Detroit Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Mark Humphrey
Throw the regular season out the window. Do it now and don't try to find it- ever! All stats are a big zero right now, both team and individual ones. No win streaks, no point streaks, no hot goalies, no scoring slumps.
It is the second season and everything is reset to zero. You see #8 in Washington, 0-0-0. Thornton in San Jose, no assists. King Henry in NYC, no shots stopped and Price in Montreal is no longer a rookie goalie - he is a playoff goalie.
The pressure is on for coaches like Carbonneau and Babcock. The pressure is on the goalies too. Do Hasek and Brodeur have one more run in them? Can Marleau rebound, can Hossa score, will Jagr dominate like he once did? Questions that can be answered in one or two weeks, or one or two months. Only time will tell, and what a time it will be.
We will all be glued to the TV, the remote control becomes an extension of our hand. We change channels with precision, we calculate the commercial time and flick back to our game.
On off days, we watch, scouting our future opposition, hoping to catch a flaw in their game. Ah, the goalie goes down a fraction too early, we can beat him high. A certain dman can be beaten with an inside out move. We have the future opponent figured out, now we must get to the next round and the series is ours!
After the game, our attention is turned to the web. We search, we read, we nod in agreement or we disagree. Whatever we do, we continue to follow this game, the game that has grown on us, the game we may have played, the game that is part of our life.
As we prepare for the quarter final games to begin, think ahead and plan for the night. Don't put off chores or errands, get them done now. Games will go into overtime and could last for hours. Games will be played at such a high intensity, you won't be able to un-wind from them for hours after the last goal is scored. You will be too drained to do anything and too wound up to sleep.
Your life is about to change and in some cases, in a very drastic way. Plan ahead, plan for disappointment, plan for pure pleasure, just plan, because anything can happen and probably will. The games begin soon, and won't end for two months. We can't wait and then we can't sleep. Yes, we are fans like no other!
Moving On
Let's make this short and sweet. Moving on to the 2nd round of the 2008 NHL Playoffs...
In the West, Detroit, San Jose, Minnesota and Anaheim.
Out East, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Washington and the New York Rangers.
Am I right, am I wrong, let me know!