OTHER sports have their insane post-season schedules, too, we most certainly know that. All you have to do is call up last year’s American League playoff series between the Yankees and A’s in which the teams played a Saturday night game in The Bronx, and then one night and many red eyes later, played the decisive Game 5 in Oakland. All you have to do is watch World Series games – almost all World Series games – being played on 30-degree nights.
There’s the NBCBA, a made-for-television league that drags out an opening round best-of-five over 13 days in order to maximize prime-time availabilities, with consequences to the competition not even a factor in post-season scheduling. In that league, it’s all about the advertising dollar. Good luck to it. It’s only unfortunate it’s not going to get a final San Antonio-Milwaukee bang for its buck.
So other leagues hardly handle their post-season business with integrity or respect to the competitive environment. But that doesn’t take the NHL off the hook for the schedule it’s presented the Devils and Avalanche for the Stanley Cup Finals that commence in Denver on Saturday night.
After Saturday, the teams then wait around for a pair of off-days before playing Game 2 on Tuesday. Then, when two days between games might make sense to accommodate the flights back East for Game 3, there’s just one off-day – essentially, the travel day, with its loss of two hours – before next Thursday’s first match at the Meadowlands. Another day off, and Game 4 in New Jersey a week from Saturday.
Then, assuming the Devils fail to sweep, there’s a day to travel back out west, followed by Game 5 on Monday, June 4. Two days off, then, for another trip, if necessary, to the Meadowlands for Game 6 on Thursday, June 7. And then just one day – again, needed to travel – before the potentially ultimate Game 7 in Denver on Saturday, June 9.
The two best teams in hockey are meeting in these Finals after preliminary rounds in which the Devils played 18 games and Colorado, 16. Thus, the Devils go into this series after having played 100 games this year, Colorado with 98. And yet we expect these two elite teams to bring us elite hockey – fatigue, injury, travel and nonsensical scheduling, notwithstanding.
It’s too much to ask. It’s too much to ask these great athletes and these great teams to live up to the great expectations we have of this series. It’s too much, these four best-of-sevens that comprise the playoffs; too much after an 82-game season that’s pretty much run like a 440 all year now, and kicks into a sprint by New Year’s.
“The pounding you have to take in order to win is what makes our playoffs so unique,” Larry Robinson, on record as supporting a best-of-five opening round, said Tuesday. “People talk about the Stanley Cup being the most difficult trophy in sports to win, and it is, because so much of this is now a test of endurance.
“In itself, that’s fine, but do we really want this to be every bit as much a test of survival as it is a competition of skills? I do think we should take a look at this.”
I don’t do a lot of complaining when games are routinely arranged for television; I’m a viewer too. There is no question that, ultimately, television is an ally. Still, when it comes to the Stanley Cup Finals, maintaining integrity of the competition must be the NHL’s first priority. The showcase must be permitted to be a show.
That means the NHL should actually adopt the schedule for the Finals that the NBA uses for its championship round and that baseball has pretty well always used for the World Series. That means a 2-3-2 format. If the defending champions don’t finish this off quickly – the Devils went 5-0 on the road in the 1995 and 2000 Finals and 8-1 on the road in the 1995, 2000 and 2001 conference finals, while going 7-7 at home in the series – the prospect of cross-country trips after Games 2, 4, 5, and 6 looms for everyone. Insanity.
The NHL did adopt a 2-3-2 format in 1984 and 1985. Unfortunately, Edmonton swept the Islanders at home after splitting the opening two on Long Island to win the Cup in 1984, then swept the Flyers at home after getting an opening split at the Spectrum to win again a year later. That was that. Terrified of the Oilers, the league reverted to its 2-2-1-1-1 immediately after that.
Thing is, those Oilers would have won with an 0-7 format.
Which, come to think of it, the Devils may well be lobbying for this very minute.
