Spring Break
Real playoff excitement takes place on ice
Terry Horstman
Issue date: 5/28/09 Section: Sports
It's the time of year where dreams become reality, where legends are born and heroes are made. It's the time of year when something called "amazing" happens on a regular basis, and it happens right in front of you when you watch the NHL playoffs.
No, I got the abbreviation right: I said the NHL playoffs, not the NBA playoffs, where the league makes one futile attempt after another to ensure Kobe meets Lebron in the finals. Not the NBA playoffs, where thus far the most exciting action took place in a seven-seed versus two-seed first-round eastern conference match up. No, I'm talking about the NHL playoffs, where "amazing" happens at the drop of the hat.
For the two other hockey fans on this campus that are hopefully still reading this, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Unlike its NBA counterpart, the NHL playoffs aren't a show, they're a war. The NHL playoffs consist of enormous men with razor blades on their feet, moving at extreme speeds in an enclosed area and hitting each other with sticks for 60-minutes. It doesn't get more hardcore than that.
While NBA fans have been sitting inside hoping that the officials call a flagrant on anyone who breathes within 10-feet of Kobe and ignore enough of Lebron's "crab dribbles" to ensure which teams make the finals, NHL fans have already enjoyed the match-up of the best personal rivalry in sports, and in the freaking conference semi-finals!
Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitols and the Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby are reason enough to tune your television to channel 32 for the first time since you subscribed to Comcast.
In the seven-game series when Crosby faced Ovechkin, five of the games were decided by one goal. Three went into overtime, and in an amazing game-two, both superstars recorded hat tricks, kicking off what was the greatest personal battle that North American sports had seen this decade.
What these two guys do for hockey completely blows the non-existent Kobe and Lebron saga out of the water. In their second round series alone, the two super stars combined for 16 goals, each scoring eight. They combined for 27 total points and took hockey on one of the best playoff rides in recent memory.
No, I got the abbreviation right: I said the NHL playoffs, not the NBA playoffs, where the league makes one futile attempt after another to ensure Kobe meets Lebron in the finals. Not the NBA playoffs, where thus far the most exciting action took place in a seven-seed versus two-seed first-round eastern conference match up. No, I'm talking about the NHL playoffs, where "amazing" happens at the drop of the hat.
For the two other hockey fans on this campus that are hopefully still reading this, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Unlike its NBA counterpart, the NHL playoffs aren't a show, they're a war. The NHL playoffs consist of enormous men with razor blades on their feet, moving at extreme speeds in an enclosed area and hitting each other with sticks for 60-minutes. It doesn't get more hardcore than that.
While NBA fans have been sitting inside hoping that the officials call a flagrant on anyone who breathes within 10-feet of Kobe and ignore enough of Lebron's "crab dribbles" to ensure which teams make the finals, NHL fans have already enjoyed the match-up of the best personal rivalry in sports, and in the freaking conference semi-finals!
Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitols and the Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby are reason enough to tune your television to channel 32 for the first time since you subscribed to Comcast.
In the seven-game series when Crosby faced Ovechkin, five of the games were decided by one goal. Three went into overtime, and in an amazing game-two, both superstars recorded hat tricks, kicking off what was the greatest personal battle that North American sports had seen this decade.
What these two guys do for hockey completely blows the non-existent Kobe and Lebron saga out of the water. In their second round series alone, the two super stars combined for 16 goals, each scoring eight. They combined for 27 total points and took hockey on one of the best playoff rides in recent memory.
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