Playoffs?

Okay, so it's playoff time. Many of you, possibly out West, love basketball, right? The NBA Playoffs are the end all of spring time post seasons.

We here and especially myself, am huge hockey fans. The divide is between the love for the Blackhawks, Red Wings and Penguins, but nevertheless, hockey fans with a deep love. I have been watching hockey since the New York Rangers were battling the Vancouver Canucks. However, why is that people rag on the NHL Playoffs. Here are the common complants:

"Why do they play 82 games, the Playoffs last as long as the long season?"
"Isn't it funny how the Stanley Cup is decided in June, when it's the spring/early summer?"
"Who cares about hockey?"

I want to defend the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I think they deserve this.

Yes, I will admit, the NHL has been making many poor decisions (Fox Trax, putting teams in the south and California, allowing the New Jersey Devils to destroy hockey), but the game itself is so great and you really get to see what athletics are all about in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

First off, the NBA season is just as long. But the NHL plays games every other night and if the series goes to game 7, it'll be the day after game 6 and that requires travel. The NBA takes like three days off, so it takes two weeks to decide a long series. As of Wednesday, three Conference Semifinal series are at 3-0 right now, while there are only a couple first round NBA series decided.

The season is so long now, because expansion, the bastard it is, has created so many teams that too many need to make the playoffs relevant and the NBA's last longer for the same reasons mentioned above.

Hockey is still one of the top four, for the reason that it is the Stanley Cup. Just because ESPN doesn't have a TV deal with the league anymore, FSN and VS do a great job covering and broadcasting the games.

It's the Stanley Cup, a legendary trophy, the only trophy where the winners get their name engraved on it. Every young hockey player wants that opportunity to play for the Cup.

Guys will play hurt and do anything to play. Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson sat out of the AFC Championship game, all because he thought he couldn't go. That never stops a hockey player. I remember the story of one of the players in the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs having a groin injury. The trainers wanted the player to go on the disabled list. However, that player pleaded, instead taking cortisone shots in between periods. The team could hear his screams from down the hall, just so he could keep playing. Now, that's passion to play.

To take that much abuse and play so hard to get your name engraved.

So watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs or else... Sal Fasano will get you.