from Patrick Reusse of 1500ESPN (also writes for the Star Tribune),
The difference between the NBA and the NHL in the playoffs is simple: In the NBA, you play to 105 points and the best team generally is going to win. In the NHL, you play to three goals and it's a coin flip.
During the Wild's series with the Blackhawks, hockey interest was high around here and people would ask me, even me, "Who is going to win tonight?''
My answer was consistent: "Don't know. It's going to be 2-2 in the final 10 minutes and then one team is going to score.''
Hockey fans embrace the unpredictably that has taken over the playoffs. Fair enough. But for me, it's more interesting to watch the two best basketball teams in the world play for a title, than a fifth seed against a sixth seed.
Among the Twitter ridicule from the puckheads toward the NBA was this: There have been eight franchises that have won the past 30 titles. To me, that means that in more than any sport, you have to put together a tremendous foundation to win a title.
And, if this is the criteria that lifts the NHL over the NBA - the variety in champions over the past three decades - then the NHL takes a back seat to baseball, the sport ridiculed most often for its lack of parity.
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