It Feels Like Things Are Lining Up For The NBA To Absolutely CRUSH The NHL Starting This Summer

So…this is something I’ve been internalizing for a while now. I hate to admit it, but the NBA playoffs have been actually good. I’ve probably watched more than that tweet would indicate and I think it’s because the NHL has lacked a little pomp and circumstance usually associated with the playoffs. Other than the Bruins, none of the blue blood franchises made a run, and as great as the Bruins are, they don’t have truly captivating stars. I can hear Bruins fans getting pissy about that comment, but Bergeron and Pasta are just not going to move the needle as much as Crosby, Ovechkin, and Patrick Kane. Those factors combined with the NBA having a bunch of Game 7s, interesting new stars making deep playoff runs, and the Warrios still doing their thing the NBA has made an impression on me.

I feel like the NHL has been in this golden age. HD TV, social media, the internet in general, podcasts, and GENERATIONAL star power. You add all of those things together and hockey has really had it going. For the last decade the NHL had Ovechkin vs Crosby, they had the Chicago Blackhawks dominating, the LA Kings won two Stanley Cups, the Bruins won one, and the New York Rangers were consistently a “contender”. That is a magic recipe for the NHL. And then the also ran teams like Nashville and Vegas were great new fun hockey cities. It’s been a great run for the NHL since 2008, but now it feels like it might be coming to an end right as tectonics are shifting for the NBA to return to it’s absolute height of popularity.

I know NBA fans think that the NHL has always been irrelevant, but the NBA has been objectively boring in the playoffs for a while. It’s the classic Ryan Whitney argument. “Sick league”. Why even have the playoffs? It’s just going to be the Warrios against Lebron. Or the Heat against the Spurs when Lebron was down there. The Super Team era made the NBA kind of shitty. Now though…things seem to be shifting.

If Durant goes to the Knicks with Kyrie they are going to be an instant contender in the biggest possible market. It’ll be a revitalization that EVERYONE will find compelling. The Sixers look like they’re going to be a force in the East for years to come if Embiid stays healthy. The Celtics, even though they were a car wreck this season are still going to be good for a long time with their young guys. Then you’ve got the Giannis emerging as the best overall player in the league. The East is going to be HYPER competitive starting next year and it’s going to be awesome. The West is going to probably be the same. The Warriors don’t seem to need Durant in order to win the West, but losing him to NYK brings them back to the pack. Back enough that Lebron stealing Kwahi and Anthony Davis would make the Lakers a real threat to them. If all of those things happen you’d have the Knicks, Celtics, Sixers, Lakers, and Warriors ALL being awesome teams with great stars all at the same time.

Then… you’ve got the NHL. The Hawks are down, the Rangers are down, the Red Wings are down,the Kings are down, the Bruins are still great, but their core is aging or has aged. We’ve had this incredible run of Ovi, Sid, Toews and Kane, but now all of those guys are over 30 and the next generation GREAT players appears to be in different levels of completely fucked. McDavid is locked into a Dante’s 7th layer of hell situation in Edmonton so nobody sees him, Jack Eichel is in Buffalo where they haven’t been able to sniff the playoffs for like 10 years it feels like, Auston Matthews is a stud, but Toronto is entering their era of a Salary Cap nightmare and it’s before he was able to win enough to really become a household name to the casual fan.

This is a long way of saying…I’m scared. I feel like the NHL has made incredible progress in the last 10 years. Only had one lockout in that time and it didn’t even cost us a full season. Shout out Gary Bettman. Even with everything going right and the NBA being in a weird transitional period the NHL was still getting the scraps leftover from a national coverage stand point. Now its going to get a lot worse. The game isn’t worse, but it’s marketability is going to be. Get ready for hockey twitter to REALLY start back up with the “WHAT ABOUT US!!!??” inferiority complex because the NHL is taking a turn where only the hardcore fans are going to pay attention and I don’t like that one bit.