Why do the playoffs start a week later than usual?

[KovalchukFistPump]

Pre-COVID, playoffs generally started around April 13th. Finals ended in early June. Now we can have a finals go up to a few days before the draft.

Is it purely to completely sync up with the NBA playoffs? Given the first round is the best round in the NHL while it is often the least competitive in the NBA, I thought it would be beneficial to get more eyeballs on the NHL product. Maybe they just want to make sure the two finals synced up with one game every other night? That being said, it’s late June when the weather is great and the kids are now off of school.

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[The Gr8 Dane]

Stanley Cup Finals in the middle of summer has always been dumb imo

 

[PaulD]

Stanley Cup Finals in the middle of summer has always been dumb imo

I'm.a hockey nut.....especially for play offs.
But even I don't enjoy hockey over out doors in summer. Boating, pools, lakes and beaches.
By May 24 they should be well into the finals. Like it used to be

 

[GKJ]

The reason is because of the baseball playoffs and ESPN holding rights to the wild card round. They don’t want the NHL regular season to start until after that and the rumor seems to be that the NHL agrees and likes that it is. As a result everything else moves back a week.

 

[north21]

They should start earlier and end the cup finals in may.

 

[CokenoPepsi]

Yes, why are they starting late this year? Odd

 

[StreetHawk]

They should start earlier and end the cup finals in may.

Hockey will always overlap other sports. Just the reality of their season. Even NBA moved their season up to basically start with the NHL vs typically begin when Baseball ends, but since they added the WC, that pushed into the NBA season.

At this point, there is barely a week between the end of the Cup to the draft. Everything in the NHL happens so fast, between Cup being awarded, the draft, buyouts, free agency, all within 10 days or something now if we go right to the end. Final regular season game is April 18, thus PO begin like 4/21. Little over 2 weeks per round.

NHL doesn't have the superstars that can draw you into a finals like the NBA with Curry, LeBron, Giannis, etc. So, if you club is out, most top players in the NHL are not drawing people in from their summer activities.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Because Gary Bettman is a dolt and deserves all the booing he gets.

 

[ijuka]

Playoffs should end in early May. Hockey is not a summer sport.

 

[Kingfan1967]

October will always be BASEBALL'S because of the World Series, no need to try to start late because of baseball, start the season in early October instead of the 2nd week. That would allow the Cup to end in May/early June at the latest.

 

[Chardo]

Leapyear

 

[VanillaCoke]

nhl gonna nhl