Is There A Method to the NHL’s Madness?

While fans of every major North American sport will make their case as to why their sport’s postseason is superior, it is undeniable that the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs are up there in terms of game pace, brutality, and, most importantly, unpredictability. And sure, the latter can usually be chalked up to the fast-paced, lucky-bounce laden nature of the game. These playoffs, however, have been outright chaotic. To merely say that the hockey world was flipped on its head after this year’s first round would be a gross understatement.

For instance, take what might be arguably the most monumental collapse in sports history, ever. The juggernaut Tampa Bay Lightning, which tied an NHL regular season record with 62 wins and were favorites to steamroll their way through the playoffs, became the first team in league history to win the regular season title and not win a single playoff game, whimpering out in four games to a Columbus Blue Jackets team that treaded water between the trade deadline and playoffs. The kicker was that it was also the first series win in Columbus franchise history. Then consider the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team that had won two of the last three Stanley Cups but got swept by a New York Islanders group that was predicted by many analysts to be near the basement of the league at the start of the season. On top of that, all four division leaders were ousted in the first round for the first time in NHL history. The defending champion, namely the Washington Capitals, which paced the Metropolitan Division, blew a 2-0 series lead and lost in seven games to a young Carolina Hurricanes squad that had just broken a 10-year long franchise postseason dry spell. The St. Louis Blues, which were dead last in the league around New Year’s Day, performed a massive midseason to reach the second round. And as if that isn’t enough, the San Jose Sharks capped off the first round with a bang, clawing out of a 3-0 hole in the final period of Game 7 en route to overcoming a 3-1 series deficit against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Clearly, it’s not the year of the powerhouses. In fact, only three of the eight teams to advance to the second round this year were the higher seed in the first round, as opposed to seven last season, so a lot of new blood is chasing the Cup this time around. The question of how such an unusual turnover would actually benefit viewership and the overall growth of the game has in the last few weeks become a lot more relevant to both devoted NHL fans and executives patrolling the league’s bottom line.

From an overall perspective, viewership ratings have been pretty impressive. These playoffs have been the most watched through one round in seven years and have had cable viewership go up by an astonishing 18 percent from last year, making it the most-watched first round on cable since 1994. Narrowing the scope, the Capitals-Hurricanes double overtime finale became the most-watched first round game on cable on record, up a mouthwatering 16 percent from the previous record that stood since 2000.

Now, seeing as Carolina often gets ragged on as one of the league’s weakest markets, it’s fairly uncharacteristic to see their team as part of a game that set records in the viewership department. However, the fact that overall viewership peaked right after the game’s first overtime suggests that people just gravitate toward close winner-takes-all encounters, regardless of which teams are involved. This year’s statistical jumps come on the strength of 10 overtime thrillers and three Game 7s, so the NHL is no stranger to a close tilt.

2019 has thus far been great to small market teams like Carolina, which can’t afford to spend to the brim of the salary cap year in and year out. In fact, the Hurricanes, Islanders, and Colorado Avalanche all advanced to the second round while being in the bottom five in the league in total player payroll. So, in essence, this isn’t a game of the rich getting richer, like in association football or the NBA. Rather, people start out equally “middle-class” and work toward the top with what they got. An internal salary cap that an NHL team sets for itself should not impede its abilities to ice a competitive roster, and these three teams have each done a marvelous job stockpiling talent despite financial hurdles.

Such parity in the league has been crucial in creating fervent hockey markets in cities that would’ve otherwise never anticipated them. For example, the Nashville Predators, which entered the postseason with the least amount of points of any playoff team that year, went on an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2017. While they didn’t take home the ultimate prize, they were able to start something of a hockey culture in Tennessee. No game was complete without the Nashville crowd’s unique chants, and every playoff game sold out. A year later, the Vegas Golden Knights turned Las Vegas into a hockey home, defying all expansion team expectations by winning their division and playing their way to the Stanley Cup Final with a group of players other teams had left for the taking in the Expansion Draft. In both of these cases, on-ice success superseded any doubts that had persisted about how “hospitable” these areas were for professional hockey. The 2019 Hurricanes might be the continuation of this phenomenon, as their successes and engagement with fans have helped raise their average attendance from a third-worst 14,322 per game during the regular season to a fourth-best 19,092 in the postseason.

So, in short, the NHL wins when chaos governs the ice in the playoffs. The success of teams that aren’t your classic money makers like New York, Detroit, or Chicago still benefits the league by helping to bring the game to new fans while not sacrificing the quality of hockey going into May and June. It stands to be seen whether one of these smaller teams can truly break the sporting world by making their way to the Cup, but one thing is certain: we’ve got some fun weeks to look forward to.