I've Changed

For many years the NHL postseason was far and away my favorite. But now it is 2 1/2 hours into this year's Stanley Cup playoffs, and I'm already pretty sure that I won't be expending all that much energy on keeping track of the goings-on of the next two months. This probably says more about me than about the "new" game. I've enjoyed post-lockout hockey the few times I have actually sought it out on OLN or Fox Sports. But my index finger isn't trained to land on channel 65, so there have been few instances where I've just fallen into a game and stuck with it for a few minutes. Also, there's basically no good hockey writing (the guy in the SF Chronicle is pretty good, but the Free Press is deathly boring) out in newspapers, which makes it exceptionally difficult to follow a season that is a month longer than the NBA's.

As I post this overtime between Detroit and Edmonton is beginning. Overtime is one of the great things about the NHL postseason, in that the games are theoretically infinite and there are no TV timeouts. My sense is that this will be a developing situation. As long as the Red Wings are still alive, I imagine I'll pay more than passing interest in what's going on. But given the choice between the hockey and basketball playoffs, it's not even close. On the other OLN has a great commerical with a roaring bear standing next to Stanley Cup, which might be reason enough to keep watching.

By the way, your official FFH NBA Finals prediction: Pistons over Dallas in 6 games.