Sports Time Radio

I’m not sure how many people know this or are even paying attention to it, but the NHL regular season ends tonight and the playoffs actually start tonight. Did you know that?

The NHL playoffs kick of with just one game as the Washington Capitals host the Boston Bruins in an 1st round game in the East. Puck drop is schedule for 6:15 p.m. and the game will be on NBC.

Of course the one thing that the NHL has yet to work out is what will happen with the Canadian teams. On the plus side at least we know which four teams have qualified for the playoffs out of what was called the North division this season. One of the drawbacks is they still have regular season games to play do to some of them being postponed due to Covid-19. The other issue will be can whichever team wins the divisional playoffs be able to have whoever they’re scheduled to play come into Canada for playoff games.

The first two rounds of the playoffs are played within each of the four realigned divisions created for the 2020-21 season, including the all-Canadian North Division. But in the third round, the final four teams play each other. Currently, U.S. teams would be prohibited from playing in Canada without mandatory quarantines that would be impossible within the postseason calendar. The lone Canadian team remaining would either travel back and forth across the border against a U.S. opponent in the semifinals or, instead of playing its home games in Canada, would be housed in a U.S.-based arena for the semifinals and possibly the Stanley Cup Finals if the Canadian team advances to those.

The NHL had a conversation with the Canadian government eight days ago and presented them with a list of questions that they’ll need answered. The NHL has also set a June 1st deadline for the Canadian government to respond to them.

The NHL has looked at moving those playoff games into the U.S. if they have to and the oddity behind that is there would be actually be fans at these games. Fans are not currently permitted at home games for Canadian teams, while every U.S. team has been allowed to have fans at a limited capacity in its arena. In theory, the Canadian teams would have fans at home games played at neutral site U.S. arenas.

What may help the NHL will be the fact we’re only talking about one Canadian province. Right now there are four providences that are being dealt with, but obviously only one of those teams will advance out of the divisional playoffs.

The NHL is also hoping that since they’ve had very strict guidelines when it comes to their Covid-19 protocols that the Canadian government will be more receptive to their travel needs.

Here’s hoping that the Canadian government will allow travel between the United States and Canada; so the NHL can hold their playoffs.

One of thing I always like to pint out at this point in the Major League Baseball season is that it’s only May, but there are a lot of people especially in the media that just don’t seem to understand that.

If you remember just a couple of weeks ago it seemed as though everybody in the media was trying to figure out what was wrong with the New York Yankees. Now the Yankees where the trendy pick coming into this season to represent the American League in the World Series, but they got off to a slow start and their was nothing but panic for those media personalities that went on television somewhere and picked them. I just laughed every time I heard someone bring it up and we even discussed it on the Sports Time Radio podcast.

Well look here we’ve played just about 40 games in this baseball season and the Yankees who where in last place in the American League east at one point in time very and I mean very early in the season are now 20-17 and 2 games behind the division leading Boston Red Sox in that A.L. East.

Of course now that the Yankees seem to be back on track the media had to turn it’s attention to another team that a lot of them where backing to go to the World Series out of the National League; the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After getting off to a 13-2 start to the season everyone was convinced that the Dodgers would run away with more or less everything. Yeah after just 15 games this was the consensus; ridiculous right.

Well unfortunately the Dodgers suffered some injuries and their pitching hit a bit of a rough patch. Of course they weren’t going to continue winning 13 out of every 15 games, but the media led everyone to believe they would. As the Dodgers began to slip back to the pack in the National League West the panic set in and every show about baseball asked the question; what is wrong with the Dodgers?

They answer is plain and simple. They play 162 games in a full baseball regular season and teams are going to have to deal with injuries and they’ll have their ups and downs. Did the media really think that the Dodgers where going to continue to win at a .866 clip? If any of them did they’re incredibly stupid for thinking that.

The panic set in even more when the Dodgers fell into 3rd place in the N.L. West behind not only the San Diego Padres who where expected to be the Dodgers main competition this season, but also the San Francisco Giants. It’s actually the Giants who are holding onto 1st place in the N.L. West, but before you think it’s all gloom and doom for the Dodgers like you’ve been told it’s not. Los Angeles has won it’s last three games and are just 2 games behind the Giants in the N.L. west with a record of 21-17.

I guess the moral of the story here is any time you hear or see some baseball reporter loosing their mind because a team is struggle don’t but it just yet. It’s still way too early in the season to worry about any team hitting a rough patch and losing a few games in a row. A good team can easily turn things around and win just as many games in a row as they lost and be right back on track. Remember it’s only May!

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You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime