It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

It’s that glorious time of year again.  The time of year when warm weather begins, flowers bloom, birds chirp, baseball is in full swing and blood is shed.  Yes ladies and gentleman, it is time for playoff hockey.  

Few things in life can match up with the intensity of hockey this time of year.  Hockey in general is an intense sport, the fast skating, the hard hits and unbelievable goals.  Add that all up and throw in the fact that teams are playing for the ultimate glory of hoisting Lord Stanley's cup and you have weeks filled with heart stomping, jaw dropping and enemy making angst.  “I went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out” was a stupid joke many of us heard growing up and I used to think it made sense, after all, hockey was all about the fights.  I now know that is nonsense. 

The only thing I knew about hockey growing up was that the Devils were pretty good and we were forced to play it in gym class.  To me, it was little more grown men on ice-skates looking for someone to pummel.  Once I moved to Philly and moved in with my now husband, hockey became a staple on our television rotation.  Little by little, I got pulled into the beauty of the sport.  I learned that it wasn’t just a bunch of oversized children who couldn’t make it in any other sport and just wanted to let out their frustration.  I learned that true hockey players master the art of playing at a very young age.  They surround themselves and their families with all things hockey and it becomes a way of life.  Hockey takes immense skill and talent and nowhere are these attributes more visible than during the playoffs.  The playoffs require players to be at their greatest and require fans to be at their most patient. 

Playoff hockey is the most captivating, exhilarating, and intense experience anyone can have.  From the first face-off to that final buzzer, you are surrounded by pure power and you start to feel your heart race.  You can’t count a team out until the last second, and even then you never know what can happen.  Picture this, a few years ago the Boston Bruins were singing victory and celebrating in the streets when they went up 3-0 in the first round of the playoffs.  Four games later, it was the Flyers fans that were celebrating as their team turned it around winning 4 straight games to win to eastern conference semifinal and ultimately taking them to the Stanley Cup finals.  If a football team is down by 3-4 touchdowns in the last quarter, you can pretty much turn off the game, they aren’t coming back.  Baseball closers are there to ensure that their teams keep the lead and make it difficult for the other team to come back from a deficit. Hockey however is an entirely different story.  Teams get hot and players are at their best when the clock winds down.  The last 20 minutes of playoff hockey are the craziest 20 minutes in sports.  Each team that is in the playoffs is there because they deserve to be, they played their heart out and aren’t about to go home without a fight. 

If you don’t believe me, go to a game.  Sit in the stands with 20,000 fans screaming and chanting the same thing.  Surround yourself with the most passionate fans in American sports and you will see for yourself that hockey is, by all intents and purposes, made for the playoffs.