Is it just me or this a very exciting postseason?

[c9777666]

The problem is that when you have too many highly ranked teams losing early and often, it's almost like we expect it now.

When the '71 Bruins lost in round 1, that was stop the presses stuff because it rarely happened.

Now, top seeds losing- never mind in five or FOUR- is almost becoming routine to a crazy degree.

Like, there's no more shock value.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

This is ****ing boring.

I'm beginning to dislike the NHL playoffs for the same reason everyone dislikes the shootout. It's a random crapshoot.

Troll?

Crapshoot, the best of 7? How many games they should play? 100? This is not baseball.

 

[Echo Roku]

Yes.

This a problem.

When any team can be great, nobody is great.

No. Any team CAN be great. Any team can step up and prove they are worthy.

Not all will. I know what you're referencing, but it only makes sense in the premise of "everyone being great", so the concept falls apart

If your problem is that people don't come to watch "bad" teams, then problem solved. Any team can be great since we have enough talent and teams to stop actual mediocrity from doing something special or even being in the playoffs...

... and upsets like this are just showing which ones are actually playing like they deserve the attention and attendance and whatever else you think is influenced there

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Yes.

This a problem.

When any team can be great, nobody is great.

Many top-sports are ruined by a few GREAT teams. Look at Football or soccer in USA, It's all the big teams winning year after year. Very rarely we see Leicester win, instead of Manchesters or Chelsea. Parity is great for this sport long-term.

Formula 1 sucks today because Hamilton wins every race. No one wants to watch a sport where you know the winner before the series. It's boring as ****.

 

[Machinehead]

Many top-sports are ruined by a few GREAT teams. Look at Football or soccer in USA, It's all the big teams winning year after year. Very rarely we see Leicester win, instead of Manchesters or Chelsea. Parity is great for this sport long-term.

Formula 1 sucks today because Hamilton wins every race. No one wants to watch a sport where you know the winner before the series. It's boring as ****.

Look at football and soccer? Yeah that's what most of the country is looking at instead of hockey.

 

[c9777666]

In 1993, when basically every 100 point team other than Montreal got knocked out in the first 2 rounds, it was a shock to the system because we weren't used to seeing basically every giant topple like trees.

But now, we're so used to it that the shock is not what it was.

 

[Machinehead]

No. Any team CAN be great. Any team can step up and prove they are worthy.

Not all will. I know what you're referencing, but it only makes sense in the premise of "everyone being great", so the concept falls apart

If your problem is that people don't come to watch "bad" teams, then problem solved. Any team can be great since we have enough talent and teams to stop actual mediocrity from doing something special or even being in the playoffs...

... and upsets like this are just showing which ones are actually playing like they deserve the attention and attendance and whatever else you think is influenced there

That's where I disagree.

Everyone posits that the NHL has "stopped mediocrity" and to me, all they've done is put everyone into mediocrity.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

The difference being that there's enough talent and teams in the league that any of the playoff teams can be a great team. Especially if they're playing well enough to beat a 1st seed

Calling the Flames and Lightning as "garbage" is a way too big over reaction. They got outplayed and failed to adjust to how the other team approached playing.

I actually think the problem is similar to what Machinehead does, but for opposite reasons. We’re both concerned about meaningless regular seasons. But he seems to think (correct me if I’m wrong) that there are no great teams. But I think Tampa WAS/IS a great team. Yet they’re done and it’s meaningless. And yeah, it wasn’t puck luck or a hot goalie, but I still think it’s a bit concerning. It’s almost as if you might as well not even bother watching from October-April unless you’re a fan of a bubble team, which is sad and arguably a problem.

And I say this as a CBJ fan who was the one that dominated.

 

[Machinehead]

The problem is that when you have too many highly ranked teams losing early and often, it's almost like we expect it now.

When the '71 Bruins lost in round 1, that was stop the presses stuff because it rarely happened.

Now, top seeds losing- never mind in five or FOUR- is almost becoming routine to a crazy degree.

Like, there's no more shock value.

I think I actually watched like two periods of Columbus vs Tampa.

That's how shocked I was.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Look at football and soccer? Yeah that's what most of the country is looking at instead of hockey.

I meant with football soccer. Do not follow the NFL.

 

[Echo Roku]

That's where I disagree.

Everyone posits that the NHL has "stopped mediocrity" and to me, all they've done is put everyone into mediocrity.

Feel like you're being actively proven wrong this year. And the point isn't they "stopped mediocrity". Its that there's enough teams that you don't have bottom feeders and actual mediocre teams in the top 16/17 anymore

Look at football and soccer? Yeah that's what most of the country is looking at instead of hockey.

Soccer? Uh... Well, that ignored. Football isn't popular because people like how the playoffs are decided and played.

 

[Machinehead]

I actually think the problem is similar to what Machinehead does, but for opposite reasons. We’re both concerned about meaningless regular seasons. But he seems to think (correct me if I’m wrong) that there are no great teams. But I think Tampa WAS/IS a great team. Yet they’re done and it’s meaningless. And yeah, it wasn’t puck luck or a hot goalie, but I still think it’s a bit concerning. It’s almost as if you might as well not even bother watching from October-April unless you’re a fan of a bubble team, which is sad and arguably a problem.

And I say this as a CBJ fan who was the one that dominated.

Yes they WERE/ARE a great team. But were they, though?

Yeah, what they did is impressive, but they'll only be remembered for historically embarrassing themselves.

That's a big part of my problem -- October-April is glorified exhibition at this point.

Good regular season NFL teams make noise in the playoffs. Good regular season NBA teams make noise in the playoffs. Good domestic soccer teams make noise in the champions league. Hockey is the only sport where the playoffs is a hard reset and I find it jarring, and yes, kind of sad. (Baseball is a different story entirely because you have to have a great regular season just to qualify)

 

[c9777666]

I actually think the problem is similar to what Machinehead does, but for opposite reasons. We’re both concerned about meaningless regular seasons. But he seems to think (correct me if I’m wrong) that there are no great teams. But I think Tampa WAS/IS a great team. Yet they’re done and it’s meaningless. And yeah, it wasn’t puck luck or a hot goalie, but I still think it’s a bit concerning. It’s almost as if you might as well not even bother watching from October-April unless you’re a fan of a bubble team, which is sad and arguably a problem.

And I say this as a CBJ fan who was the one that dominated.

The thing I wonder about though is how much emphasis is there going to be next year on teams trying to get home-ice or high seeds?

Calgary/San Jose, NSH/WPG battling for 1st place in their divisions were compelling March races. Now, there's a chance all four of those teams are out early and it was all a waste of our time.

Are you better off not even having home-ice in a series? I mentioned the Blues and how the best thing that happened to them was NOT starting the Jets series on home ice. They might have home-ice the rest of the way in the West.

 

[Machinehead]

Feel like you're being actively proven wrong this year. And the point isn't they "stopped mediocrity". Its that there's enough teams that you don't have bottom feeders and actual mediocre teams in the top 16/17 anymore



Soccer? Uh... Well, that ignored. Football isn't popular because people like how the playoffs are decided and played.

We had an actual mediocre team win 62 games...

 

[HanSolo]

But when you have no expectations at all, storylines fall apart.

I guess some folks still have some element of surprise, and that's why they enjoy it. That's fine. Enjoyment from any form of entertainment is subjective. For me personally, I lost that long ago with the NHL.

Not once when Columbus was destroying Tampa did I think "this is amazing." I thought "welp, here's the NHL doing NHL things again."

The NHL wasn't holding Columbus's sticks and manually moving their legs. This is the point of the sport. Of any sport. Why even play the game if we're supposed to stick to expected results? I find the prospect of seeing how far teams like Columbus and Colorado can take their respective runs after toppling the Conference winners far more compelling than watching a historic team streamrolling their way to an expected Stanley Cup victory.

There's still plenty of storylines to engage in.

-Can San Jose win Jumbo Joe a cup before his legs give out, finally shake the playoff choker reputation, and finally join the Ducks and Kings as Californian champions?
-Can Vegas win a cup in their second year in existence and bring the hammer down on all those who thought the Vegas expansion would be a miserable and immediate failure? Could Nikita Gusev make a late appearance in the Finals and have a stellar debut propelling Vegas at least back to the conference finals?
-Can Nate MacKinnon drag his team into the Finals and show the hockey world that the Colorado rebuild is over? Can the rest of the Avalanche roster start stepping up and play an even more complete game to make an improbable run to the cup out of a wild card spot?
-Can St. Louis go on a dominant run to complete a massive turnaround that started from the league cellar at one point this year.
-Can Tortorella really push through this CBJ roster with Panarin and Bobrovsky departures seemingly imminent?
-Can Carolina, a team very often ignored and forgotten do damage with a young and inexperienced roster to make an improbable return to the Finals for the first time in 13 years?
-Can Washington repeat as Stanley Cup champions? Can they even get past this upstart Carolina team? Will their be an ironic series against the Trotz coached Islanders and how would that go?
-Can NYI go further than they ever had without John Tavares? Will the Islanders square off against the Leafs to bring down the waterfall of boos on JT's head?
-Can Toronto shake off the demons of the past by closing out their series against the Bruins or will history repeat itself? If Toronto goes through, can their defense sustain them all the way to a championship? If Boston goes through can they make a championship triple play for the city.

I don't really care about the Predators, Stars, or Jets and I'm tired of this hypothesizing but the point is all of these things could realistically happen and all of them are at least cognizable and noteworthy storylines. Honestly, this isn't a personal attack, but I cannot understand how the death of the Tampa, Calgary, and Pittsburgh storylines is a bad thing for the story of these playoffs to anyone but people who usually go for teams like the Golden State Warriors, Barcelona FC, and the New England Patriots. The absence of the best performing teams and a team with three championships in a decade does not mean the well of storylines has gone dry.

 

[Echo Roku]

We had an actual mediocre team win 62 games...

Lightning are not mediocre. No offense, but this is a really, really, reeeeeaallllllyyyy bad take.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

I think a solution would be to do it like the NFL and go to 12 teams make the playoffs and give the top 2 teams a bye (with 3-6 and 4-5 playing a best-of-three) but there’s zero chance they go that route.

 

[Machinehead]

Lightning are not mediocre. No offense, but this is a really, really, reeeeeaallllllyyyy bad take.

You just saw it.

They weren't in the same league as the lowest seed.

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

But when you have no expectations at all, storylines fall apart.

I guess some folks still have some element of surprise, and that's why they enjoy it. That's fine. Enjoyment from any form of entertainment is subjective. For me personally, I lost that long ago with the NHL.

Not once when Columbus was destroying Tampa did I think "this is amazing." I thought "welp, here's the NHL doing NHL things again."

And yet, we just watched 5 different teams win the last 10 Cups. We had LA, Chicago, and Pittsburgh win 8 Cups in a 9 year span. That f***ing sucked.

What is the NHL supposed to do with Tampa and Calgary? They were frauds. They weren't even like the 2010 Washington Capitals who truly got Halak'd. They got ran off the ice. They were missing something that Stanley Cup winning teams have.

Also, it's hard for me to call this "NHL doing NHL things again" when both top seeds losing in the first round has literally never happened in NHL history. We just watched the NHL doing NHL things for the very first time in history and we will probably never see that again in our lifetimes.

When fraudulent teams win 112 games, that says a lot about the league and its regular season.

None of it is good.

Regular season hockey is just not playoff hockey. I'm not going to pretend like I know exactly the ins and outs of how Tampa and Calgary were completely exposed but I do know that there were red flags up for both teams before the playoffs started and I would bet that Jared Bednar and John Tortorella do know exactly how those teams were exposed.

Look at the aforementioned Chicago, LA, and Pittsburgh. Clearly 3 excellent teams; they won 8 Cups in a 9 year span. Excluding Chicago's 2013 season because it wasn't a full season, those 3 teams averaged exactly 47 wins per season in the other 7 seasons they won a Cup. Roughly 7-8 teams win 47 games every year. These teams were hardly regular season juggernauts, but they were Stanley Cup juggernauts. They clearly had something that teams like San Jose, St. Louis and Washington with comparable regular season performances did not.

Putting aside the result of the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals and the 2016 MDSF, did you enjoy the runs of Chicago, LA, and Pittsburgh? Was that fun for you? Because that is what juggernaut hockey teams look like. That was not fun for me.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

The NHL wasn't holding Columbus's sticks and manually moving their legs. This is the point of the sport. Of any sport. Why even play the game if we're supposed to stick to expected results? I find the prospect of seeing how far teams like Columbus and Colorado can take their respective runs after toppling the Conference winners far more compelling than watching a historic team streamrolling their way to an expected Stanley Cup victory.

There's still plenty of storylines to engage in.

-Can San Jose win Jumbo Joe a cup before his legs give out, finally shake the playoff choker reputation, and finally join the Ducks and Kings as Californian champions?
-Can Vegas win a cup in their second year in existence and bring the hammer down on all those who thought the Vegas expansion would be a miserable and immediate failure? Could Nikita Gusev make a late appearance in the Finals and have a stellar debut propelling Vegas at least back to the conference finals?
-Can Nate MacKinnon drag his team into the Finals and show the hockey world that the Colorado rebuild is over? Can the rest of the Avalanche roster start stepping up and play an even more complete game to make an improbable run to the cup out of a wild card spot?
-Can St. Louis go on a dominant run to complete a massive turnaround that started from the league cellar at one point this year.
-Can Tortorella really push through this CBJ roster with Panarin and Bobrovsky departures seemingly imminent?
-Can Carolina, a team very often ignored and forgotten do damage with a young and inexperienced roster to make an improbable return to the Finals for the first time in 13 years?
-Can Washington repeat as Stanley Cup champions? Can they even get past this upstart Carolina team? Will their be an ironic series against the Trotz coached Islanders and how would that go?
-Can NYI go further than they ever had without John Tavares? Will the Islanders square off against the Leafs to bring down the waterfall of boos on JT's head?
-Can Toronto shake off the demons of the past by closing out their series against the Bruins or will history repeat itself? If Toronto goes through, can their defense sustain them all the way to a championship? If Boston goes through can they make a championship triple play for the city.

I don't really care about the Predators, Stars, or Jets and I'm tired of this hypothesizing but the point is all of these things could realistically happen and all of them are at least cognizable and noteworthy storylines. Honestly, this isn't a personal attack, but I cannot understand how the death of the Tampa, Calgary, and Pittsburgh storylines is a bad thing for the story of these playoffs to anyone but people who usually go for teams like the Golden State Warriors, Barcelona FC, and the New England Patriots. The absence of the best performing teams and a team with three championships in a decade does not mean the well of storylines has gone dry.

All great storylines.

But what’s the point of watching October-April? What’s the point of playing good hockey (above a “just get in” level)?

 

[member 151739]

It's amazing. Both #1 seeds have been eliminated. It is wide open. How is that not exciting?

 

[Echo Roku]

You just saw it.

They weren't in the same league as the lowest seed.

Of course they were in the same league. They got out hustled and out strategized and never were able to adjust.

Come on, this is a really dumb argument you're trying to make. Don't

 

[Machinehead]

The NHL wasn't holding Columbus's sticks and manually moving their legs. This is the point of the sport. Of any sport. Why even play the game if we're supposed to stick to expected results? I find the prospect of seeing how far teams like Columbus and Colorado can take their respective runs after toppling the Conference winners far more compelling than watching a historic team streamrolling their way to an expected Stanley Cup victory.

There's still plenty of storylines to engage in.

-Can San Jose win Jumbo Joe a cup before his legs give out, finally shake the playoff choker reputation, and finally join the Ducks and Kings as Californian champions?
-Can Vegas win a cup in their second year in existence and bring the hammer down on all those who thought the Vegas expansion would be a miserable and immediate failure? Could Nikita Gusev make a late appearance in the Finals and have a stellar debut propelling Vegas at least back to the conference finals?
-Can Nate MacKinnon drag his team into the Finals and show the hockey world that the Colorado rebuild is over? Can the rest of the Avalanche roster start stepping up and play an even more complete game to make an improbable run to the cup out of a wild card spot?
-Can St. Louis go on a dominant run to complete a massive turnaround that started from the league cellar at one point this year.
-Can Tortorella really push through this CBJ roster with Panarin and Bobrovsky departures seemingly imminent?
-Can Carolina, a team very often ignored and forgotten do damage with a young and inexperienced roster to make an improbable return to the Finals for the first time in 13 years?
-Can Washington repeat as Stanley Cup champions? Can they even get past this upstart Carolina team? Will their be an ironic series against the Trotz coached Islanders and how would that go?
-Can NYI go further than they ever had without John Tavares? Will the Islanders square off against the Leafs to bring down the waterfall of boos on JT's head?
-Can Toronto shake off the demons of the past by closing out their series against the Bruins or will history repeat itself? If Toronto goes through, can their defense sustain them all the way to a championship? If Boston goes through can they make a championship triple play for the city.

I don't really care about the Predators, Stars, or Jets and I'm tired of this hypothesizing but the point is all of these things could realistically happen and all of them are at least cognizable and noteworthy storylines. Honestly, this isn't a personal attack, but I cannot understand how the death of the Tampa, Calgary, and Pittsburgh storylines is a bad thing for the story of these playoffs to anyone but people who usually go for teams like the Golden State Warriors, Barcelona FC, and the New England Patriots. The absence of the best performing teams and a team with three championships in a decade does not mean the well of storylines has gone dry.

Not offense, but literally everything you listed makes me wanna sleep for 3 days.

Sure, I want to see the Chiefs beat the Patriots, and I want to see -I don't know, let's say- the Bucks beat the Warriors. If the Bucks/Chiefs win a championship after the Warriors/Pats were eviscerated in the first round, suddenly I don't care anymore.

If, let's say, it ended up being Columbus vs Colorado, everyone outside of Columbus and Colorado would forget it happened in about two days.

One of the most impressive playoff track records left in the tournament -sorry, but it's the truth- belongs to an expansion team.

 

[Default]

Lmao reading this. Dude the players play differently in the playoffs for a reason. It’s typically fast, skilled, AND physical. The NFL is the only other sport that can get as physical and they typically have a week in between each game to recover. NHL players can’t be playing like they do in the playoffs every single regular season game.
And if anything, this season should be a HUGE wake up call to all teams next season on how and what can happen.

 

[HanSolo]

All great storylines.

But what’s the point of watching October-April? What’s the point of playing good hockey (above a “just get in” level)?

It still sets the matchups. What's the alternative? We throw ping pong balls in the draft lottery machine and just have every team play in the playoffs with random matchups? With the 31st team getting a bye? Upsets happen.