The goal of any player is to win the Stanley Cup and in order to do so, you and your team must qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. During my 15-year NHL career, I missed the playoffs only twice.
I must admit it was kind of an empty feeling in those season – no hockey, sometimes as early as the first weekend in April. It seems like an eternity.
With training camp always starting sometime in September, the question becomes what are you going to do with yourself for approximately five months without hockey. Back in my time hockey was not a 12-month sport, so having a long off-season was not the thing that you wanted. For many players, the long training camp and preseason were necessities for conditioning reasons as well as timing and practice.
Down the stretch there are no easy points, every game means something. Every game is a big game; teams are playing to make the playoffs, playing for playoff positioning or home ice advantage, even if you are out of the playoffs the games are huge.
For the teams not in the playoff picture, the players have to relish in the role of being a spoiler, and quite often you are playing for next year’s contract or next year’s ice time. You want to be part of the conversation when the season is over because when you do not make the playoffs there are going to be changes.
As a player, you cannot be labeled as a player who gave up, or a player that did not work, or even worse a quitter. I have seen players ruin their careers by not working hard “down the stretch… But then again some players never seem to get it, it is hard to play in this league but it is even harder to play when all seems lost.
The last three weeks of the season are going to be great hockey to watch. The hockey fan is going to be in for a real treat. Although no hockey team has clinched a playoff spot just yet, one can safely say that the top teams right now will be in the 2013/14 playoffs.
The races and the jockeying for playoff positioning will go right down to the wire. In the Eastern Conference you can only say that Pittsburgh and Boston will be a lock to earn a spot. What is intriguing about this conference is that only three teams are pretty much out of it: the Islanders, Buffalo and Florida.
The remaining 11 teams can finish as high as 2nd in their division – 11 teams fighting for six playoff spots. The Western Conference is almost the opposite of the East, with six teams pretty much guaranteed of a top playoff spot; the teams will jockey amongst themselves for the best positioning. There are only two teams that are basically done - Calgary and Edmonton – leaving 6 teams fighting for 2 spots.
So who do I cheer for? That is the big question that I get asked all the time. First off, I cheer for all of the teams that I played for – I want them to have success. I want them all to at least make the playoffs.
Calgary is the only one on the outside looking in for sure right now. Unfortunately for the Flames they are in the Western Conference; had they been in the east I believe they would have made the playoffs. They are one of the hardest working teams in the league.
Of my remaining teams Toronto, Detroit, Philadelphia and Ottawa all 4 are in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race – all 4 could make and all 4 could miss the playoffs. Next I cheer for all of the Canadian teams to make the playoffs, simply because it means so much to us as a nation.
In the USA, the hometown hockey fans usually cheer for the hometown team – they really do not care about the LA Kings or the Ducks of Anaheim but in Canada it is important to have Canadian teams in the playoffs.
In fact, the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup was the Montreal Canadians in the 92/03 season. A Canadian team had lost in the finals 5 times since then, Vancouver in 94, Calgary in 04, Edmonton in 06, Ottawa in 07 and Vancouver in 11. We are a one sport nation and those losses hurt.
Unfortunately, it does not look good for Canada right now, with Calgary and Edmonton out of it and Winnipeg, Vancouver, Ottawa still in it but they all are chasing a wild card spot. Both Toronto and Montreal are in as of now but with any kind of stumble they could drop out of contention in a real hurry. As the playoffs progress, hopefully a team that I played for or a Canadian team goes real far.
Which brings me to this question – Who do I cheer against or who do I not want to make the playoffs? I usually cheer against any team from the sunny south or a market where the fans do not support hockey; I was not happy when Tampa won the Stanley Cup -nothing against the players, but the fans did not deserve it and they beat my old team the Calgary Flames. Same thought for Carolina when they beat Edmonton for the Cup, ditto for Anaheim when they beat Ottawa. I do not want Columbus, Phoenix, Tampa Bay or Florida in the playoffs – their fans do not deserve it. But the number one team, at the top of my list of teams that I want to see fail is the New York Rangers!
I loved playing in Madison Square Garden, loved playing against the Rangers but I loved beating them even more. In retirement I cannot stand it when they have any success and I cheer against them every year to miss the playoffs. I was really pissed when they beat Vancouver in 94, it was a great 7 game series but the wrong team won. Even today I am cheering against them to make the playoffs.
So enjoy the next few weeks of hockey…