The Short Sports Rant: NBA vs. NHL Playoffs - by Gabrielle (4/23/19)

The 2019 NHL playoffs is about to give fans the excitement and drama of three games sevens and has already yielded five series where the underdog triumphed. The NBA on the other hand, gives fans 2 sweeps, three series with stranglehold leads of 3-1 (all with the favorite leading) and one series threatening to go six games. Yawn.

It’s the same every year, the NHL generates athletic competition while the NBA gives seemly scripted outcomes. There’s an old adage of, “Wake me up in the last two minutes of an NBA playoff game.” Well, forget that. Register the NBA 2019 playoffs with the Food and Drug administration as a sleep remedy.

Sports fans wake up. Change the dial, remote and the bookmark to the NHL playoffs.

Write it down…In the NBA: The lower seeds win, upsets are few and far between and to cap it off in 2019 so far the average margin of victory in the NBA playoffs are 13.7 points. Lay the spread and take the favorite America.

In contrast the NHL playoffs produces the most fundamental element a sports fan is looking for…The winner is in doubt!