Not The Betting Kind

As I've said at the beginning of every post season, "never bet the farm on my Stanley Cup picks."  Once again my picks are now playing golf and contemplating where they'll be playing and/or coaching next season.  I may have lost based on the teams I picked to make it to the final round but I'm a winner thanks to the superb coverage of this post season by NBC network of stations. 
After years of hating on ESPN for not contracting with the NHL after the lockout my soul has been healed.  NBC has aired every game live, in it's entirety.  For some of those epic overtime thrillers it must have caused sheer panic for the folks in charge of programming at CNBC.  I mean, the normal audience for shows like American Greed or Mad Money must have thought aliens had taken over when they tuned in to find hockey?? of all things airing instead.  
In the years since the last lockout everyone has bemoaned the fact that the NHL has needed national television exposure.  We all complained about not getting any props in the pro sports arena and we bashed ESPN for not including enough hockey in their highlight reels. 

Well, now we've got this post season of glorious nationally televised coverage and it had nothing to do with ESPN.  Neener, neener, neener on them, right?  You gotta give the head honchos over at ESPN credit for sticking to their guns on their decision making process...even while having those huge ratings at NBC thrown in their faces.  Ed Sherman, blogger of SHERMANREPORT, wrote a great piece titled "ESPN Doesn't Hate Hockey, or so it claims..."  It's an insightful look at Vince Doria's, ESPN's senior vice president and director of news, defense of the lack of NHL support at his network.  You know, the network that claims to be the "WorldWide Leader in Sports".  Vince's two main arguments are 1. NHL doesn't translate well to tv, and 2. Fans are too locally loyal, meaning that once the Blackhawks are out of the playoffs all of their fans turn off the tv and won't turn it back on until October.  I love the fan comments in response to Doria. 

Awful Announcing, great site I visit often, added their response to Doria's out of touch take on the NHL's viewership needs.  Doesn't transfer to tv well?  The ratings for this year's post season slap Doria across the face and points out just how stubbornly wrong and closed minded the executives at ESPN are regarding hockey coverage.   And now they're having to stew in that for another 10 years.    

Greg Wyshinski, Puck Daddy contributor, included Ed's piece in his blog post response to ESPN titled  "Why ESPN Doesn't Cover Hockey."  Greg adds his own arguments to Doria's responses.  He joins Ed Sherman and Awful Announcing in the belief that NHL fans across the countries do indeed care about what happens to the elite players regardless of what team they play on or where on the map that team happens to hail from.  For taking that bet and signing a 10 year contract with the national hockey league NBC has been rewarded with ratings through the roof and that translates into immeasurable rewards as well for the NHL. 

For me, Greg hits it on head with this: "Why doesn't ESPN cover hockey?  Because we no longer need it to."

ROUND TWO WRAPPING UP

Capitals VS Rangers: (Still the Deluxe Extended Play series)   Series tied 3-3  

This series couldn't get any better than if it was scripted.  In game 5 the Capitals had the Rangers by the proverbial you-know-whats with just 2 minutes left in the third period.  And then it happened: Joel Ward, the OT hero from game 7 against the Bruins, turned into the anti-hero.  With 21 seconds remaining in the 3rd period Joel highsticked Hagelin of the Rangers and drew blood for the double minor.  The Rangers scored on the ensuing power play to tie the game with just 06.6 seconds on the clock.  With Joel still in the box for the beginning of OT, double minor for having drawn blood, along with my latest hottie Patric Lundqvist, the Rangers scored the winning goal on a slap shot that was deflected in past Holtby. 

I give Joel Ward a ton of credit for manning up after the game.  This guy is high on my Class Act list, not just because he's a former Wild and Houston Aeros player.  He really is a decent human being.  He sat in his stall in the locker room and waited for the media to surround him like jackals, knowing this was going to be the hardest interview of his career.  "I definitely let the squad down, and it cost us a game with a terrible play," Ward said. "I was just kind of hoping for another chance to redeem myself."  Joel was trying to get to his position after he blocked a shot.  "I kind of saw that he was running a pick on me, so I just tried to get around the pick," Ward said, speaking of Hagelin. "I got my stick under him and that was it.  It's a little mentally disturbing for sure right now," Ward said. "It's tough to be in that position when you're letting the team down."   

In an equally classy act of support his team and coach responded: "It was an accident," Caps coach Dale Hunter said about the ill-timed double-minor high-sticking penalty. "It was a high stick. That's the breaks of the hockey game. They got a break."  "You can't say it was his fault," Washington captain Alex Ovechkin said in defense of Ward. "We all lost the game. We win as a group and lose as a group." 

The Caps totally owned game 6, making the Rangers look like they weren't even there for most of the game.  That's not say that Holtby wasn't tested.  There were enough OMG, OMG, OMG moments - especially for Holtby's mom.  She is the cutest hockey mom in the NHL.  The Rangers pulled Lundqvist in the last 2 minutes of the game and came within one point of tying it up.  Fine, no shutout for Holtby but the win is ALL that matters.  It's off to game six.  What is this crap, making us wait until Saturday for that?? 

Flyers VS Devils:              Devils Won The Series 4-1

Andy Kimelman of NHL.com writes Five Reasons Flyers' Hopes Came Crashing Down.  I submit to you there is a sixth reason.  I'll add it at the end:

1. Absence of offense

2. Missing Giroux

3. Emotionally empty

4. Lack of mobility on defense

5. Where did the power go?

And now my reason which brings the total to six:

6. Crappy Puck Handling of Bryzgalov. 

Read the Flyers' Eulogy here.  Sally, this one's for you!

Kings VS Blues                  Kings Won The Series 4-0 

This is the only sweep of the playoffs going into the final four.  Again, good thing I never place money on my SC bets.  I had the Blues taking out the Kings.  See, the Kings pretty much had to back their way into the playoffs even though they played so well early in the season.  Sound familiar?  Anyway, who knew the Kings would go back to playing top notch hockey?  Clearly not me.  Read the Blues' Eulogy here.       

Coyotes VS Preds           Yotes Won The Series 4-1

Seriously, never bet with me on my SC picks.  I had the Preds going all the way to the SC final against the Pens.  Vegas is not on my top 5 list of places to visit, ever.  No scoring and totally getting away from their game, which got them into the playoffs in the first place, did the Preds in more than anything else.  It certainly didn't help that the Kostitsyn-Radulov Party Duo caused such an uproar.   Read the Preds' Eulogy here.