The Interesting Case of the NHL

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A quick glance through our posts would tell anyone that, not much has been written about hockey on this blog (read: nothing). This is not because we don't watch, or dislike the sport, it's simply because we don't know hockey to the extent that we know basketball (and a few other topics). That is, when I discuss the NBA, I have a good idea of what is true and what isn't, how to properly analyze a player, and break down basic plays. I cannot do those things with hockey, at least not yet. What I can do however, is examine the sport on a broad scale and point out three things that make playoff hockey unique relative to other sports.

# 1 Momentum and Seeding

Currently we have the # 8 seeded L.A. Kings up 3-0 on the # 2 St. Louis Blues in the Western semi-finals. A couple of thoughts here. I love how the NHL re-seeds teams after round one, this makes the regular season mean more in terms of rewarding teams that played well throughout the year. It ensures that the high-seeds will get the easiest (in theory) possible path to the Stanley Cup finals, while also (again, in theory) making sure that we get the best match-ups in the conference finals. Of course, the Capitals of Washington and the Kings from the city of angels made all of that a moot point by upsetting the # 2 Boston Bruins, and # 1 Vancouver Canucks respectively, a feat even more impressive when you consider that the Bruins and Canucks were last year's Stanley Cup finalists. In any other sport, it is very rare for the top seeds to be eliminated so early. In hockey, we almost had every low seed win in the first round! Only the Rangers, who were pushed to game 7, saved that from happening. Another thing that rarely happens in other sports (baseball being the only other sport) that happens (at least more regularly) in Hockey is the 3-0 series comebacks. It is at the point where, once Pittsburgh won Game 5, Philadelphia fans were legitimately scared of blowing the series. No other sport can offer that kind of drama, where no lead is safe (although the NBA did its best with the Clippers and Memphis game).

Becoming a Hockey Fan, the Odyssey

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If you have been reading our articles you have probably noticed that we like to make analogies about what we write about, more specifically you probably noticed that most of those analogies have used examples from the NBA and occasionally the NFL and never the NHL.  The reason for this is that, well, none of the writers here follow the NHL that much.  Obviously we are aware of who won last year (Boston) and who the important players are (Crosby, Ovechkin, the Sedin twins etc.) but when you compare our NHL knowledge to our NBA, NFL, and even soccer knowledge we are far behind.  We are the types of people who will flip over and watch a hockey game when we are chilling together, and even get together at a bar and watch the occasional playoff game, but beyond that nothing.  This year is different, this year I will make a concentrated effort to follow the NHL, and the team I have chosen to be a fan of is the Toronto Maple Leafs!  Why?  I live in Toronto, so there is that plus I tend to cheer for 'cursed' teams (Sacramento Kings, San Francisco 49ers, Liverpool) so the Leafs are a fitting choice, apparently I love heartbreaking losses.

So why now?  Why the sudden decision to do this?  Well, there were multiple factors, one being the ongoing NBA labor dispute (I cant even type about this, lets just move on) and the other was one of the games I watched with some friends last year which was Game 7 between Montreal and Boston.

I don't blame you if you did not watch the full clip, but to understand where I'm coming from just look at it from 14:16 and on.  We have Kerry Price going into God mode for several saves including the audacious one at the 15:38, followed by some great saves by Tim Thomas and then all of it culminates with the tying shot, an absolute snipe by Subban at around 14:44.  We know what happened next, Boston eliminated the Habs and that was it but the seed was planted.  I never had more fun (or gotten more excited) about a hockey game before and when Subban almost ripped the net (silencing the chilly 'lets go Boston!' chant in the process) a part of me knew that I could grow to like this sport.

So essentially what I'm going to do is dive head-first into hockey and write about the experience of following a new sport.  I have no idea if this will stick or how often I'll write or even what the hell I'm going to write about; but what I do know is that I am excited to do this and would regret not recording the experience in some way.  Hopefully some of you will find my 'Odyssey' interesting and hopefully I will be satisfied at the end of the journey, but in this case, the journey may be the funnest part.

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