NHL, NBA Postseasons Begin

The NHL and NBA are both set to embark on their postseasons as teams compete for their respective trophies in one of the most exciting times of the year for sports fans. The NHL regular season just wrapped up last night and the NBA’s play-in bracket also concluded as their playoffs have officially begun today.

Both final playoff brackets include 16 teams, though the way those teams were selected differ. The NHL’s are simply the top 8 teams in each conference points-wise, while the NBA hosts a play-in tournament for teams seeded 7-10. Those mid-tier teams must go through each other first to make it into the final two spots in each conference’s bracket.

Let’s take a look at each of these major leagues’ playoff pictures.

The NHL

The NHL’s postseason officially begins on Monday, but the playoff picture was only set in stone as of last night as the regular-season games concluded.

There were quite a few surprises leading into the postseason for the League and its fans. First and foremost, the Pittsburgh Penguins missed out on the playoffs for the first time in sixteen seasons, the longest playoff streak in all pro sports. Almost immediately, the team announced major changes in their front office, firing their general manager, assistant general manager, and president of hockey operations the next morning. Several other teams who missed the playoffs also made changes, as the Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets both fired their coaches and the Anaheim Ducks announced they would not extend their own coach’s contract.

In the last week, the Penguins were mentioned 21.55K times, though as with all sports teams this doesn’t represent the whole picture as certainly many people refer to them just by their nickname (i.e., “Penguins”) or their nickname’s nickname (i.e., “Pens”). 61.7% of this conversation was negative in its sentiment, as the top themes of discussion talked about the Penguins’ first miss in so long, failed hockey ops leadership, and if the core three players’ careers were being squandered. Interestingly, Reddit was the top platform in terms of discussion volume and most influential users, which is not something we see often.

Another plotline is the record-breaking Boston Bruins. This juggernaut squad took the NHL by storm this year, winning the most games in a season ever, with 65, and most points ever, with 135. They clinched both their playoff spot and the President’s Trophy (for the team with the most points) incredibly early and it seems unlikely that anyone will be able to beat them. However, it is the playoffs, and anything can happen. [Editor's note from the future, during a Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers Cup Final: anything did happen.]

Like with the Penguins, Reddit was again the top-volume source of digital conversation, revealing a vibrant hockey community on this platform we don’t see much of in the mainstream news coverage.

Round 1 of the NHL playoffs begin on Monday evening.

The NBA

The NBA’s postseason has already begun, with its first games taking place this afternoon! Now that we’re past the play-in tournament, the competitive landscape can be revealed.

The play-in works by the 7th and 8th seeded teams playing each other while the 9th and 10th seeded teams play each other. The winner of the higher-seeded game automatically moves on to the 7th seed position, while the loser of the higher-seeded game plays the winner of the lower-seeded game; the winner of this match then takes the 8th seed. The Western play-in winners were the L.A. Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves while the Eastern play-in winners were the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat.

Over the last week, the NBA Play-In has been mentioned a stunning 299.2K times, with a surge starting on April 11-12, when the games began. Interestingly, mentions of this bracket format were 63.3% negative, and as it only began during the pandemic it seems that fans’ responses are mixed about this expanded format. Meanwhile in the NHL, journalists and commentators like Greg Wyshynski are pushing for a similar play-in format, again to mixed feedback from fans.

Meanwhile, the NBA has seen its own share of controversy in the end of its season, as the Dallas Mavericks have faced backlash from its own players as well as fans and the league itself for allegedly sabotaging their own postseason chances. Star player Luka Doncic candidly shared that he was unhappy with his team’s management and performance, while the NBA later fined the organization for resting key players when they should have still been competing hard.

More controversy came from early on in the playoff round, as the Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert appeared to hit his teammate during a mid-game huddle. While this action is certainly concerning to management and fans, some fans online saw the humor in the moment, recalling the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when Gobert notably did not believe in the virus and ran around touching other people and their belongings. Sentiment around Gobert’s name is overwhelmingly poor, with 87.7% negatively coded mentions.

The NBA playoff games are ongoing! We look forward to seeing which teams win each league this season and what other storylines develop.

Original story on the SMLC Blog.