(the brutally oppressed duo of Rosen and Micheletti)
The New York Rangers’ Eastern Conference first-round quarterfinal best-of-7 playoff series commences Wednesday night at 7:30pm eastern at the MCI Center versus Washington. Trouble is, said contest conflicts with the Knicks’ regular season finale against the Celtics, a situation solved by MSG moving the hockey game to their not-nearly-as-widely-available MSG Plus channel. That’s not a sufficient scheme for Puck The Media’s Steve Lepore, however, who implores the public to “show the folks at Cablevision and MSG that a Ranger playoff game is more important than a regular season Knicks game…that you even have to is a sign that they don’t get it in the first place.”
I understand that the Knicks are having their adorable little revival love affair with the city of New York, and that has put them back as flavor of the week in the area. I know that, heartbreakingly, the Knicks regular season game might even draw higher ratings than the Rangers game. As sad and stupid as that is, it is very possible. The Knicks, even in their darkest days, were competitive -if not beating them outright – in the ratings with the Blueshirts. However, that does not make it right.
The very fact that this is even an issue is a joke. A playoff game in any sport trumps a regular season game in another sport. The Boston Bruins will be forcing the freaking Red Sox in New England to an alternate channel for their series against the Canadiens. I even get that Knicks playoff games will likely force the Rangers onto MSG Plus at other times during the first rounds of their respective playoff series. All that said, this decision to air a completely inconsequential basketball game over a playoff hockey game – and Game 1 of a series where the Rangers have a chance – is downright imbecilic.