Playoffs. This week was all about the Playoffs. And the Kentucky Derby. But that really only rules one day. There was news about it over the week but nothing that really took away from the news of the NHL and NBA playoffs. In the NHL the news was all good. Once again in the NBA the news was really confusing. Not sure how the NBA plans to attract more fans with the Refs still getting more headlines than the players. Even though the NHL news is pretty good for the playoffs they still had some strange decisions by the league office.
NHL – Playoff Ratings and No Punishment
The NHL playoffs have been very interesting. What has been more interesting is the decisions the NHL is making when it comes to penalties and punishment for flagrant uncaring for another players health. There were several calls that were very strange in the series between the Blue Jackets and the Bruins. Before we get too deep into to this these calls did not cost the Blue Jackets the series. They did that themselves. What it did show is that the NHL is really not all about safety like they have been trying to tell every one. The first bad call was when Brad Marchand hit the Blue Jackets Scott Harrington in the back of the head at the end of a Bruins 2 -1 loss to the Jackets in game three. There was no penalty called on the play. It was how ever on video and everyone one else in the world saw it. The NHL decided not to punish Marchand. Not only was this something that could have caused serious injury it was clearly done on purpose with intent to make sure the Jackets knew he did it on purpose. This should have brought a minimum of a one game suspension. Really it probably should have been a two game suspension. Marchand is a repeat offender and not sitting him down is basically saying. Go ahead and do it again. No worries. If he is sitting due to what he did maybe game four turns out different. Probably not. But we will never know.
The second crazy penalty came in game 6. When Charlie McAvoy hit Josh Anderson with a shoulder to the jaw. This time there was a two minute penalty assessed. Clearly McAvoy sees the opportunity and raises his shoulder to get Anderson in the Jaw. This is again something that could have ended much worse than it did. It did not decide the game. It is just something that is showing that the NHL is not looking at safety the way they say they are. This is a huge problem that they really need to look at.
On the bright side for the NHL the numbers are up. The first round of the playoffs had great numbers. The second round did as well. It has helped that the games have been very competitive and exciting. The numbers in Columbus were great the games were the highest rated hockey games they have had in Columbus. Of course this is also the deepest the Blue Jackets have gone in the playoffs. Be interesting to see what happens now that they are out.
NBA – James Harden Bashed in the Eye
James Harden got poked in both eyes in game two of the series between the Rockets and the Warriors. It was clearly not intentional and I am pretty sure that everyone saw it that way. It was pretty interesting that in the game Harden and Curry were out for a bit. Both with injuries that could have been much worse then they turned out to be. AT least in the second round of the NBA playoffs the games are much more interesting. All the series are close except for the one between the Bucks and the Celtics. That is one that everyone though was going to be close. After the Celtics blew the Bucks out in game one a lot of people were saying that the Young Bucks were going to get swept out. Turns out the Bucks were just getting their legs under them regrouped and now have a commanding 3 – 1 lead in the series. I do not see any way the Celtics can recover here.
The numbers for the NBA are not doing well in the ratings. Unlike the NHL the NBA numbers are down significantly. In round one they were down 19 percent. That is a huge drop. I am sure that part of it was that LeBron is not in the playoffs for a first time in a long time. I am sure it is but it should not lead to a 19 point drop in the ratings. I could see it being a 6 – 8 point drop. I am sure that another part of is was just how non competitive the games were in the first round. The other part of it is just fatigue with who is winning. I think there are a lot of people out there that are just not fans of James Harden. People really are sick of the Warriors. The Warriors are not like the Patriots where there are fans outside of Boston. The Patriots also have the anti fans that want to see the Patriots lose. I don’t get this feeling with the Warriors. People see that they are winning and just don’t watch. After this year the NBA probably won’t have that problem since I am fairly certain that at least a few of the Warriors players are going to move on to different teams this off season.
I was listening to an interview with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and he was talking about. I think it was on Golic and Wingo. Not sure though. Anyway he was asked about the problem the NBA has with certain star players not playing all 82 games. He brought up the possibility of shortening the season. As you know we complain about the long MLB, NBA, NHL and NASCAR seasons. We would like nothing more than to take a few games out of the season. The chance of that Happening though? ZERO. They always tell you that you should not say there is a hundred percent or zero percent chance of something happening. I can tell you there is a ZERO percent chance that they will shorten the season. Just follow the Money. If they shorten the season that will mean there is less revenue coming in. Between the Owners and the players who is going to be the group that takes less money to make up the difference? Neither of them will be willing to do that so that is how I know it will not happen. The other thing that a lot of people don’t think about it the impact the games have on businesses by the arenas. For many of these businesses the games are the difference between survival and having shut the doors. There is just to much involved to shorten the season. As long as people go there is no chance that the season will be shortened.
NFL – Brady Discount
Again the NFL gets headlines even with other sports doing more interesting things. Like deciding a champion. The NFL is having rookie camps and signing different players and that grabs all kinds of headlines. This week the big headline was about how much Tom Brady gets paid. I think is it smart of him to take slightly less money so the Patriots can sign other players. It Brady it making $18 million and another top quarterback is making $30 million. That leaves $12 million for the Patriots to use on other players. I do not fault any player for getting as much money as they can. It is their job. I can’t fault Brady for putting the premium on winning championships. It is just what he values more than being the highest paid player. Of course he can do that his wife earns much more money than he does.
The question then becomes is that fair to other teams? Teams where their star quarterback might not be in the same situation as Brady. Nah. It is just what they value. if you make 15 or 30 million a year you are crazy rich so you can get what ever you want. With the plan that Brady has he will win the championships and make that money up on the back end. It comes down to a business decision for each of them. What ever they decide I am good with.
Kentucky Derby – Scratch the Favorite
Who would have guessed that the favorite getting scratched a few days before the race would be the least interesting thing that happened in this race. Really it was quite a shock when Omaha Beach was scratched from the race. It happens though. Especially on something like an illness. Something that you have little to no control over. At 4 – 1 Omaha Beach was quite the favorite for the race so it really changed the dynamic of the race. If you are a bettor it became a dream if you are on that likes to bet on long shots.
After all this excitement during the week leading up to the race. The self proclaimed most interesting two minutes in sports did not disappoint. Actually it kind of did. The race was a mud fest and was pretty exciting. The winner of the race Maximum Security was disqualified. Giving the win to the second place finisher Country House. This was not a close race. Maximum Security won the race going away. So it was a bit odd that after a 20 plus minute delay that the Stewards of the race issued the disqualification. This is something that had never before happened in the Kentucky Derby. You are talking about 145 years of history. This had never been done.
I have heard some justification for what the steward did. It makes sence if you believe it was done for safety on the track. I find it very difficult to believe that this was done for honorable reasons.
On TV the Tube Not You
Game of Thrones and Starbucks. This is very interesting. HBO has said that they are now going to digitaly remove the Starbucks cup from the episode. This does not change my opinion of what happened here. People were all up in arms about how this could have happened. With all the eyes that look at this over and over. During the staging. The filming. In the post production. There has to be hundreds of eyes that looked at this before it was released to be show. That is why I believe that this was not an accident. It was product placement. Product placement for a show like Game of Thrones is difficult due to its setting. So to do this you have to do it by “accident”. No one can convince me that this was an accident. After the showing of that episode Starbucks stock hit an all time high. Every news cast was talking about it. They got the advertising that they paid for. Now that the agreement is over HBO is removing the cup. They can claim it was an accident Over time it will be a distant memory. Starbucks already go the boost they were looking for. It was a win for both of them. To that I say way to go finally some creative marketing rather than the same as it ever was.
The other big thing that happend for us is The Resident. It is really one of the shows that we really enjoy. They just had their season ending episode and it was really crazy. If you are a fan of medical shows then you should check this show out. It did get renewed for next year so we finally picked a new show that looks like it is going to make it. About time since we have been on a cold streak when picking new shows to watch.
The Week that Was is a Weekly recap of my sports observations. I try to publish the post every Tuesday morning. Making my week go from Tuesday to Monday. You can find last weeks post Here.
I am looking for people that are interested in writing posts on biglakesports.net If you are interested you can send me an email at jbigalke at biglakespots.net and we can go over what I am looking for and see if you are a fit. There would be no pay at this time but you would be able to put your writing out there and could post it on other sites if you wanted to.
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