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The NHL brass and the various TV executives on both sides of the border cannot publicly "cheer" for anyone. Nevertheless, you know they all have to be very pleased and excited with which two teams that are moving on to the Final. By now, I am sure that everyone has heard the Hollywood vs. Broadway tag line for the Stanley Cup Final.
This has the promise of being an excellent Final series, which is not the case every year. Hopefully, all of the off-ice hype doesn’t take away from the games.
NHL president Gary Bettman has to be doing cartwheels with this matchup pitting the two biggest markets in the U.S. against each other for the championship for the first time in NHL history. That's a far cry from the 2006 Final in which Carolina beat Edmonton. Nothing against those teams or cities but the locales don't resonate the same way as Tinsel Town and Manhattan on a national basis in both the U.S. and Canada.
As with all Stanley Cup Finals, the interest of hockey people and diehard fans is guaranteed. This one differs in the potential to draw in casual fans (especially in and around the competing cities) as well as wringing out some extra sponsorship dollars in whichever market wins.
I saw that the TV numbers for the LA /Chicago Western Conference Final Game 7 was the highest rated non-Cup Final hockey game ever with 4.1 million viewers on average. Pretty good, BUT less than five percent of people with televisions in LA tuned in to watch the game. While many will chuckle at that number and say that the non-traditional markets STILL do not care about the game of hockey, many will look at it and see both major progress over the years and opportunity for the future.
As I said earlier, this series will be all about continuing to grow the game to draw more casual fans in California. Yes, the Kings won the Cup two seasons ago but even that matchup did not have the built in appeal of competing against New York for the sport's biggest prize. Hopefully it is the hockey itself that people remember and not the inevitable and fleeting attention that gets paid to whichever camera-seeking movie stars who turn out for the games.
As everyone knows who has been following my blogs, I played in two Stanley Cup Finals during my career. Both times, I was a member of the Philadelphia Flyers and both times we lost to the Edmonton Oilers. In 1985 we lost in five games and in 1987 we lost in seven games, and yes, I remember the games of those two series like they happened yesterday.
The Final is different than the rest of the playoffs and worlds removed from the regular season. Championships are what players dream of and you can’t win a championship unless you are in the Finals. The playoffs are special, but they are just the pathway to your dreams. Once you get to the Finals, the sting of losing is permanent. It is NOT enough just to get to the brink.
When I do speaking engagements, people always want to know what are the highlights of my career As you could imagine there are many. My first goal, draft day, being named captain of the Calgary Flames, being selected to two NHL All Star Games (one of which I was unable to attend) the list could go and on. However, my two appearances in the Stanley Cup Final remain the top highlights of my NHL career and, unfortunately, my highlights end on a very sour note.
Some will say, "Brad you were in the Finals and that in itself is quite an accomplishment so be proud of that."
Like most professional athletes, I am just not wired to think that way. I should be proud of what? We lost! It doesn't matter that we took Edmonton seven games in 1987, held a lead in Game 7 and previously lost a hard-fought overtime game in Game Two. That only makes it worse! It reminds of the famous line “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.…
When you play a sport, the object is to win the game, win the championship. I lost, and every year at this time I am reminded of that. I watch the games and I am excited for the Finals to begin tonight. And to be honest, I really don’t care who wins.
I just hope for a great hockey series. The playoffs have been tremendous so far. As always, I will watch right up until the end of the last game but I will not watch the Cup being awarded and paraded around the ice. It's too painful for me, and will always be.
It will be interesting to see how Game One unfolds. While all of the hype has been on the Kings and their three Game Seven wins, many have forgotten that the Rangers themselves had 2 pretty tough seven-game series against their biggest rivals (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) and they also played a very emotional 6 game series against Montreal.
The questions I have for tonight’s game are:
1) Are the King’s going to be ready? After an emotional win in Chicago on Sunday will they be focussed enough to play 60 minutes of hockey? I say, yes they will.
2) The Rangers are more rested having played their last game on May 29th will they be rusty? Will they be able to match the grit and determination of the Kings? The Rangers will be ready and yes they will match the Kings stride for stride.
I think this series is going to be a lot closer than people think. Yes, the Western Conference is better than the Eastern Conference but that is from top to bottom. I am not so sure if that holds true when you are talking about the teams that win each conference, and a hot goaltender can make up much of the gap. If Henrik Lundqvist plays at his top level, the Rangers have a much better chance than most of the pundits seem to think.