- Image by Vlastula via Flickr
Seven Game Ones have been played in the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. All seven games have been won by a single goal. Two were decided by late 3rd Period goals (Red Wings at Coyotes & Avalanche at Sharks), and two were decided by Overtime goals (Canadiens at Capitals & Kings at Canucks).
Four series saw the lower seed upset the higher seed in a road opener, including both 8 seeds overcoming their Conference’s top-seeded team.
At the heart of these tight games and unpredictable upsets is more than just parity. Hockey’s second season is simply a completely different brand of NHL play, with higher stakes accelerated by a singular desire to hoist the greatest trophy in sports history.
Lord Stanley’s big silver cup is the Holy Grail where the NFL’s Lombardi Trophy, the NBA’s Larry O’Brien Trophy, and MLB’s Commissioner’s Trophy are just shiny rip-offs of the One True Cup.
That’s why you see these NHL players elevate their game to Olympic levels every April. What is at stake is a place in history engraved alongside the names of the game’s greats. No other major sport remembers its Champions in this way, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs take on an epic tone as soon as the puck drops.
Compared to the me-first flavor of the NBA Playoffs, the NHL postseason exemplifies a purity and sporting excellence that has been exorcised from professional basketball.
The Cup Playoffs are destiny discovered shift by shift, hit by hit.
The NBA Playoffs are exciting for sure, the story unfolding in a series of highlight-reel scores & denials made by some of the greatest playmakers on earth. But the whole event is mitigated by whistle-happy referees under the barely-concealed control of NBA Commissioner David Stern.
The show is the thing, fair competition is secondary.
The tight controls placed on basketball’s playoffs come as a stark comparison to the Cup Playoffs. Hockey referees routinely receive criticism for swallowing their whistles in the postseason, but the result is a return each year to hockey’s gritty roots. Steps have been taken to protect players in a sport played at increasing speeds, but the average penalty is called less as the passion and ferocity is jacked up a level with each step closer to the Cup.
In the humble opinion of this lover of all things sport, it is competition perfected.
Every moment of every game is contested, ever momentum change accompanied by a palpable shift in the energy on the ice. This feeling is so profound that it can be sensed in High Definition through a flat screen TV. Incredible.
MLB’s playoffs are always nail-biters, but the tension is felt in the moments when nothing is happening. That 3-2 count with a running in scoring position and the game on the line is absolutely intense. But baseball’s most exciting moments are felt when all movement is stopped on the field. Hockey’s hottest games are a non-stop thrill ride; a war parsed out into a thousand battles large and small all over the ice.
The one-and-done appeal of the NFL Playoffs has made pro football’s postseason the most watched per game among North American sports. But the final two minutes of a contested NFL playoff tilt pales in comparison to the 3rd Period of a Game 7 in any NHL Playoff Series. And when the Cup Finals stretch to that highly anticipated final frame, two teams battling for immortality in silver, the result is nothing short of awed breathlessness for 60 minutes of unparalleled sporting excellence.
With Game One finished in 7 of 8 Conference Quarterfinal Series, NHL audiences have already seen what makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs the premier event in pro sports.
