The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs have come and gone, and once again the players displayed why these NHL Playoffs are perhaps the most riveting and exciting in all of sports.
As if this game wasn't difficult enough to play in the regular season, the speed, intensity, and level of play increases in the NHL playoffs like it does in no other sport in America.
And on top of that, there were some terrific early-round upsets and come-from-behind victories as well.
The Edmonton Oilers not only made it to the finals, and pushed it to a seventh game when they were on the verge of being eliminated four games to one, but the forgottten fact (since both the NBA and NHL Playoffs are so long) is that the Oil took out the mighty Detroit Red Wings in the first round. The Red Wings, who had nearly 30 more points (124-95), 17 more wins, which equates to nearly 25% of a full season's schedule, outscored them on the season by nearly 50 goals (305 for Detroit and 256 for Edmonton), and allowed more than 40 goals less (209-251) than Edmonton, yet was unceremoniously tossed aside as the Oilers left eighth place in the Western Conference playoffs on a mission towards Lord Stanley's Cup.
Also in the West, #2 Dallas got upended by the seventh seed, The Colorado Avalanche. The Stars were one of the stronger teams in the league throughout the season, but found the wrong time to slump...in May. The Avs, however, barely made the playoffs, as their season was far more inconsistent than Dallas', and they stumbled into the playoffs with 95 points, tied for eighth in the conference with Edmonton, 17 points behind the Stars, and just three points ahead of the Vancouver Canucks, the ninth-place club that did not make the post season.
In the East, the fourth-ranked Buffalo Sabres had a tremendous run as well, as they first took out #5 Philadelphia, then beat second-seeded (and heavily favored) Ottawa before taking eventual Cup winner Carolina to the brink.
That brought us to a final series of the Carolina Hurricanes and the Edmonton Oilers. There were mixed emotions about who to root for and why. Some people held the age-long attitude that they would not root for a Canadian team over an American club. Some said that they always pulled for the underdog, so they were going with the Oilers because of all that they had accomplished to that point in the playoffs.
Others took sides based upon players. Some fans were rooting for one the league's best two-way players ever, Michael Peca, while others went with the list of Carolina Hurricanes who had been in the NHL for a decade or more and have never hoisted the Cup.
I found that based on all of the facts mentioned as well as others that were not, I myself had mixed emotions and also found justification in whichever side I chose, if I was to take a side at all.
So whomever you were rooting for, and whichever cause you got behind in the 2006 NHL Playoffs, you still had to feel good in the end about what an awesome second season it was, and what phenominal entertainment that the teams gave us along the way.
p.s. Although I would have been happy for Michael Peca had he won a cup because he is so deserving of one, do you really think an Islanders fan was going to root for the Oilers? Long live the Whale.
As if this game wasn't difficult enough to play in the regular season, the speed, intensity, and level of play increases in the NHL playoffs like it does in no other sport in America.
And on top of that, there were some terrific early-round upsets and come-from-behind victories as well.
The Edmonton Oilers not only made it to the finals, and pushed it to a seventh game when they were on the verge of being eliminated four games to one, but the forgottten fact (since both the NBA and NHL Playoffs are so long) is that the Oil took out the mighty Detroit Red Wings in the first round. The Red Wings, who had nearly 30 more points (124-95), 17 more wins, which equates to nearly 25% of a full season's schedule, outscored them on the season by nearly 50 goals (305 for Detroit and 256 for Edmonton), and allowed more than 40 goals less (209-251) than Edmonton, yet was unceremoniously tossed aside as the Oilers left eighth place in the Western Conference playoffs on a mission towards Lord Stanley's Cup.
Also in the West, #2 Dallas got upended by the seventh seed, The Colorado Avalanche. The Stars were one of the stronger teams in the league throughout the season, but found the wrong time to slump...in May. The Avs, however, barely made the playoffs, as their season was far more inconsistent than Dallas', and they stumbled into the playoffs with 95 points, tied for eighth in the conference with Edmonton, 17 points behind the Stars, and just three points ahead of the Vancouver Canucks, the ninth-place club that did not make the post season.
In the East, the fourth-ranked Buffalo Sabres had a tremendous run as well, as they first took out #5 Philadelphia, then beat second-seeded (and heavily favored) Ottawa before taking eventual Cup winner Carolina to the brink.
That brought us to a final series of the Carolina Hurricanes and the Edmonton Oilers. There were mixed emotions about who to root for and why. Some people held the age-long attitude that they would not root for a Canadian team over an American club. Some said that they always pulled for the underdog, so they were going with the Oilers because of all that they had accomplished to that point in the playoffs.
Others took sides based upon players. Some fans were rooting for one the league's best two-way players ever, Michael Peca, while others went with the list of Carolina Hurricanes who had been in the NHL for a decade or more and have never hoisted the Cup.
I found that based on all of the facts mentioned as well as others that were not, I myself had mixed emotions and also found justification in whichever side I chose, if I was to take a side at all.
So whomever you were rooting for, and whichever cause you got behind in the 2006 NHL Playoffs, you still had to feel good in the end about what an awesome second season it was, and what phenominal entertainment that the teams gave us along the way.
p.s. Although I would have been happy for Michael Peca had he won a cup because he is so deserving of one, do you really think an Islanders fan was going to root for the Oilers? Long live the Whale.
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