Many sports fans love an underdog!
If the team I cheer for can’t win, then I generally hope for the team that deserves the championship the most, and rarely would that be an underdog.
There are similarities to the championships that were handed out this week in the NHL and NBA.
Both the Vegas Golden Knights and Denver Nuggets won their first-ever titles.
Sure it may have taken the Nuggets a bit longer to do it (47 years compared to six for the Golden Knights) but let’s not spoil the facts.
Both Vegas and Denver never faced elimination in the playoffs; in other words, both teams won each of their four series in six games or less.
The Golden Knights and Nuggets were both Western Conference champions in the regular season (Vegas 51-22-9 and Denver 53-29) and started each series at home (both had the 4th best overall record in their respective league).
The Golden Knights dominated when they could taste blood winning all four series-clinching games by a margin of three or more goals in each contest.
The Golden Knights averaged 5.20 goals/game in the #StanleyCupFinal. Only 2 teams averaged more in a Cup Final all-time:
1932 Maple Leafs – 6.00
1973 Canadiens – 5.50#VegasBorn— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) June 14, 2023
Starting Goalies SV% vs #VegasBorn in 2023 Playoffs:
Connor Hellebuyck (First Round) – .886
Stuart Skinner (Second Round) – .875
Jake Oettinger (Conference Finals) – .877
Sergei Bobrovsky (Stanley Cup Final) – .844
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) June 14, 2023
Denver just won consistently going 16-4 overall while Vegas was 16-6.
Although both teams should be a contender for a few seasons to come, I don’t think either team will become a dynasty.
Having stated that it was clear that anyone that watched, even a little bit, that during the most important time of the season (playoffs), the Golden Knights in the NHL and the Nuggets in the NBA were the best teams and in reality, that is what the postseason should determine and did emphatically this year.
We knew it was going to be bad but holy hell. The Stanley Cup Finals national broadcast ratings down 43% this year from last year. It was the least viewed Stanley Cup Finals since 2007.
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) June 14, 2023
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The much-hyped home-ice or home-court advantage did not come into play much during the playoffs.
In fact one could make a case it was better to play away.
In the NHL, visiting teams were 47-41 in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, tying the record set in 2012 for most road victories in one postseason.
In the NBA, road teams were just 35-50 in the playoffs, however, visitors compiled a record of 10-6 in the most important series, the Conference Finals (7-4) and NBA Finals (3-2).
In crucial Game 7’s, the NHL had four of them (the road team went 2-2) and the NBA had three of them (the road team went 2-1).
This is just an example that battling all season for home-ice advantage is not as big a deal as the hype would suggest.
I believe that of the four major North American sports leagues, when it comes down to it, having the advantage of playing at home in the postseason, means the most in the NFL, the least in MLB with the NBA (2nd) and NHL (3rd) in between.
The winner takes it all. 🏆 #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/IB5QVNZPE1
— NHL (@NHL) June 14, 2023
Taking Note:
MJHL concerned about losing players to BCHL . . . Warriors’ assistant takes over Bisons . . . Thunderbirds get import from Oil Kings https://t.co/xsWwcpZjiH
— Gregg Drinnan (@gdrinnan) June 16, 2023
FROM THE QUOTE RACK:
Baseball has a stat ‘exit velocity.’ It refers to how fast A’s fans leave after another loss.
*Comedy writer Gary Bachman
New York Mets pitcher Drew Smith is the latest to be suspended 10 games for a sticky substance. Like the other pitchers, he says he is innocent, saying, in this case, it was just sweat and rosin. How long until we hear the “tainted rosin” defence?
*Comedy writer Janice Hough of Palo Alto, California
Denver not only won the NBA title, but it also became the first city that had had a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert scheduled to win a series, thereby nullifying a possible Taylor Swift Curse. ’See, we told you Taylor had nothing to do with a curse’, said one of her 73 ex-boyfriends.’
*Contributor Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, California
Longest-running soap operas: General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, Toronto Maple Leafs.
*Comedy writer Torben Rolfsen of Vancouver
ABC News reported a pair of bald eagles with twin hatchlings were nesting above an Arizona golf course. If you’re scoring at home, that’s a double eagle on top of two birdies.
*Comedy writer RJ Currie of Winnipeg
Hartley Miller is the news and sports supervisor plus morning news anchor for 94.3 the GOAT and Country 97fm. After growing up in Winnipeg, he has lived in Prince George for the last 44 years and completed his 10th season as the radio colour commentator on the Prince George Cougars home games. Hartley is the author of You Don’t Say (sports quotes).
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