By Julie Buehler
Look, what’s about to happen is ridiculous and I know it. You should know it too.
But I’m about to tell you why hockey is impossibly awesome, and I’d appreciate if you keep an open mind until the end of this column.
Truth is, I was just like you. I made fun of hockey fans. I fell for the stereotype that they must be missing a few teeth and even more than a few brain cells. I thought hockey fans were guys wearing a hefty dose of plaid and wool and they lived in the cold and all the Fargo references to were all too accurate.
I thought that. All of it.
But that was then. And now I know better.
While the NBA is featured on ESPN and therefore has a bigger audience than the budding NBC Sports group of channels, so I won’t use ratings evidence, plus it’s irrelevant to what we’re discussing here in:
My Top 5 Reasons the NHL Playoffs are Infinitely Better Than Their NBA Counterpart.
1. The players play. Hard. NBA resorted to fining players for flopping too hard, meanwhile, as NBA players flail to the ground to get an advantageous call, NHL players fight. As in, players are so fired up, they knock the piss out of one another. I’m not condoning that, just illustrating the stark difference. Simply put: If you blow in someone’s ear, you’ll get decked. Period.
2. It’s all about the Fire and Ice. That awesome fire that burns through players during game action is perfectly complimented by the sheer playing surface: ice. It’s poetry for crying out loud! They’re gliding and sliding and crashing and doing so with profound force and equally impressive grace. It’s literally jaw dropping to watch these men dance on ice one moment then careen into each other the next.
3. There’s variety. This year’s NBA Finals feature a rerun from last year. Heat and Spurs Part II. The Heat are making their 4th straight Finals appearance. The NBA might want to consider calling the Western Conference playoffs “The Team Who Can Beat The Spurs” because their consistency is staggering. And that’ fine. But when players don’t play all that hard game in and game out, you don’t want to see the same players flopping and dogging year in and year out.
In the NHL we have LA vs NYC for the first time in one of the big 4 sports since the Dodgers took on the Yankees in the 1981 World Series. We have a team in the Kings who have just begun to find playoff grit the past 3 seasons after a couple decades of futility against a team from the Eastern Conference that hasn’t been to the Final since 1994. When Clinton was in the White House.
4. There’s no gratuitous fashion shows. The NBA has turned into a runway and it’s stupid. I don’t care what LeBron James is wearing as he leaves the arena or what he’s chosen for his post-game press conference. I don’t need every media outlet offering opinions about Russell Westbrook’s style to understand the Thunder are a few pieces away from being a championship team. With the NHL, the players aren’t even sporting all their teeth. You think they care about what designer they’re wearing?
5. And lastly, the SoCal NHL teams are awesome! While the Lakers suffered the worst season in franchise history and the Clippers endured the worst scandal in franchise history, the Anaheim Ducks earned the top seed in the Western Conference after a tremendous regular season and the Kings are the Western Conference Champions after an historic comeback from an 0-3 deficit against the San Jose Sharks, beating the Ducks in 7 games, and taking the Blackhawks out on the road. No team had ever won 3 game 7’s on the road. The Kings just did it.
So while the media machines point towards the NBA to boost their ratings, as a sports fan, if you want the most entertainment in May and June, it’s in the game that’s been around much longer that culminates in sports’ most prestigious trophy.
Julie Buehler hosts the Coachella Valley’s most popular sports talk radio show, “Buehler’s Day Off” every day from 3-6 on 1010 KXPS, the valley’s all sports station. She’s an avid gym rat, slightly sarcastic and more likely to recite Steve Young’s career passing stats than American Idol winners. Tune in M-F 3-6 pst at www.team1010.com or watch the show on Ustream.
