Is the NHL better or more entertaining than the NFL?
Scott Burnside: If Lady Gaga never performs at an NHL game, does that mean the NHL is a lesser product? Um, no. Listen, the Super Bowl has in many ways become bigger than the game itself. Maybe that's what the NFL strives for. Maybe it covers up multiple flaws in what is often a pedestrian, often plodding game. I love the NFL, but it's not the NHL, and when we get to April and the Stanley Cup playoffs begin, the best tournament in sports begins. Nothing is better than the first round of the NHL playoffs, the most demanding of any pro sport, bar none. In terms of emotion and the will to win, the NHL stands alone; it stands the test of time. The NFL's first round this season was a debacle. A waste of time. So was every game except the Dallas Cowboys-Green Bay Packers divisional-round game. Boring. The NHL? My guess is that word won't be used at any point this spring while we look for the 2017 Stanley Cup winner to be named.
Corey Pronman: Football was actually my first passion in sports. I loved the technical details. I studied playbooks and formations, did film work at a local school. Loved it. To be a hockey fan is to love the game in spite of the results. Like soccer, the low-event nature of the game can lead to results that don't indicate the talent on the field of play. Of the four major American sports, hockey has the most luck of them all in its full-season schedule. You love hockey for the flow, the pace, the skill, the intensity and, most importantly, the nature of the game. Baseball and football have more methodical, strategic natures than hockey and soccer, which are full of events, action and the impending stress of a massive change in the game in a single moment (although football has the latter, to some degree). If you love that, hockey is for you.
Pierre LeBrun: After a Super Bowl like we had Sunday night, the timing for this question isn't exactly perfect. My goodness! How do you ever top that Super Bowl? What I would say, though, in the NHL's defense is that the playoffs over two months offer almost nightly gems. It's an incredible ride over four rounds. In fact, other than the amazing Super Bowl on Sunday night and the terrific Packers-Cowboys game (which still hurts), the NFL playoffs had a lot of duds this year. The NHL playoffs rarely has many duds.
Craig Custance: In terms of pure game play and the skill it takes to compete, I'll stack the NHL up against any other sport in the world. But there's nothing in hockey that compares to the way this country shuts down to watch the Super Bowl. You could have Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals between the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins this year, and it wouldn't generate a Super Bowl-level buzz. That's just the reality. It's one of my biggest issues with the NHL: Too many people inside the sport seem completely content to keep it at the level it is now, despite the fact that the on-ice product is as good as it's ever been and only getting better. We're about to enter an era of skill and speed unlike any the NHL has ever seen; I just wish the on-ice creativity were met with a similar creativity off the ice to catapult the sport to the place it belongs next to the others.
Joe McDonald: Even the morning after Super Bowl LI, I'm here to say there's no better sport to watch live than an NHL game, especially during the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's the most difficult championship to win in all of pro sports. I've been fortunate enough in my career to watch firsthand what it takes to win a Super Bowl, a World Series and a Stanley Cup. Each is special, challenging and rewarding in its own way for the players who win, but the road to a Stanley Cup championship is unlike anything I've witnessed. Hockey's regular season is 82 games. Then it could take 28 more games to hoist the Cup. From a pure excitement standpoint, I don't see how anyone could vote against the NHL. See, in hockey, you're either a fan or you're not. Unlike the NFL, especially on Super Bowl Sunday, there are no fair-weather fans in hockey.