Well, here we are. The next game in every series has the possibility of being the last one before we find out who makes it to the Conference Finals. With 2 game 7’s and 2 game 6’s set to be played tonight and tomorrow, be prepared for some top notch hockey!
As it stands right now, the series are as follows:
Montreal vs Boston – Series tied 3-3
Pittsburgh vs New York – Series tied 3-3
Chicago vs Minnesota – Chicago winning 3-2
Anaheim vs Los Angeles – Anaheim winning 3-2
Four of the remaining eight teams took part in the Conference Finals last year as well (Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Los Angeles). I’m fairly certain that if you polled hockey fans prior to the start of the playoffs, most of us would have predicted at least 3 of the teams who made it to the Conference Finals last year to be there again this year.
I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Hockey is truly a sport that “anything can happen on any given night”. More so then baseball, football, basketball and soccer. Sure, upsets happen, but for the most part, the highest paid teams tend to do better then the rest, simply because they can pay the top notch talent to play for their club. Fans come to expect teams like the Boston Red Sox, Miami Heat, and New England Patriots to always be in the running come playoffs, because money talks. With the salary cap era NHL, part of the excitement that the playoffs bring year after year is the fact that any team truly has a chance to beat the top seeded teams en route to the finals, because the salary cap is much more strict than in other professional leagues.
Yes, the better teams year after year should make the playoffs, but there is a part of me that always wants to see an underdog come from nowhere and make it to the big dance. It gets stale seeing the same teams over and over again near the end of the season (unless of course you are a die hard fan of any of these teams) and I for one am rooting for the newcomers to win their series and head to the next round.
If I get my wish, the Conference Finals would look like this:
Montreal vs New York
Anaheim vs Minnesota
This would ensure a “changing of the guard” and would see a non “old boys club” champion crowned. If these series play out, then I believe the Stanley Cup comes back to Canada for the first time in what seems like forever with Montreal beating Anaheim in the finals.
Follow James on Twitter: @hashtagswag604
