Best of Yardbarker: Talking about playoffs
Yes, baseball season is here, and yes, the NFL Draft is right around the corner — but it's that time of year when the NHL and NBA postseasons take over. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are already underway, while the NBA Playoffs commence Saturday.
The Edmonton Oilers are one of the biggest feel-good stories of these playoffs, finally getting back to the postseason for the first time in more than a decade. That's thanks in large part to 2015 top overall pick Connor McDavid, who at 20 years old led the NHL in points. In honor of McDavid's incredible season, let's start with the 'Connor McDavid is the future and the future is now' quiz:
McDavid's Oilers are among the borderline teams of the 2017 NHL playoffs living on the edge: "This team has tremendous depth at center (McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl) and left wing (Milan Lucic and Patrick Maroon). Add Cam Talbot, who tops all goalies this season in games started, wins, saves and fewest goals allowed, and this is a team that will impress for the next few years."
Seeing as this is McDavid's first postseason run and given the Oilers' lack of playoff experience, it's no surprise that Edmonton is not among the Stanley Cup Playoffs Western Conference favorites, though the perennially contending Chicago Blackhawks are: "While the rest of the conference started to skid last month, the Blackhawks powered their way to the top of the standings. Not surprising, with their recent playoff history, they enter the 2017 playoffs as a heavy favorite."
As for the Eastern Conference favorites in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs, is this the year the Washington Capitals finally live up to their regular-season billing? "Their already-dominant squad got a mid-season boost with the addition of mega-trade Kevin Shattenkirk. They have gotten scoring from up and down the lineup, not just from Alex Ovechkin. And netminder extraordinaire Braden Holtby is coming off another Vezina Trophy-worthy campaign"
The Caps, Blackhawks and Oilers are all among the top storylines going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs:
Turning to the NBA playoffs, all eyes turn toward the Golden State Warriors yet again to see how they'll do reintegrating Kevin Durant back into the lineup. That leads in to the 'Kevin Durant is ready for his postseason close-up' quiz:
While Durant will take center stage, an aging former star continues plugging along, participating in the NBA postseason yet again with the Memphis Grizzlies. We're talking about Vince Carter, of course, who continues defying Father Time at 40 years old: "Carter has scored in all but four of his appearances this season, and for the most part, bringing Carter off of the bench has meant guaranteed contribution of some sort for Memphis."
While the Warriors and Grizzlies are among the Western Conference representatives in the 2016-17 NBA Playoffs, other teams are not so fortunate, having failed to make the playoffs. Where did it all go wrong? We present a post-mortem for a few NBA teams: "During a season where the Knicks brought back countless former players to celebrate their 70th anniversary, the lasting memory is of All-Star big man Charles Oakley being dragged out of the arena and thrown in jail."
Unsurprisingly, the Knicks are one of the teams that didn't make the postseason we looked at. So are they on right track or off the rails? We suggest the best path toward title contention them, among other teams: "The best course of action for the Knicks would be to finally work with Anthony — who has a no-trade clause — this summer on moving him to a team of his choice and getting assets in return. That way, they can start building around Porzingis. But this being the Knicks, do you really expect them to take the most reasonable course of action this summer?"
Enjoy the playoffs and the holiday weekend. Hopefully it will lead to a less stressful summer than the Knicks are facing.
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