beal has the chance to place the Wizards in the national spotlight for the first time since Agent 0 (Gilbert Arenas) had the bright idea of bringing his piece to the office and the far reaching responses to his felonious action. If any of their forwards, Nene, Big Al Harrington, Otto Porter or even newly acquired Marcin Gortat, develop as a viable alternative scoring option, then DC could provide Obama with his first hometown playoffs since entering the Oval Office.

This is Part II in a two-part series previewing the National Basketball Association season on Sports Business Society's Tipoff Week.  To read Part I, click here.

Honor the Division Winners

How Long Until Bud Selig's Replacement is Asking for More Playoff Games?

 

With Bud Selig announcing his retirement and baseball season coming to the end of its season, the discussion of the wild card’s place in baseball has to be discussed. When Bud Selig took over as commissioner in 1992, baseball had 4 playoff teams total. Now as he is retiring after being the commissioner for over 20 years, each league will have five-team playoff.

While I have no issue with the baseball’s move to the three divisions per league and one wildcard, baseball’s continuous growth past that in the playoffs is where I have the issue. Right now baseball has created one-game playoff for two teams to play in to get the wildcard. As much fun as do or die is, its only time until baseball sees the extra money in expanding this wildcard game to a round where the teams play and best of three. This is where enough is enough. As unpredictable as the one game maybe as seen by the Cardinals upsetting of the Braves in 2012 despite being 6 games worse than them in the regular season, baseball needs to put honoring regular season excellence over the increased revenues.

Baseball is a game of flow. For most teams the two or three days off between the end of the regular season and start of the post season is just the second time all season with multiple days off with the all-star game in July. While there would be financial benefits from adding playoff games, it may come at the expense of the teams that won their division. Currently the fourth game of the post season (Game 3 of NLDS and ALDS), which would become game one of the Division Series with an expanded wildcard round, is supposed to be played a week after the regular season ends, this type of long interruption could hurt teams that earned the bye by winning their division.

The NFL, which is the only other sport that has a post-season bye, has seen mixed results for teams that acquire the bye. Since the NFL went to its current post-season format in 1990, 34 of the 46 Super Bowl participants have had the bye week and they have won 15 of the 23 Super Bowls. Those numbers roughly equate to 2/3rd of both Super Bowl participants and winners which is better than the 50% of the remaining post season teams they represent in the second round. Of the 8 teams to win Super Bowls without the bye 5 of them happened in the last 6 years. Recently it seems like not having to have the bye week in the NFL is an advantage.

Often that teams have the bye in the NFL are sitting their starters by week 17 and then find themselves in the post season playing their first meaningful game in over 3 weeks and struggle to play as well. If baseball were to adopt the extra playoff games, would the same thing happen? Would hot hitters cool off without real games in over a week? Does giving a pitcher a 7th or 8th day of rest really help? Last October the Tigers had 6 days off between the ALCS and World Series and got swept. In 2010 the Phillies had the best record in baseball, but after sweeping the NLDS waited almost a week for the NLCS and then lost to a team they were 5 games better than in the regular season.

I know some of the time off in  post season is inevitable, but hopefully Major League Baseball doesn't unnecessarily add additional breaks for the best teams . The MLB needs to understand while the extra wild card game creates increased drama (2013 ended with a chaotic play-in game just to get the wild card round), winning the division should be the biggest advantage for the post season. The MLB might see the extra money from the increased ticket sales of two sold out playoff games and even more games to sell to a network, but the MLB needs to leave the money on the table. Honor the regular season and winning the division winners and keep the wildcard just one game.