Sorry if I’m distracted writing this Florida Panthers column.
I’m on a second keyboard simultaneously writing a Miami Heat column.
Both of our local teams are alive in the playoffs and — inexplicably and irretrievably — play Tuesday night to start an unfortunately overlapping schedule in what should be their rock fights of playoff series.
It’s like two cousins having simultaneous weddings. Can you be in two counties at once? Should you be asked to?
The Panthers drop the puck Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Tampa Bay Lightning in Sunrise in the second round of the NHL playoffs. The Heat tip off their Eastern Conference finals in Miami against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.
They play the same nights in all four home games in their respective series, too. How dumb is that? They clash on six of the scheduled seven games, if necessary. Take your bathroom breaks strategically, folks.
What will be a fun time, maybe a memorable time for South Florida sports is a little less so because of this overlapping schedule. It hurts the Panthers more than the Heat. The Panthers could use some stand-alone time. They need to build a fan base, and the playoffs are the time to do that.
Now they face two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay on the ice and blue-ribbon Heat on the schedule. How did such playoff fortune come with scheduling misfortune?
For starters, it’s uncharted water for the Panthers and Heat to play this deep in simultaneous playoffs. That’s typically the Panthers’ fault. They haven’t made a second round since 1996, while this is the ninth Eastern Conference finals for the Heat.
Here’s the larger truth of this scheduling fiasco: There’s no one looking out for local fans in this decision. It was dictated by TV executives looking out for their investments.
“The people making the decision aren’t thinking about [South Florida] fans wanting to see both games,” a network TV source said. “They’re thinking what’s best for ratings.”
After Boston advanced Sunday afternoon, ESPN had by contract the Eastern series with the Heat starting Tuesday night. The Panthers needed some help with other Sunday NHL games to side-step the Heat’s schedule. They got none.
They needed the New York Rangers to lose — and, with them, the New York market and national viewing to be out of the playoffs. The Rangers won in overtime.
The Panthers could have gotten help if the Dallas Stars won, because they share an arena owned by the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. But the Stars lost to Calgary, and that meant there would be no conflict for the Mavericks and no need to put the NHL on specific days in Dallas.
ESPN, with first choice, took the New York-Carolina series for Wednesday. That’s the slot the Panthers wanted. They were left with the Tuesday slot on TNT.
Where was NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman? Didn’t he need to stand up for the Panthers in this fight? Well, this is the first year the NHL is back to a big television stage with ESPN and TNT. He had little leverage in pushing for the Panthers’ best.
There was another telling, scheduling twist of where the NHL stands in pecking orders. Country singer Kane Brown’s concert Saturday in Tampa’s Amalie Arena pushed the series’ Game 3 to Sunday afternoon.
That’s the only reason the Panthers and Heat aren’t scheduled to clash all seven games. It also meant the Panthers and Lightning will play on ridiculous back-to-back days. That rarely happens in a playoff series.
Game 4 is Monday night in Tampa — same as the Heat’s Game 4 in Boston. It doesn’t matter that few season-ticket holders overlap or the Heat draw more from Miami-Dade and the Panthers from Broward and Palm Beach.
Still, these a first-world sports problems, the ones the lucky markets have. These are two, bare-knuckled series coming. The Panthers and Lightning tried to artificially create a rivalry going back to their expansion years in the 1990s.
There’s always been some boiling blood between these franchise. They’ve had more on-ice fights with each other than any other team, according to the site hockeyfights.com. Some of that’s because they’re in the same division and play more games. The Panthers have had 99 fights with Tampa players compared to second-place Philadephia at 81 fights
But when Tampa was contending for and winning a Stanley Cup in 2003, Lightning coach John Tortorella said the sad-sack Panthers weren’t a rival. “That can only happen in the playoffs,” he said.
All these years later it’s happening. Tampa Bay beat the Panthers in a tough series last year en route to second-straight Stanley Cup. Now they meet again. They’re as much a rival as the Panthers have by now.
Boston has a more layered history with the Heat. Dwyane Wade saying, “This won’t happen again,” when the Celtics took the Heat out of the 2010 playoffs in the first postseason of the Big Three era? LeBron James having 45 points and 15 rebounds in an era-changing Game 6 the next year?
“Danny Ainge needs to shut the f— up,” Heat president Pat Riley said after the Celtics general manager said LeBron was whining about officiating the next year.
Boston is a tough team this year. So is Tampa Bay. In any other year, these would be playoff series that would stand alone for intrigue. Now they arrive with a shared stage.
Heat vs. Celtics.
Panthers vs. Lightning.
Panthers vs. Heat.
Do you pick a team each night or split television screens? Is the pleasure and pain doubled, halved or squared? And what of us poor sports writers having to make a Sophie’s Choice?
Finally, there’s this to consider: Game 7 for each series is Sunday, May 29. It could rank as the most consequential date in South Florida sports history. Two teams. Two playoff prizes. And thousands of fans going crazy watching both games at once.
