I've become a complete convert, although not in place of football, along side football. For those of you on the eastern side of the Atlantic, this is a sport that consists of three 20 minutes periods during which the teams try to core as many goals as possible in a tiny wee goal that has a gorilla in lots of padding standing in front of it. The guys trying to score have almost a much padding and a long stick thing that they use to control the "puck". The puck is a small disc of rubber that's rock hard and can travel at over 100 mph when struck in the right way.
There are 3 periods. The players will typically play in 4 "lines". I think that the first line consists of the best players and the 4th the worst but I'm not sure. Anyway, each line will play for 1 - 2 minutes each time and then come off again. "Lazy bastards" I hear you cry. Not true. The rink is 200 feet long and, having played football in a small version during the in-door soccer season, I know that if you run from your goal to the opposition's goal you need to come off....and that's a small rink and without all that padding and without a large, equally padded fella trying to kill you or "hit" you. "Hitting" consists of one player smashing, yes smashing, into the player that's just released the puck from a position close to the boards. Basically, if you tried the same move in football you'd be banned for the rest of the season, assuming of course, you managed to get up after the collision.
The Stanley Cup is like the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League all rolled into one championship.
You have the regular season: 2 divisions (Western and Eastern Conferences) playing games in which there can be no draws. If, at the end of the 3rd period, the game is tied, They play a period of "golden goal" after which they have a penalty shoot-out. During the Stanley Cup Playoffs there's no penalty shoot out so the teams could play infinite 20-minute periods until one of the teams scores. The regular season is played to determine which teams qualify for the playoffs. The team with the most points in the regular is presented with the President's Trophy (this year the Canucks). The playoffs is then split between the Eastern and Western Conference finals and the winners play in the Stanley Cup finals for the chance to win the cup.
Each "series" in the playoffs is a best-of-7 series. This year the Canucks beat the Chicago Blackhawks (last year's Stanley Cup champions), the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks to win the Western Conference cup. The Boston Bruins won the Eastern Conference and now play the Canucks in the final. The Canucks are one game up having won the opening game in the series 1-0. The next game is tomorrow night.
The Bruins have not won the cup since 1972 and the Canucks have never won it so there is a lot riding on this. The TV channels here cover hockey all the time during the news at the moment and the sports radio show that I listen too is non-stop hockey.
So, to put this competition into footballing terms, imaging the Scottish and English top leagues joining up into the National Football League. The teams in Scotland play each other more regularly than they play the English teams but the team with the most points wins the Queen's trophy. The top 8 teams in each "conference" (the English and Scottish conferences) enter the "playoffs". Each series of the playoffs is a best-of-7 series until the winners of the English and Scottish Conferences meet in The British Isles Cup. That final series is also a best-of-7 series and in each game, we have to have a winner, so the players keep running up and down the field until a goal is scored unless, of course, there is a tie at the end of 90 minutes.
Imagine how fit you'd have to be. Imagine the nerves of the fans as you get further through the play-offs.
It's all or nothing in the NHL. Winning the Presidents Trophy only means you have home advantage for the entire play-offs (home for 2 games, away for 2 games, home for one, away for one and home for the final game if you need it). Winning the Conference championship only means you get to the final but the trophy itself is meaningless because the real goal is the Stanley Cup.
No wonder there were riots in Vancouver when the Canucks lost in game 7 in the 90s. Now that's pressure.
