10 Reasons Why You Should Be Watching The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Abe Asher of partner site Oregon Sports News

Hockey isn’t exactly a major sport here in the Pacific Northwest. That hasn’t changed as the NHL has circled Seattle and Portland for expansion teams and relocation, but never landed here. The ice remains Canada’s domain. The NHL is a highly popular league in local areas, especially where there are franchises, not so much nationwide.

But no one does the playoffs better than the National Hockey League. The next month or so is full of unrivaled intensity, passion, drama, and pageantry for professional sports. Here are the ten reasons why you should be watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

1. Hockey is thrilling to watch. It’s soccer played at triple speed, basketball on ice, with a little lacrosse and a little football for good measure. Once you begin to understand the rules of the game – and there are only really two you need to have down, icing and offsides – this is the most exciting sport.

In the playoffs, with the intensity ratcheted up as high as it can go, there is barely enough room or space to breath. There can be a scoring chance on one end, and ten seconds later, a scoring chance at the other. In other words, don’t blink.

2. Doc Emrick is the best play-by-play announcer in any sport. His voice, trademark verbal gymnastics, wit, and incredible passion don’t just make games more fun to watch, they make them must watch.

Emrick is 67. He sounds like he’s 45. May that continue for the next decade and beyond.

3. Playoff crowds are fantastic. The scene in Montreal is outrageous. There is something like a ten-year waiting list for tickets at the Bell Center. Hockey is everything to them. There is no equivalent in major North American sports.

Winnipeg might be just as good though. The playoffs have returned to the Canadian prairie for the first time in nineteen years – the majority of those spent without a team altogether – and the MTS Center has been bananas. Those fans have drowned out their own goal horn.

American hockey towns are rocking it too. Minnesota and Chicago have set the bar with huge support, but new markets like Nashville and Anaheim have also been fantastic. Everywhere you go there are sell-outs, whiteouts, towel waving, and general hysteria. Hockey fans are the best.

4. New Stars. The NHL is ushering in a new era of stars, and thankfully, it’s a more diverse group. The likes of PK Subban, Seth Jones, and Kyle Okposo are absolutely terrific to watch – Montreal’s Subban might be one of the most exciting players in the league – and they offer a different and important look from a sport that has been sorely hurt from its lack of non-white participation and support.

5. Winterhawks! Speaking of Seth Jones, that former Winterhawks star isn’t the only player who has graced Portland on his way to NHL stardom. Marian Hossa, a playoff regular, was a Winterhawk, as were a number of other players.

But perhaps more meaningfully, former Winterhawks coach Mike Johnston is now the head coach and GM in Pittsburgh, as he tries to win his first NHL playoff series with Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.

6. NHL Playoff Overtime Is God’s Gift To Earth. It’s almost too intense to watch even when you are completely neutral. Real, clean sudden death; along with the margins being so incredibly slim in many of these series make overtime games some of the greatest entertainment sports has to offer. It’s crushing to lose, and cathartic to win.

7. A Last Hurrah For The Islanders. This is the New York Islanders’ last season at the venerable trash-heap lovingly known as Nassau Coliseum before they move into the Barclays Center in Brooklyn next year.

This was always supposed to be a special sendoff season, but few predicted the Islanders would be this good: They have their best team in twenty years and a great chance to win their first round series. Their incentive is simple – the NHL remains on Long Island just as long as they keep winning.

8. Power Plays. The power play is absolutely fascinating due to the dueling pulls of the incredible opportunity to score the man advantage provides, and the patience required to set up, move the puck, and get a good shot.

Good power play offense – and penalty killing – is easily the best part of a hockey game strategically and provides a venue for attacking players to really strut their best stuff. The entire concept of a penalty box is terrific, and any playoff power play is must-watch theater.

9. The Handshake Line. After beating each other’s brains in for four, five, six, or seven games, each series ends with every member of the two competing teams lining up and shaking hands at center ice.

It’s one of the purest, most gratifying traditions in the game. Unlike in many sports, there’s a decided lack of showmanship or playing to the camera in those lines. Just a ton of respect. Hockey fans are the best. So are hockey players. Many people who play and cover sports for a living agree.

10. Seriously. Just Let Yourself Fall In Love. Hockey takes some adjusting to if you’ve never watched it. It has a unique flow, tempo, and set of quirks. It’s all the more fun when you know what you’re watching, so try to learn the game.

But if you give it a shot, it’s close to a can’t-miss proposition. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are about as good as sports gets.

GoLocalPDX partner Oregon Sports News: Since 2011, Oregon Sports News has provided entertaining, hard-hitting local sports news & commentary every weekday. To read more from this author, check out Oregon Sports News by clicking here.