Who would have guessed a #6 seed, the New Jersey Devils, would be heading into the Stanley Cup Finals against the LA Kings, a #8 seed? So much for all the media-generated hype during the regular season as to which teams finish higher in the standings. Obviously, when the playoffs starts, it doesn't seem to matter. All the so-called superior teams have been sent packing.
Nevertheless, New Jersey and LA slugging it out for Lord Stanley's cup should be a helluva series. As with most such contests, there appears to be good news and bad news.
Now that the #1 seeded NY Rangers have been dispatched, there will be no more awkward press conferences featuring their smiling, but arrogant head coach John Tortarella. This is good news.
Then again, it was rather refreshing to see a coach capable of walking into a room full of reporters and putting them in their place when they asked stupid questions. Maybe that's bad news.
As for east vs west, it doesn't get much more "east" than East Rutherford, NJ, or more "west" than LA. There will be no teams like Detroit, Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis, etc., that are located in the "heartland" of the country, but seemingly arbitrarily assigned to either the eastern or the western conference. That's probably good news. The bad news is -- given this series -- 99% of the people living between NJ and LA probably couldn't care less about it.
If the series between NJ and LA goes 7 games, we're talking about some serious "air miles" as the teams travel back and forth, particularly in the last three games which would be played at alternating venues. Throw in jet lag, jet fuel, and the overall expense, and that's bad news. Yet for the owners of the teams, every game they get in their own arena is a big time cha-ching, to the tune of millions. That's good news -- for them.
New Jersey is going to lose their beloved NBA team, the Nets (well, maybe not THAT beloved) to hated Brooklyn next year. Maybe if the Devils win the Cup this year, New Jersey governor Chris Christie will feel a little better about the departure of the Nets. That would be good news. In a perfect world, Christie might even celebrate by slimming down to the size of your average blimp, or at least the city limits of Trenton. That would be even better news.
Out in LA, the Lakers and Clippers have been kicked to the curb. That's bad news. Now that the LA Kings are front and center in the Stanley Cup Finals, maybe glitterland will wake up and realize they actually have a hockey team too. That's good news. All three play in the same building, Staples Center, and it was probably bad news for the maintenance folks to keep changing it from a basketball to a hockey venue, depending on which sport was going to be played in that arena on any given date.
Alas, the NHL doesn't have the "drawing" power of the NBA. It's highly unlikely movie stars, hip-hoppers, and the like will even show up for photo-ops, much less stay and watch the games. There will be no Jack Nicholson sitting in the first row behind the "glass". That's bad news for publicity, but good news for the season ticket holders who won't get booted out of their seats to make way for the glitterati.
Along those lines, I hope Bruce Springsteen, a New Jersey native, shows up for games in East Rutherford. That would definitely be good news.
The "Boss" walking out onto the ice and singing the national anthem would stoke the home crowd, to say the least. That would be great news.
Maybe out in LA they could trot out a Kardashian for the same thing. That might stoke their crowd as well. Not sure why, but there's a remote chance one of the K girls actually has some, you know, talent -- perhaps singing.
One way to find out.
Nah, that would probably be bad news.
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