The City That Competes: New York Area’s NHL, NBA Quintet All In the Playoffs

Cal Clutterbuck didn’t know until Saturday morning that the Islanders are part of a historic chapter in New York sports that continued mere hours after he spoke inside the locker room at the team’s practice facility in East Meadow.

Now that he knows, he still doesn’t really care. 

“My sentimentality doesn’t exist,” the ever-laconic and blunt fourth-line rabble rouser said after finding out the Islanders will be joined in the playoffs this spring by the Big Apple’s four other wintertime teams — the rival Rangers and Devils in the NHL and the NBA’s Knicks and Nets. 

The quintet will be chasing championships just months after the Yankees and Mets both reached the Major League Baseball playoffs in the same season for just the fifth time and the NFL’s Giants made the postseason for the first time in six years.

Despite the plethora of playoff teams, the odds of New York’s championship drought ending this spring or early summer are still long. 

The Knicks, who won Game 1 of their first-round series over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night, have the sixth-longest title-winning odds (+4500) at DraftKings. The Nets, fresh off a lopsided Game 1 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, have the longest odds (+70000).

The Rangers and Devils, who are playing each other in a first-round series beginning Tuesday night, are tied for the fifth-best Stanley Cup odds (+1200). The Islanders (+5000), the last team to clinch a playoff berth, have the longest odds.

A Rangers/Knicks or Devils/Knicks conference champions parlay is +34400 at DraftKings, meaning a $10 wager would net $3,450. An Islanders/Knicks conference champions parlay is +39800, meaning a $10 wager would net just shy of $4,000. 

For those who really want to make a Hail Mary wager — or, more appropriately, heave a full-court prayer — uniting the Nets with one of their local hockey brethren in a conference champions parlay is the way to go. 

The odds of the Nets and the Rangers or Devils winning their conferences is a whopping +225650, which would yield a $22,575 payout on a $10 wager. And that’s couch change compared to a potential Nets/Islanders conference championship pairing — +632000, or just over $63,000 on a $10 investment.

Still, after so many quiet or downright silent springs in New York, long shots are better than none, especially when they are accompanied by the possibility of the Yankees and Mets again reaching the playoffs and Aaron Rodgers eventually joining the Jets and giving the area a chance at two playoff teams in the NFL for the first time since 2006.

This marks the first time eight of the area’s big four teams have made the playoffs within the same 12-month period. Only the Jets (of course) missed out, and they were 7-4 last fall before a season-ending six-game losing streak. 

Of course, with the Carolina Hurricanes awaiting the Islanders in a first-round series that begins tonight, Clutterbuck has other things to think about than unprecedented periods of time in New York. 

“I’m sure you’re better off probably roaming the streets of the city or one of the suburbs to find out how excited people are about that,” Clutterbuck said before a wry grin crawled to his face as he referenced the Islanders’ anonymous nature. “I’m sure those people would be so shocked to even find out what the Islanders are.”

No question, the TKO of Toronto ranks as the @NYIslanders biggest win of the season. #CalClutterbuck's 2 goals symbolizes the effectiveness of the 3 and 4th line. The Energy unit now is in old-time form which is good news. Sorokin is a legitimate Vezina Trophy candidate.

— Stan Fischler (@StanFischler) March 22, 2023

People might also be shocked to find out this is the first time all five wintertime New York-area teams have made the playoffs since 1994. 

That momentous spring was highlighted by the Rangers and Knicks making it to the championship rounds in their respective leagues — runs they began by beating the Islanders and Nets, respectively, in the first round and highlighted for the Rangers by a seven-game win over the Devils in a classic seven-game Eastern Conference final. 

The Rangers and Knicks turned Madison Square Garden into the center of the sporting universe by playing postseason games on the same day May 1 — the Knicks beat the Nets 90-81 in Game 2 of their series and the Rangers defeated the Washington Capitals 6-3 in the opener of a conference semifinal — and then on consecutive nights seven times over the next six weeks.

The month-and-a-half in the spotlight concluded June 14-15, when the Rangers finally won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1940 by edging the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 7 and the Knicks evened the NBA Finals with a 91-82 Game 4 victory over the Houston Rockets.

The Knicks moved within a win of their first title since 1973 two nights later, but Hakeem Olajuwon got a piece of John Starks’ 3-pointer just as the buzzer sounded in the Rockets’ 86-84 win in Game 6 and then Starks went 2-for-18 in a 90-84 loss in Game 7.

The Rangers and Knicks are still waiting to end their championship droughts — as are the Islanders, who haven’t won it all since earning the last of their four straight championships in 1983, and the Nets, who are seeking their first title since winning the final ABA crown in 1976. The Devils followed up their near-miss against the Rangers in 1994 by winning the Stanley Cup in 1995 — their first of three titles, though the most recent was in 2003.

Of course, the Big Apple’s wintertime teams aren’t the only ones seeking to quench their title thirst. The most recent New York-area champion is the football Giants, who authored their second championship game upset of the New England Patriots in a 21-17 win in Super Bowl 46 on Feb. 5, 2012.

The 10 full seasons between championships — this would be 11 — is the longest in New York since 1905-19, when the only professional teams in town were baseball’s Yankees, Giants and the Brooklyn Superbas/Dodgers/Robins. The NFL and NBA had not yet been founded and the NHL was based entirely in Canada.

Outside of the summer of 2021 — when Kevin Durant’s “big-ass” foot resulted in a game-tying instead of a series-winning shot against the eventual NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks and the Islanders fell to the eventual Stanley Cup-winning Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0 in Game 7 of the NHL semifinals — there have been few championship near-misses in the Big Apple over the last decade-plus.

The Nets were inches away from the Eastern Conference Finals on KD last-second shot in regulation. pic.twitter.com/dmjlUZItsk

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) June 20, 2021

With the Sacramento Kings making the NBA playoffs this season, the Jets have the longest postseason drought in the four major sports. The Giants and Jets were each 22-59 from 2017-21 — tying one another for the worst record in the NFL — before the Giants returned to relevancy under first-year head coach Brian Daboll last season.

The Yankees haven’t made the World Series since their most recent title in 2009, which is the third-longest stretch between Fall Classic appearances in franchise history. The Mets, still seeking their first title since 1986, made the World Series in 2015, when they fell to the Kansas City Royals in five games.

All three hockey teams have endured lengthy rebuilds since the last time they all reached the playoffs at the same time in the spring of 2007. The Islanders’ current run of success — seven trips to the playoffs in the last 11 years and consecutive appearances in the NHL semifinals in 2020 and 2021 — came after they finished last in the Atlantic Division five straight times from 2007-08 through 2011-12.

The Rangers reached a Stanley Cup Final and the conference finals three times in four years from 2012-15 but won just one playoff round over the next six seasons before advancing to the final four last spring. And this playoff berth for the Devils is just their second in the last 11 years. 

Things have actually been worse on the hardwood. 

The Knicks are in the playoffs for just the third time in the last 10 years and are seeking their second postseason series win since 2001. They haven’t been to the NBA Finals since 1999. The Nets have won two playoff series since the spring of 2007, a span in which they’ve tanked, moved and twice failed miserably to build a superteam.

Even Clutterbuck knows how a championship drought in New York is amplified by how well teams representing a certain rival city 215 miles or so to the northeast have fared.

The Patriots and Red Sox have combined to win five titles since the New York area’s last championship while the Patriots, Bruins and Celtics have fallen in the championship round three additional times.

And this spring, the Bruins are the overwhelming favorite to win the Stanley Cup after setting NHL records for most wins (65) and points (135) in a season while the Celtics are the second seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

“Obviously, New York sports has always been sort of the marquee and pinnacle,” Clutterbuck said. “So to have all the teams relevant at the same time, I’m sure it’s exciting for the city.

“Especially when Boston wins every year.”