THE BEST PLAYOFF - NHL

Jared Rotenberg

There is a common debate that has raged amongst sports fans for generations. This is a debate that may not have one clear objective answer. However, for the reasons that will be explored below, there is a strong argument that one of the major sports does shine above the rest in terms of its post-season, indeed leading me to declare it the best playoffs in professional sports. So which sport is this you may be asking? Well, that of course is none other than the Stanley Cup Playoffs of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Of course, before I begin, I must state that at the end of the day this is my opinion, and in no way is meant to slander the post-season affairs that take place within other sports. However, my hope is that by the end of this reading, you will at the very least give the NHL playoffs a chance, because if you do this, you just might discover the most incredible tournaments in all of sports. So enough of the jibber, jabber. Without further ado, let’s begin.

A Game of Unpredictability

One of the strongest arguments in favour of the Stanley Cup Playoffs being the best playoffs in professional sports is the true randomness and sheer unpredictability of it all. While all sports do absolutely have aspects of unpredictability to them, when it comes to hockey, this notion is taken to another level entirely. The overall nature of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is the fact that there is truly no team you can rule out. The teams that do well in the regular season, and are the most talented, very rarely are the teams that ultimately end up going far in the playoffs, and this goes to show just how unpredictable these playoffs are. The nature of these playoffs, and the fact that talent alone is not enough to take a team far makes every single NHL playoff game a must-watch event.

The biggest and most recent example of the unpredictability associated with the NHL playoffs occurred within 2019, which is a playoffs that is commonly referred to by hockey fans as the year of “wildcard-madness”. Going into these playoffs, the heavy favourite was the Tampa Bay Lighting, who were by far the best team in the regular season, finishing with a 62-16-4 record for a whopping 128 points. The team they played in the first round of the playoffs that year was the Columbus Blue Jackets, who were the second place wildcard team and the bottom seed in the Eastern Conference, finishing with a 47-31-4 record for 98 points. What happened in that series, however? The Columbus Blue Jackets ultimately swept the Tampa Bay Lightning in 4 games, creating one of the craziest upsets in sports history. How did the rest of the playoffs shake up, you may be wondering? Well every single division winner was defeated by their wildcard opponents, busting playoff prediction brackets left, right, and centre. The team that ultimately won the cup that year was the St. Louis Blues, who were notably the last place team in the entire National Hockey League in just January of that same year.

While of course the 2019 playoffs are the most obvious example of this, the randomness of these playoffs was far from a one-off, as there have been plenty of underdog stories in hockey, more so than in other sports. For example, just last year in 2021, the finalist for the Stanley Cup was the North Divisions lowest seed in the Montreal Canadiens. They came back from a 3-1 deficit against the 1st place Toronto Maple Leafs, then swept the favoured Winnipeg Jets, and lastly defeated the dominant Vegas Golden Knights, on their road to the finals. There are a plethora of examples just like this one that prove simply just how random and crazy the hockey playoffs are.

Are there examples of crazy upsets in other sports? Of course there are! But when it comes to some sports, these underdog stories are so much more rare, and the playoffs are significantly easier to predict when compared to the sport of hockey. The easiest example of this is the fact that the same 2 teams, the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers both made the National Basketball Association (NBA) finals for a whopping 4 straight years. It became an ongoing joke, and was a token to just how predictable the NBA had become. There were 2 teams that were clearly above the rest, and no opponents even stood a chance. In these years, the finals matchup was written in the stars as soon as the preseason began, and this made for an incredibly uninteresting playoffs that had a far too unsurprising outcome.The purpose of this comparison is not to criticise or attack the sport of basketball, which so many people love and adore. But rather, to prove just how special the unpredictability of the NHL playoffs is, when compared to other sports.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

As cliche as it sounds, it takes a full team, from top to bottom of a roster to take home the Stanley Cup; the greatest prize of all. In order for a team to reign victorious in the NHL playoffs, the entirety of a team's roster has to be playing well and completely buy into a team’s system. This is a fact that is absolutely accepted by all players involved in a playoff run. As well, this notion is very much reflected in the speech and quotes of players, who are known to be incredibly humble, acknowledging the team aspect of victory much before the personal aspect. Team captains and star players will most commonly never take the full credit for a team's successes, choosing instead to praise their teammates. Not once in a hockey interview will you hear a player using the word “I” and self-praising themselves. Instead, the most commonly used word is often “we”, a clear indicator that the player’s know just how important the entirety of a roster is.

While it is the captain who gets to lift the Stanley Cup first, it is all members of a roster that eventually have a chance with the cup, and get their name on the trophy as a token of their accomplishment. While the superstars may find themselves in the spotlight on the first line, there is also significant importance on gritty forwards playing lower in the lineup, as well as the defence and goaltenders to step up come playoff time in order to fuel a team to victory.

This, again, is a notion that is not common amongst athletes in other sports, as they consistently praise their own play, commonly failing to acknowledge the team aspect of a deep playoff run. Unlike in other sports, one player alone cannot lead a team to a championship in hockey. For this reason, the team aspects of hockey make these playoffs incredibly engaging and beautiful to witness. Teams coming together, regardless of skill, is one of the biggest aspects that can lead to a team thriving in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, adding to the notion that with teamwork, any team truly can succeed.

These are major arguments that make the Stanley Cup Playoffs so incredible, and even the best in professional sports, at least in my opinion. However, it cannot be said that these playoffs are flawless, and there are many things that the NHL could change in order to make their playoffs even better.

The Format

One of the biggest aspects of the NHL playoffs that hockey fans constantly criticise and strive to change is the format in which playoff matchups are decided. One of the most confusing things associated with the Stanley Cup Playoffs is the way in which these matchups are decided in the first place. Rather than the common one-seed versus eight-seed format (two-seed versus seven-seed, three-seed versus six-seed, etc) seen in most other sports, the NHL instead utilises an alternative format. If you aren’t a hockey fan, simply brace yourself. While the first and second-seeds do face the eighth and seventh-seeds in the first round, where it gets weird is the fact that the second place team in each division plays the third place team. Considering there are 8 teams per division that do qualify for the playoffs per conference, they could have easily done the traditional playoff format that other sports utilise (basketball, for example).

But instead, the NHL opts to adopt a unique format, that is simply put, odd. While this format is not the worst thing in the world, as it has allowed the playoffs to remain fresh, with several underdog stories, it does absolutely have several flaws. Primarily, the flaws with the current playoff format is that some teams have a significantly easier road to finding playoff success, making for an unbalanced playoffs, where teams are not necessarily rewarded for their regular season standing.

The first seed of course gets to play the bottom seed, which is how it should be. But then it gets interesting as the second-seed within each division gets the “privilege” of playing the third-seed in that same division, as opposed to getting to face one of the wildcard teams. In some situations, the second seed could be only ahead by a small amount in the division, meaning that they get a lot harder of a playoff matchup than the other teams, despite their strong regular season standing.This format fails to give teams proper matchups based on their regular season standing, and therefore removes the fairness and balance of the playoffs that would be received simply by having the first-seed play the eighth-seed, the second-seed play the seventh-team, etc, a format that has been used successfully by other leagues.

Flaws in Officiating

More so than anything else, is the issue that the referees quite simply do not call the same rules, and enforce the game in the same way when it comes to the playoffs, thus allowing teams to get away with much more. This allows teams to break the rules and bully their way into a deep playoff run. Refs are much less likely to call penalties in the playoffs, and punish players for breaches of the rule book. As well, while suspensions are not unheard of in the playoffs, they are very rare and only occur in the most serious of situations, which means that commonly players do get away with suspension-worthy plays and hits. For this reason, regardless of regular season standing and a team’s pure skill, a strong and gritty team is much more likely to prevail.

The fact that teams get away with much in the playoffs makes it so teams with superstars, despite their immense skill, are much more likely to be picked on and shut down, which is why very rarely the biggest stars in the NHL are still playing far into the playoffs. A major example of this occurred during a 2021 first round series showdown between the Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers. Oilers captain Connor McDavid is the fastest and most skilled player in the National Hockey League, and therefore it could be assumed that he would draw several penalties. What happened however? McDavid went the entire playoff series without drawing a single penalty. This bad officiating, and the fact that the Jets bullied and shut down the Oilers physically is a key reason as to why the NHL’s most skilled player ultimately had his team swept in 4 straight games. This is a fundamental problem with the game of hockey, and until the refs change the way in which they call the games, especially in the playoffs, teams will continue to abuse the rules in order to make it far. Simply, based on the flawed ways in which the refs call games, it gives teams an incentive to play dangerously, which is a massive problem for the game of hockey and the legitimacy of the playoffs.

Conclusion

The Stanley Cup Playoffs absolutely are far from flawless. However, for the reasons of their unpredictability, and the fact that it takes a whole team to win, there is absolutely an argument to be made that the NHL has the best playoffs in all of professional sports