NHL has three Game 7's.. Coincidence? I think not

By Scott

I am forever pondering conspiracies.  Was Lyndon B. Johnson responsible for John F. Kennedy's assassination?  Did we actually land on the moon?  Was Kurt Cobain murdered?  Is the chicken at school every actually cooked?  All of these rank as matters of national security, or at least at a close level.  But, an even more intriguing conspiracy is that of the 2008-2009 NHL Playoffs.  Look, if you don't believe that major sports aren't fixed, you need to wake up.  They are, and they have been forever.  I'm not saying that every game and season are fixed, but in times of a struggling economy or a sport going stale calls for a fixed game or two, and understandably so.  And, this year's NHL playoffs only support my point.

First off, Crosby vs. Ovechkin.  Are you kidding me?  Do you think it's a coincidence that this matchup even came to fruition in the first place?  (Remember when the Rangers were up 3-1 in the series and then Henrik Lundqvist suddenly deformed from impassable to terrible?...just saying.)  The NHL's two most marketable players facing off in the playoffs equals a nice payday for the league office, as well as plenty of face-time around ESPN and the internet as a whole.  So, how can they not force this thing into 7 games?  The NHL is in dire need of attention as they continue their climb back into a powerhouse league.  Commissioner Gary Bettman will milk and hype this rivalry up as much as possible in years to come, and rest assured, this isn't the last time the Penguins and Capitals will play a 7-game series in the playoffs.

How about the fact that the Canadiens and Rangers just happened to snag the last two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.  The Florida Panthers were in perfect striking distance of clinching their first playoff spot since 2000.  That is, until the last few games of the season in which the Panthers when they mysteriously fell into a slump, and ended up tied with the Canadiens with for the 8th spot, which the Canadiens won with the tiebreaker.  Regardless, as the NHL is fighting keeps its marketability up in hopes that ESPN will pick up a t.v. contract with them once their current contract with Versus is over.  And they just somehow managed to sneak two of the biggest markets in hockey into the playoffs.  It is clearly no coincidence that Montreal's 100th year of existence, ended with the berth of a playoff spot rather than the small-market Florida Panthers.  And, the same goes for the Rangers.  Could they have been strategically placed in the 7th spot allowing Ovechkin and the Caps to play a series in New York, which also allowed Montreal to stay in the 8th spot, facing off with Boston to rekindle an old playoff rivalry?  Hmm...

So, as the playoffs narrow down, Anaheim and Carolina will be eliminated.  The league cannot afford to have either small-market team in the Stanley Cup Finals, and neither will advance farther than their respective conference finals, if they can get that far.  Other than that, the league has done a wonderful job of setting up a flawless combination of potential championship matchups.  They could have a rematch of last year's finals with Detroit and Pittsburgh, a hungry hockey city in Chicago make a triumphant return to Lord Stanely's Finals, or the Bruins make an appearance.  Regardless, any matchup of those 4 would draw sufficient viewers and hype to bring the NHL back to prominence, but it won't be done without a little bit of string and puppet play from the league office.