How to Make a Comeback

There is a lot to love about the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Quiet moments in the locker room before the game, you can tell whose eyes burn with the intensity of a champion. During the national anthem, close ups reveal exactly who is about to throw up their pre-game pasta, and who is ready for the battle ahead. The way the teams skate onto the ice to the screams of thousands, modern day gladiators fighting for their playoff lives. The roller-coaster of emotions that travels fast as lightning to both ends of the spectrum, even in the span of one game. The way players play hurt, play hard, give every single fibre of their being to their team in hopes of glory.

It’s been 2 years since I first wrote on the Stanley Cup Finals. The Anaheim Ducks made short work of the Ottawa Senators, and someone actually commented on my article, “I didn’t realize NHL hockey was still around.” True story.

And so it has been for the past few years. Since the lockout eliminated the 2004-2005 season, the NHL has been somewhat of an afterthought (or more likely, laughingstock) in the United States of America. My favorite game has endured countless criticisms and been the butt-end of many, many jokes.

But on a recent vacation, I read a few American based sports publications that were praising, yes praising, the NHL. You see, the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs have been a sight to behold. Sure, there’s been a few ugly moments (namely this one), but overall, it’s been an incredible ride.

The 2009 version of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are bringing people back to the game. Much like when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa brought baseball back (sore subject now), Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and a cast of other incredible young talent have people paying attention to Canada’s game once again.

It certainly helped to have Crosby’s Penguins face-off against Ovechkin’s Capitals in the 2nd round. It was being hyped as an epic match-up of Bird v. Magic proportions. How often have we over-hyped a match-up only to be sure it can’t live up to expectations? Too many to be sure, but this time the stars aligned (pun intended) and this match-up exceeded expectations. Crosby’s unassuming nature and intense passion versus Ovechkin’s outright flair and unbridled enthusiasm. The NHL’s two brightest stars could not be in starker contrast.

There was no choice but to pay attention. I even caught an episode of PTI during which Wilbon and Kornheiser pretended to know something about hockey. America was talking hockey again, and this time they left the jokes at home.

Both stars were as good as advertised in the series; Crosby scoring 8 goals and 5 assists in 7 games, and Ovechkin, equal to the task, notching 8 goals and 6 assists. In the end, Crosby led the Penguins past Ovechkin’s Capitals in a 7-game series that will not be soon forgotten.

From there, the Penguins cruised past the Carolina Hurricanes to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals, once again to face the Detroit Red Wings as they did in 2008. The 2009 edition of the Finals provided more than its fair share of good storylines.

The occasion marked the 1st Finals re-match since 1984, when another young Canadian icon, Wayne Gretzky, hoisted his first of four Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers after losing the year prior to the New York Islanders.

Detroit’s Marian Hossa, a Penguin this time last year, facing the team whose millions he spurned to sign with the Red Wings, citing that he wanted only a chance to win the Stanley Cup. Now he had the chance. And standing in his way, the men he did not believe in.

I went on record as saying the Pens would be a different team this time around. Through the early part of the series, it appeared I was wrong. Detroit jumped out to a 2-0 lead, and looked to be headed toward a second straight Championship.

Yet Pittsburgh was determined, and battled back to tie the series at two games apiece, then battled back again to tie it at three games apiece after losing Game 5 to the Wings. Even still, going into Friday’s Game 7, there wasn’t a prognosticator around that wasn’t picking Detroit.

After all, smart money was on the defending champs. They were at home, and no team had won a Stanley Cup Game 7 on the road since the 1971 Montreal Canadiens. No team had come back from being down 2-0 in two different series (vs Washington, vs Detroit) and won the Stanley Cup in NHL history. On top of that, Detroit was 11-1 at home this post-season, and Pittsburgh had won just once in six visits to Joe Louis Arena during the past two Finals. Not only had the Penguins lost all 3 previous games in Detroit, they didn’t even manage a strong performance in the Motor City.

But Game 7s are a different beast. A bounce, a break, a mistake from your opponent - any could be the difference between winning and losing. Throw out the stats, because the Game 7 is not played in the past.

Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals is the game you dream of your entire life. Growing up in Canada you play that game in your driveway and on the frozen pond. You go to the rink as a child, learning the game, finding your passion, always in the back of your mind the heroes you see each night on the TV. Always with the hope of lifting the Stanley Cup.

In the end, the underdog was victorious. The Pittsburgh Penguins became the first team to win a championship Game 7 on the road in any sport since the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.

It always amazes me how the record books save a spot for the most special of players. With hockey’s history as deep as it is, it doesn’t seem there would be any records left for today’s players to set. And yet as Sidney Crosby hoisted the Stanley Cup over his head, he became the youngest captain in NHL history to do so.

I’ve long tried to argue that Americans really should love hockey. It has every element of sport: beauty, finesse, strength, power, physicality, and raw emotion. The video below attests to all of those facts, and it suffices to show that it has been a very good year indeed.