What The NHL May Have Lost With The Devils Winning The East Instead of The Rangers

The NHL would have much preferred these two going up against each other, rather than Quick v. Brodeur.

 As the puck slowly slide towards the goal line and eventually over it last night, my first reaction was really? An epic series was going to end without a Game 7? Come on, it's actually not going to happen? And then I thought, we're not going to have L.A. vs. N.Y.? It was like all the bad things that could happened, happened all in one split second. But then I realized one good thing, at least we're not going to see the Coyotes and the Devils. That would have been scary. I'm also sure the NHL was quite relieved that the Kings took care of business quite easily, but I'm also confident that they league was praying that the Rangers could have pulled it out. The Devils winning the East wasn't the end of the world for the league, but I think it does take away from what could have been a major step in the right direction for the NHL.

Imagine if it was New York and Los Angeles? West Coast vs. East Coast? Two relatively unsuccessful, yet major franchises going at it for their newest chance at glory and in the Kings case, their first ever. Both squads had their shot at glory in the 90s(Kings in '93 and Rangers in '94) but only New York took advantage. This would have been a great opportunity for L.A. to get theirs against their far east rival, but it simply wouldn't be so. Also consider the other markets affected by this series. San Jose and the rest of Northern California would root heavily for the Rangers, being that their down south rival thinks their city is the greatest in the world. On the other end, both Philly and Boston would be rooting for the Kings as their inferiority complexes would flame up. New York, L.A. would have been fantastic for the sport of hockey and for the NHL. Just look at what the Boston and Vancouver series did for the league? Everyone seemingly was rooting for Boston because they incorrectly thought that it was U.S.A vs. Canada even though there were plenty of American players on the Canucks. Honestly for the NHL it doesn't matter why people watch, as long as they're watching.

I'm not saying this Kings, Devils series isn't going to be great, or that no one will watch it. I'm just saying that something about west coast vs. east coast would unite the country in a way only really the Olympics can. And honestly, Jersey is Jersey, and the Prudential Center isn't the mecca of sports like the Garden is. Leaving the Garden dormant for another June is just a travesty to the Arena. This will be the 12th straight June that neither basketball and hockey will played in MSG and that is just seriously unfortunate.

I didn't really believe the Rangers had a great chance against the sizzling hot Kings, and I don't really think the Devils do either. Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty and co. have the zoned-in Jonathan Quick and if the "hot goalie" syndrome has showed us anything in the past, you can be sure that the Kings will have the upper hand. But that isn't the point.

As epic a series this upcoming one may be, the Rangers/Kings one would have been that much more memorable.