One Word
We have said it before and it continues to go without saying but one word personifies this time of year, PLAYOFFS!!! Playoff hockey and playoff basketball both going at the same time. This is the only time of year when more than one sport has the most intense part of the season going at the same time. Playoff hockey is one of the most amazing things to watch. You have players who fight through injuries which can range from a wound and stitches to broken bones to a fractured sternum. That’s right, Matthew Tkachuk had a broken sternum during the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The players will lay everything on the line, just to hoist Lord Stanley’s cup. Players do not shave while they are still playing growing “playoff beards”. You will never see a player come out of a game unless absolutely necessary. The intensity of a regular season hockey game is high but, in the playoffs, it gets ratcheted up times 100. Every part of a game is crucial but the best is when you get to game 7, which I wrote about a few years ago.
If you didn’t see the St. Louis Blue playing the Winnipeg Jets last night, you missed a game for the ages. The Blue had a 3-1 lead and with just over 2 minutes left in the game the Jets scored to make it 3-2. Then, with just under 2 seconds left to play the Jets miraculously scored to tie the game and send it to overtime. They have an excruciating first overtime with no score. With three minutes and 50 seconds left to play in the second overtime, Adam Lowry scored to send the Jets onto the Western Conference Semifinals and the Blues home. This is just a taste of what the NHL playoffs are like. Games can go on for what seems like days going into 2,3 and sometimes even more overtimes. They will have you sitting on the edge of your seat and your heart in throat if your team is playing. Even if your team is not playing you will feel the tension.
The NBA playoffs are also a game of emotions. In a very different way, the NBA games will make you sit on the edge of your seat. Your team could be up by 20 points and all of a sudden, they go cold and the opponent will stage a comeback and next think you know it is a tie game in the fourth quarter. Will your team regain their composure and stay in the game or hand it off to the opponent.
The intensity of the is always said to not be that high in the regular season but come playoff time, even teams that do not play the best defense you will see step it up to where you will not recognize that team. During the regular season, teams are scoring in the 110s-120s consistently, but in the playoffs, you generally just barely get over 100. All each player wants to do is raise the Larry O’Brien trophy.
This is that one word in a nutshell. Short and sweet but so powerful at the same time. Anytime you hear that word you know the importance and what is at stake and the pride and pain which goes into it. Some players can go their whole careers without making it to the playoffs or just winning a series in the playoffs, so to get there, nobody takes it for granted. These players put their heart and soul into it and that is all you can ask for.