Playoffs Notes

The NHL playoffs started with a post Preakness/NBC, (in that network’s last NHL season in its second stint as U.S. carrier (remember Peter Puck), tilt last night and on this, the exact 50th anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens’ comeback win vs “Chi” (Blackhawks) in #6/’71final on CBS, continues with 3 games today and a big streak of consecutive days with ‘offs games ahead. Additionally, teams with no chance at the “for days” CLOSED ‘offs, Calgary and Vancouver will “contest” three meaningless games, in the days ahead.

Meanwhile today is the last day of the NBA regular season. Seven of the 16 cities/regions with 2021 NHL playoffs qualifiers have corresponding NBA teams. Five of those cities/regions’ NBA teams at least qualified for the NBA playoff round. Toronto and Minnesota basketball teams failed, while Boston and Washington (they are NHL first round opponents) face NBA play in round game(s). 

Three cities/regions Denver with the President’s Trophy winning Avalanche and the either NBA West 3 or 4 seed Nuggets, New York with the NHL Islanders, 2 or 3 NBA East seed Nets and 5 or 6 East seed Knicks and Miami with the first round home advantage team, Panthers and the Heat have a situation, where they will have both an NHL and NBA team at least as far as the round of 16/prelims in both leagues.

Nowhere else will you see/read that this is the first time in NHL history, in which the three oldest current NHL teams, the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins qualified for the NHL ‘offs while the next three oldest/other 3 “original 6” teams, the New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings failed to do so.

One gauge of such is that there is evidence of one of the three 2021 non qualifiers in the NHL playoffs in the years before the “original six” commenced play with 4 playoffs qualifiers in 1941-1942 and continuing with 4 qualifiers as “automatics” (Rabbi/Mr. Harry Goder called the quadratic equation an “automatic” 10 points on the New York Trigonometry Regents,  “insisting,” we at least got those points) through 1974.

In the 45 seasons (from 1975-2020 with no NHL season in 2005), with such a possibility, it never manifested that the Habs, Leafs and Bruins qualified for Cup play while the Rangers, Blackhawks and Red Wings did not.

Notably, toward that end, the Red Wings “took care” of 25 consecutive such seasons with playoff appearances from (1991-2016).