“DOOM” as defined by Emily involves a Stanley Cup Finals
match-up between our two favorite hockey teams; the Pittsburgh Penguins and the
Chicago Blackhawks. The fact that said
match-up no longer threatens to impede our pending nuptials, as it would have
three years ago is irrelevant. Simply
put, “DOOM” is a bad thing. To put it in
proper perspective, one would likely need to have been involved in our wedding
planning and/or spent Super Bowl week with the Harbaugh parents.
When we first started discussing (or more likely dreading)
the concept three years ago it was distasteful. Now, it’s FAR worse. My wife has always been a Hawks fan first but
three years ago her loyalties were more closely divided. Today she is as rabid a Hawks fans as you
will find anywhere. She LIKES the Pens…she LOVES the Hawks.
I bleed black and gold and that will never change. Still, my Hawks fandom has grown as well,
sufficient even to attend an away game by myself in San Jose last February. I do not doubt my wife’s influence on that
development (which is unfortunate because I would NEVER try to influence her
sports loyalties) but there is more to the story.
I have lived in Chicago nearly 18 years. I live one mile from the United Center. I love hockey. And five years ago the Hawks performed the
most startling sports metamorphosis ever seen.
They changed almost instantaneously from one of the worst organizations
in North American sports to one of the best.
On top of which, they dispatched the Orange and Black Goon Squad in the
Stanley Cup finals, thus allowing me to remain in existential harmony with the
hockey universe. It’s a debt of
gratitude I can never truly repay.
For most of the hockey world, a Pens/Hawks match-up for the
sport’s most cherished prize would be a dream.
They are the league’s two best teams bar none and arguably the most
exciting as well. With all due respect to Barry Trotz, it is highly
unlikely that either Dan Bylsma or Joel Quenneville with unveil the neutral zone
trap if that series comes to pass.
For Emily and me, it’s an unmitigated nightmare.
The two clubs have met only four times since we became “an
item”, and the atmosphere around us could be charitably described as “uncomfortable”
each time. Mind you that is with nothing
but organizational pride at stake in any of those games. One cannot help but think that our 1,295
square feet of living space will seem a bit congested if fate and/or Crosby and
Toews were to deliver this match-up. And
keep in mind I have not even addressed the Marian Hossa issue.
So the question becomes, how close are we to “DOOM”? Is it a forgone conclusion that these two
teams will meet in the Stanley Cup finals?
NHL history after all is replete with unfathomable post season upsets. Just last season an 8th seed Los
Angeles team that barely qualified for the post season caught fire and rampaged
to a championship. Rarely do the NHL’s two
best regular season teams meet in the finals.
Just as rarely however does the league produce one team, let
alone two with a 75% regular season winning percentage. If you toss out
shootouts, given the obvious random element involved, the Penguins and
Blackhawks COMBINED to lose only 19 of 96 hockey games this season. The Blackhawks opened the season with a 24
game point streak; the Penguins followed with a 15 game winning streak. So yes, there is cause for mild concern (if
not full on panic).
And yet in the true spirit of being conflicted sports fans,
we fear both the prospect of “DOOM” and the absence of “DOOM”. We can interchangeably dread the potential
for this match-up and the equally nerve wracking idea of another early exit for
either or both. It’s the great conundrum
of our dual hockey existence.
The merciless nature of the NHL is this; the playoffs truly
are a second season, separate and distinct from the first. Post season failure will eradicate virtually
any level of regular season success. Penguin
fans know this well; it took only two dreadful weeks last April to erase six
months of inspired hockey from our memories.
There were palatable if not comforting explanations for the
Penguins losses to Montreal and Tampa in 2010 and 2011. Conversely the team is still washing off the
stench of last year’s collapse against their most hated rival. Their performance was completely inexcusable
and put virtually EVERY player (short of #87) and coach on notice that another such meltdown could end their time in the Burgh.
The Blackhawks needed two full seasons to recover from the salary
cap armageddon that occurred after they skated the cup in 2010. Even still, their loss to Phoenix last season
was uninspired at best. The team never
looked truly right after the All Star Break and the worst kept secret in the league
was the tension between Quenneville and Scotty Bowman’s kid. I’m not sure exactly where management sides
in this dispute but suffice to say, either or both could be unemployed if the
Hawks are ousted before Memorial Day.
Which means simply that the Pens and Hawks are both at risk
of being branded Washington Crapital style post season chokers if the drop out
early again this year. To that end, my
honest belief is that both teams but especially the Penguins benefited from the
short-season. I can only imagine the
build-up of angst over 82 games for a team with Stanley Cup or bust
expectations and a 20 point lead in the standings. Even with that, the collateral damage from
another early exit could be significant.
No other sport ascribes less importance to its regular
season than the NHL. For great teams and
great players, immortality is earned in May and June. Brett Favre and Peyton Manning fashioned
impenetrable legacies in spite of numerous post season failures because NFL
regular season success is considered a noteworthy achievement. In the National Hockey League, it’s merely a
footnote.
When you are as talented as the Pittsburgh Penguins and the
Chicago Blackhawks, getting to the Stanley Cup tournament is taken as a
given. It’s what you do afterward that
creates or maintains your legacy.
The Pens and Hawks are championship caliber teams. Both are deep and talented, exceptionally well
coached and experienced under playoff pressure.
Both have a core of players with proven abilities to step up in the
biggest of games. Notwithstanding the
wild-card of the shortened season, I cannot remember a year where two NHL teams
appeared so obviously superior to the rest of the league.
Even with that, “DOOM” is still a long ways away. It remains incredibly difficult to win one
NHL playoff series let alone three.
There are completely unpredictable variables such as injuries (see
Crosby, Sidney) and hot goaltenders (see Halak, Jaroslav). There are bad breaks, bad schedules, and bad
match-ups. Any number of things could
happen between now and mid June to prevent this match-up. When Emily and I view either team individually,
such concerns are at the forefront of our collective thoughts.
When we view the teams collectively, the “DOOM” scenario seems almost unavoidable. As such Emily and I are beset by a truly unsettling paradox. If we get exactly what we want, we will get exactly what we do not want. It's the ultimate circular reference in our hockey lives.
As if to drive home this point, the NHL created an almost unfathomable scheduling coincidence whereby the Hawks and Pens play the same night in six of their seven first round games. I’m not a Gary Bettman hater by nature but even his most strident enemies cannot think him diabolical enough to have purposely crafted such a schedule.
For now, I will simply speak in the time honored language of
coach-speak. We will take each game and
each series one at a time. We will worry
solely about the teams in front of us. There
is a lot of hockey to be played between now and mid June. For better or for worse, anything can happen.
