Playoff Hockey: I Love This Game!

Warning...Warning...We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming of NBA and MLB to make an important announcement: Playoff hockey is awesome! (Please do not disregard the rest of this message just because of the word hockey)

Yes, this little known, often forgotten sport has me enthralled. In a game where heroes go unnoticed and a celebration is nothing more than an arm raise and a few hugs, it has fallen into a vacuum of indifference and disinterest by the mass media, and sports fans as a whole. But as for me? One thing saves it, the playoffs.
They're exciting! That's right! Exciting!

It's end to end action. Every game has a fair share of 2 on 1 breakaways, stone cold slap shot upper 90 goals, fantastic goalkeeper sprawl saves, classic hockey fights/bad blood, huge hipchecks and boardslams, playoff beards, and at least one coach will always have a mustache for an added bonus.

Now please let me make a distinction here. This is strictly playoff hockey. I'll be the first one in line to say that the regular season is about as interesting as Nicole Richie in the Simple Life.

Every year I go through the same hockey cycle. It goes like this: The season starts with me not caring at all. I keep an eye on the Capitals to see if they're competitive. They are solidly in second to last place right in front of the Penguins. The regular season ends and I haven't watched one full period throughout the year. The playoffs start. I'm watching every minute of every game including double OT's that compell me stay up till 3am while trying not to wake my wife up as I jump on the couch after an unbelievable game-winning goal. It's the same thing every year. The season sucks, the playoffs are great. It's the biggest hyperspace jump from regular season to post-season in any sport.

Take last night, for example. After my evening obligations, I get home and turn on the Ducks at the Avalanche at the start of the third period in a 1-1 tie. In a 10-minute span I see a shorthanded goal, a pin-point upper 90 wrister goal, a hat-trick by a guy I've never heard of before named Lupul, and a rocket launcher slap shot goal to tie the game and send it into overtime, leaving me sweating and staring blankly out of amazement. Then in overtime, the guy Lupul wins it with his fourth goal of the game on a heat seeking five-hole missile shot. I nearly fainted.

If you are a sports fan, there is no reason not to like playoff hockey. If you don't think you'd like it, I just ask you to sit down with a cold beverage and watch the next game 7 of a hockey series and if you don't tell me it wasn't exciting, I'll stare directly into your eyes and tell you have no soul.

It would be much more exciting than watching LeBron get pounded by 38 points by the Pistons 4 times in a row. (that is...unless you're Jim)