Hockey. In my opinion there is simply no other sport to rival it. The speed, the intensity, the barely contained violence, the grace, the skill - all these things combined into one high speed, high-def, tecnicolor expression of the most elemental competitive spirit exhibited by man. And the Stanley Cup represents the culmination of all those things. The Stanley Cup - The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, or even the Holy Grail it's sometimes called - is the reward for a season of skating and hitting and, ultimately, winning more than any other team. The original cup was awarded to the top ranked Canadian amateur team - the Montreal Hockey Club - in 1893. Since then it's passed to the professional teams in the NHL - starting in 1926.
In the NHL each team plays 82 regular season games. That's 82 games of intensity and pain. The reward for the teams with the best records at the end of the regular season is the chance to play more. The top eight teams from the two conferences - East and West - have three playoff rounds of best-of-seven series to qualify for the Stanley Cup game.
Tonight - May 12 - the San Jose Sharks and the Detroit Redwings face off in game seven of the Western Conference semifinals. The winner advances to play the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference finals. In the Eastern Conference it's between the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The last few games of the year will dial up the intensity of an already intense game. Take the time to tune in for some of these contests and see for yourself if you can imagine what it takes to invest the energy required into this line of work.
