The NBA unintentionally released the New York Rangers game 1 date by announcing the second-seeded New York Knicks opener date. Now, from an NHL perspective, that's both a bit of a slip-up and a heads-up.
With Madison Square Garden being such a historic venue for sports, you'd think both leagues would communicate, hoping to keep the playoff schedules under wraps until they're ready to make a big announcement.
From the NHL's point of view, it's a missed opportunity to build up the anticipation for the opener of what's expected to be a deep playoff run in the Big Apple by the NHL-leading Blueshirts.' Yet it was the NBA who beat the NHL to the punch.
So that leaves us with the question: Did the NBA intend to drop this scheduling bombshell and mess up the NHL? They could've waited a couple of days and completed their play-in rounds while the NHL finished their regular season. However, these leagues have teams of people working around the clock to make sure everything runs smoothly. So, the idea of a slip-up seems far-fetched.
