Ryan Whitney Explains Why Scoring Is Up In The Stanley Cup Playoffs

On today's Pardon My Take... RYAN WHITNEY! The longtime recurring guest of the show joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter on the show to cover all angles of the NHL Playoffs, an update on his elite golf game, and answering an awful, but hilarious, question at the end of the interview. 

When the guys were breaking down the Stanley Cup Playoffs, one of the topics that came up included the increase of scoring in the postseason. It seems like each night, more and more goals are being scored. Why is this the case? Whitney gave his take on today's show.

Mr. Cat: It used to always be just, take the under, like, teams play defense, guys block shots, the teams play more conservatively, they try not to make as many mistakes. What's going on this year? Because it's basically the opposite. It used to be every time we get to the playoffs, you can just basically bank on like 2-1, 3-2 games, and now, it's just every night, everyone's scoring.

Ryan Whitney: So the league changed this year, maybe a little bit last year, where scoring exploded, and like, watching as many games and reading articles, it's like, no one really has that much of an explanation as to why. I mean, the talent is unreal, the game is faster, quicker. The playoffs is staying the same, I think, because of all the penalties called. So, like, people's complaint right now is that it doesn't even feel like hockey some games, where, you know, most of the time in the playoffs you're hoping for 46 to 50 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey, maybe two or three power plays for each team, and then you're going to see a real winner based on 5-on-5.

Ryan Whitney: It has turned into just survive 5-on-5, wait until you get a power play. And now, teams' power plays are so good. You see the Panthers, they have five forwards on their power play, like, most teams are at least just one defenseman. 

Ryan Whitney: So I think that the scoring staying up has a lot to do with the power plays and also just the game's good right now. I think hockey's, I think the ratings are up. Shout out to our boy Biz Nasty, talking about them Big Ole Titty's in Dallas on TNT.

More penalties = more power plays = more goals. That is the formula for this scoring madness, according to the one and only Ryan Whitney. Will we still be seeing higher scoring games throughout the postseason? Time will tell.

Remember to check out Whit, Biz, RA, and Grinnelli on Spittin' Chiclets throughout the playoffs!