Going to try and write a little more every now and then.
What a (shortened) season it was for the NHL and the Stanley Cup Playoffs! It had everything a hockey fan could want this season. The playoffs, which last around two months, had no shortage of drama this season. My home state team the Minnesota Wild made the playoffs for the first time in around five years, and the Red Wings made the playoffs, keeping their streak alive.
The Wild were ousted in the first round by eventual Stanley Cup Champs Chicago Blackhawks. It's hard to complain about having to play the Hawks first when the Wild were lucky enough to trickle into the playoffs. The Blackhawks road to the Finals was almost stopped when they ran into my other hockey team from Hockeytown. Detroit had a 3-1 series lead on the Hawks, but could not close the door, and lost in overtime in game 7. From their they faced the emotion filled Boston Bruins. Who came back down 4-1 with 11 minutes to go in the third period of game 7 in the first round to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Bruins scored 3 goals in the last ten in a half minutes of the game to tie it, including two in the last 2 minutes with the goalie pulled for the extra man.
If you ever wanted to see the guts and determination of the Stanley Cup playoffs, this one instance sums it all up.
The Stanley Cup Finals was a dream match up for die hard fans. Two "Original Six" teams battling for the cup both teams have hoisted within the past four years. The first game of the finals set the tempo just fine for the rest of the series, going to the third overtime, which made fans of the popular twitter game #BucciOvertimeChallenge happy, to decide the winner, which ended up being Chicago. The series ended up going to game 6, which will go down as one the great games in Stanley Cup history. Boston scored to go up a goal midway through the 3rd period. This seemed like it was poised to go to a game 7, but Chicago had different plans. Chicago goes on to score two goals with 17 seconds of each other in the last minute and a half of the game. Chicago went on to win the game and the Cup. All around fan favorite Patrick Kane, who even did a "heartbreaker"celebration after scoring the OT winning goal to put them in the finals, recieved the Conn Smythe trophy for the Playoff MVP. Corey Crawford played better then anyone could have imagined in the playoffs for a goalie, and silenced a ton of critics in the process, myself included.
Hats off to Boston on a great season, and having a great product on the ice to help people deal with the tragedy that was the Boston Bombing. They have some unbelievable fans and run a first class organization.
Gotta Love Hockey.
