What is it? - 04-16-14
(Note: This is an updated version of something we've published at the start of the playoffs the past few seasons. It's something we get a lot of feedback on and we always enjoy writing it.)
If someone were to ask us what the Stanley Cup playoffs mean to us, we'd have a hard time giving a simple, concise answer.
-It's Bobby Orr leaping through the air.
-It's the Miracle on Manchester.
-It's Bill Guerin finding the little opening on Martin Biron.
-It's Richard Brodeur not being camera friendly.
-It's Kris Letang keeping the Penguins alive.
-It's Steve Yzerman lifting the Stanley Cup with one knee.
-It's Doug Weight lifting the Stanley Cup with one shoulder.
-It's Pat LaFontaine ending a long, exhaustive Easter Sunday.
-It's Vladimir Konstantinov flipping Claude Lemieux.
-It's Bobby Ryan making David Legwand look like a pylon.
-It's the reason Joe Louis Arena smells like fish.
-It's Jaromir Jagr beating the Devils on two bad groins.
-It's Jarome Iginla and Vincent Lecavalier duking it out when it mattered most.
-It's "The Save."
-It's 1940, 1955, 1961, 1967, 1972 and 1975.
-It's Mike Crombeen taking advantage of some poor defensive zone coverage by Randy Carlyle.
-It's Jason Arnott taking advantage of some poor defensive zone coverage by Sylvain Cote.
-It's Dave Andreychuk and Ray Bourque finally getting to touch the Cup.
-It's George Ferguson blowing by Ken Breitenbach.
-It's Dale Hunter tearing through the Flyers' defense.
-It's Bryan Bickell avoiding Josh Harding's poke check.
-It's the hole in Cam Ward's glove.
-It's David #*&! Volek.
-It's John Tonelli.
-It's Ed Westfall.
-It's Brooks Orpik.
-It's plastic rats.
-It's "Bury Graves."
-It's Nathan Horton taking advantage of a screen.
-It's Evgeni Malkin having enough of Henrik Zetterberg.
-It's Jarret Stoll finding just enough space on Cory Schneider.
-It's "The Geno."
-It's Mike Green letting Dominic Moore walk right in.
-It's Mike Green letting Vincent Lecavalier walk right in.
-It's Ken Wregget stopping Joe Juneau and Mike Richter stopping Pavel Bure on penalty shots.
-It's Semyon Varlamov robbing Sidney Crosby.
-It's "May Day! May Day! May Day! May Day! May Day! May Day!"
-It's Damien Brunner cleaning up the garbage.
-It's Ty Conklin making a mistake at a terrible time.
-It's Matt Cooke barging in at the last second (or the last 5.7 seconds to be precise).
-It's Brett Hull's foot in the crease.
-It's Patrick Marleau ending the Canucks' season.
-It's David Steckel sending things back to Washington.
-It's Alex Burrows remembering Luc Bourdon.
-It's Jordan Staal changing everything.
-It's "Darren Helm! Darren Helm!"
-It's "Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!"
-It's Patrice Bergeron snuffing out any hopes the Penguins had.
-It's Maxime Talbot shushing Daniel Carcillo and an entire city.
-It's Derek Plante giving the Senators a rude introduction to the playoffs.
-It's Joffrey Lupul giving the Capitals a rude introduction to the playoffs.
-It's Tom Fitzgerald blowing a slapper by Tom Barrasso from Centre Avenue.
-It's Ron Francis blowing a slapper by Mike Richter from Centre Avenue.
-It's Steve Yzerman blowing a slapper by Jon Casey from Livonia.
-It's Steven Stamkos refusing to let something like a slapper to the face end his night.
-It's Martin St. Louis scoring on the biggest rebound of his life.
-It's Tonelli to Nystrom.
-It's "the best player in the world" hitting the actual best player in the world.
-It's Scott Niedermayer giving the cup to his brother, Rob.
-It's Matt Carkner keeping the Senators alive.
-It's Toews and Kane ending the Kings' reign.
-It's Alex Ovechkin taking out Sergei Gonchar.
-It's the delight of a double deflection between Dave Bolland and Andrew Shaw.
-It's Alex Burrows getting Tim Thomas to bite.
-It's Mario Lemieux "retiring" in stunning fashion.
-It's Vladimir Konstantinov's "skate" with the Cup in his wheel chair.
-It's the fact that Shawn Chambers is probably still trying to figure out where Mario Lemieux is.
-It's Jamie Baker and the Sharks doing the unbelievable against the Red Wings.
-It's Andrew Brunette weaving through the Avalanche's defense.
-It's Hal Gill busting up Ryan Malone's already mangled schnoz.
-It's Stu Barnes putting one over Johan Hedberg's shoulder and off the cross bar.
-It's Oilers fans making us wish we were Canadian.
-It's Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin trading hat tricks.
-It's Igor Larionov displaying the most patient backhand ever.
-It's Sidney Crosby spinning Jason Spezza silly.
-It's Lanny McDonald making his only goal of the playoffs count.
-It's James Neal just taking one.
-It's watching a game with a few thousand friends.
-It's the Penguins piling on Darius Kasparaitis.
-It's the 24 white banners in Montreal.
-It's Oilers owner Peter Pocklington trying to sneak his dad's name on the Stanley Cup.
-It's Ron Francis saving the day when Mario Lemieux and Joey Mullen were hurt.
-It's Martin Gelinas sending his former employer to the golf course.
-It's Pavel Bure undressing Mike Vernon.
-It's Jaromir Jagr dancing through the Devils' defense.
-It's Jaromir Jagr dancing through the Bruins' defense.
-It's Jaromir Jagr dancing through the Blackhawks' defense.
-It's the Hurricanes stunning the Devils in the final 1:20 of a Game 7.
-It's Marc Savard shaking off the rust.
-It's "The Shift."
-It's Mike Fisher playing with a terminally-ill three-year-old boy.
-It's Maxim Afinogenov going for a swim.
-It's Ron Hextall jumping Chris Chelios.
-It's Gary Roberts tormenting the Senators.
-It's Evgeni Malkin having younger, fresher legs than his fellow countryman, Sergei Fedorov.
-It's Brian Campbell not having a prayer on a three-on-one against the Red Wings.
-It's that little "rattle" in Mike Lange's voice when he let's us know "H-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e shoots and scores!!!!"
-It's Brenden Morrow sending the Sharks home after four overtimes.
-It's Alex Ovechkin getting stoned on his breakaway in Game 7.
-It's Sidney Crosby not getting stoned on his breakaway in Game 7.
-It's the civility of a handshake.
-It's the beauty of a "hockey face."
-It's the ugliness of a finger point.
-It's the brilliance of a CBC pregame montage.
-It's Adam Deadmarsh helping Tinseltown beat Hockeytown.
-It's getting a hand (as well as a stick, a foot and a shin) from Rob Scuderi.
-It's Kyle Turris' perfect shot.
-It's Mike
-It's Simon Gagne helping the Bruins join an exclusive club with the 1975 Penguins and 1942 Red Wings.
-It's Pascal Dupuis going far side while falling on his butt.
-It's Joel Ward crashing in on Tim Thomas.
-It's that trainer from Toronto spraying a water bottle to celebrate Nikolai Borshevsky's overtime goal.
-It's Arturs Irbe's moldy goaltending equipment.
-It's the eternity of 17 seconds.
-It's Gary Roberts destroying Andreas Lilja and giving Adam Hall a chance at scoring.
-It's (Adam) Henrique being better than Henrik (Lundqvist).
-It's Jonathan Toews willing his way to a clutch shorthanded goal in Game 7.
-It's Alex Burrows and the Canucks finally beating the Blackhawks.
-It's Uwe Krupp bringing a championship to Colorado.
-It's Bob Baun scoring an overtime goal on a broken ankle.
-Its Jakub Voracek catching the Penguins standing around.
-It's Benn Ferriero giving himself the best birthday gift ever.
-It's Mario Lemieux making the Civic Arena probably the loudest it has ever been.
-It's Scott Walker being a villian in Boston.
-It's Alexander Steen benefiting from Jonathan Quick's error.
-It's Marian Hossa almost keeping the hopes alive.
-It's Daniel Alfredsson finding a big hole in the Penguins' defense.
-It's Jeff Carter circling the zone.
-It's Dustin Byfuglien putting Chris Pronger in his place.
-It's Tim Thomas putting Henrik Sedin in his place.
-It's Colin Greening scoring despite having pieces of fiberglass in his face.
-It's Jim Lorentz killing a bat.
-It's Marian Hossa being in the right place at the right time.
-It's Petr Nedved and Keith Primeau breaking tired, weary hearts.
-It's Brad Richards and Marc Staal figuring out Braden Holtby.
-It's Erik Cole's beard.
-It's Stephen Walkom doing his job.
-It's Brent Seabrook saving Walkom a lot of grief.
-It's Brad Park cleaning up his own rebound.
-It's Robbie Brown really making Ron Hextall mad.
-It's Dan Boyle and Steve Smith finding the wrong nets.
-It's Chris Kunitz windmilling Kimmo Timonen.
-It's Joe Thornton proving he can be clutch.
-It's Joe Pavelski always being clutch.
-It's Maxime Talbot making us stay up late.
-It's Marc-Andre Fleury simply refusing to finish his season.
-It's Petr Sykora calling his shot.
-It's closing Mellon Arena in a nightmare fashion.
-It's Theo Fleury slipping and sliding all over the ice.
-It's finally seeing a Stanley Cup celebration in Mellon Arena, just not the one most of us were hoping for.
-It's the Winnipeg White Out.
-It's #ImGregoryCampbell.
-It's Alexei Poniarovsky taking advantage of a bad rebound by Ilya Bryzgalov.
-It's Luc Robitaille's goal and Francois Leroux's goofy little kicking celebration in the corner.
-It's Daniel to Henrik after four overtimes.
-It's Carey Price preforming some self-dentistry during a game after taking a skate to the face.
-It's refusing to touch the Clarence Campbell Bowl or Prince of Wales Trophy.
-It's doing away with at least one of those silly superstitions.
-It's Brad Marchand dangling on Roberto Luongo.
-It's Garry Valk poking one by Tom Barrasso.
-It's Patrick Kane scoring a goal only he saw.
-It's Russ Cournall beating Frank Pietrangelo from the high slot.
-It's Anze Kopitar getting loose on Martin Brodeur.
-It's Patrice Bergeron being Boston Strong not once, but twice.
-It's Evgeni Malkin making some toast out of Martin Biron.
-It's Maxime Talbot taking advantage of a Brad Stuart turnover.
-It's Maxime Talbot showing why he's a "superstar."
-It's Marc-Andre Fleury winning the game everyone said he couldn't win.
-It lifting the Stanley Cup on their ice, a year after they lifted it on your ice.
-It's all of those things.
-And it's so much more.
Over the course of the next two months, much of what happened in the above video will be repeated in some fashion. In mid-June Gary Bettman is going to awkwardly hand the Stanley Cup to a gentleman with a "C" on his chest and someone will have one big long summer party.
And it all begins tonight.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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