Hockey is something of an acquired taste for most Americans. The NHL has always been included in the conversation of the "Big Four" sports leagues, but its popularity has never been on the level of the salaries its players have traditionally commanded. However, where hockey is popular, it's really popular. Thankfully, these Stanley Cup Finals are pitting two pretty good hockey towns against each other. Chicago's rep as a hockey hotbed hasn't always been strong, but that's because of cheap ownership. That trend has changed and now, the Windy City has gotten behind its Blackhawks like nothing else. Philadelphia, however, needed no such jostling. Ever since the rise of the Broad Street Bullies in the early '70s, Philadelphia has been the pre-eminent hockey city in all the US and has been able to give Canadian strongholds such as Toronto and Montreal runs for their money.
Thus far, the level of play has matched the intensity brought forth by both fanbases, although really, it could have been the South Texas Gunsharks taking on the Rio de Janeiro Tits 'n Ass (both fictional teams for the hockey-illiterate) and the action would have been pretty good. Playoff hockey is just on another plane than the regular sport is. Even though I'm a pretty big Flyers and hockey fan, I struggle to sit through most games in the regular season. However, when the playoffs roll around, I'm glued to the TV set. There's just a different level of intensity, a different level of skill. Everyone seems to up their play to a different level, and that is magnified the deeper you get into the playoffs. The referees for the most part, who tend to be very whistle-happy at times, usually stay silent and let the guys play for the most part, which is another reason why the action moves so much more smoothly.
Take for example the first three games of this Stanley Cup Finals series. The Blackhawks hold a 2 games to 1 edge, but this series could have had any possible standing the way the two teams have been playing. They're so evenly matched, and that's no more relevant than the total goal differential in the series. Chicago has only scored one more goal than Philly, and every one of the three games has been decided by a single goal. Michael Leighton and Antti Niemi, the two goalies, have come into the series red hot, and both have been cooled off somewhat by the other teams' depth. The top lines for each team - Chicago's Patrick Kane/Dustin Byfuglien/Jonathan Toews and Philly's Simon Gagne/Mike Richards/Jeff Carter - have both been relatively quiet after exploding in prior series. Instead, it's been guys such as Ville Leino, Danny Briere, Arron Asham and Scotty Hartnell for the Flyers and Ben Eager, Duncan Keith, Troy Brouwer and Kris Versteeg for the Hawks. Both of these teams run far deeper than their superstars, and that's one of the big reasons why this series has been so good so far, even by playoff hockey's standards.
Take last night's overtime thriller. While Kane finally came alive and notched two points on an assist and a breakaway shot buried past Leighton that I would have marked the fuck out for if it didn't happen against the Flyers, it was the other guys who stepped up big-time. Hartnell had a jaw-dropping assist on Briere's goal that opened up the scoring. Later, he deflected a Chris Pronger slap shot past Niemi. Leino answered that Kane wrister by netting a high wrister off a rebound past Niemi. Keith put the Hawks on the board early in the 2nd with his goal. Brent Sopel took a John Madden pass off the face off and sent it rocketing past Leighton from the point. In overtime though, it was Claude Giroux, the young superstar-in-the-making, who deflected an on-point Matt Carle pass past Niemi and gave the Flyers their first win in the series.
If you're a hockey fan, then you probably are loving this series right now. If you're a Flyers fan like me (or a Blackhawks fan), then you're probably living and dying on every shot, every shift, every time they clear the puck, every hit, every second of the game. This really is edge-of-your-seat stuff, and if I had a heart condition, I'd probably have died three times over last night. You'd think I'd have had practice from the Phils' run to the World Series in 2008, but seriously, hockey is about 100 times more exciting to watch than baseball (and I love baseball).
All of this means that if the Flyers don't win, then it'll be a bitter disappointment for me, but that's because I have a personal stake in the whole things. All in all though, this series is the reason why anyone should ever want to watch hockey. It has drama, excitement, intensity and above all else, entertainment value. This series has been the epitome of playoff hockey thus far, and barring something drastic, it's going to go down as one of the all-time great tilts in NHL history.
Photo Credit: Bruce Bennett of Getty Images for NHL.com
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