Scott Burnside, ESPN: 13-2 (5)YOURS TRULY: 12-3 (6)
Sean Leahy, Puck Daddy: 12-3 (2)
Barry Melrose, ESPN: 12-3 (1)
Matthew Barnaby, ESPN: 11-4 (4)
Matt Romig, Yahoo!: 11-4 (2)
Pierre LeBrun, ESPN: 11-4 (2)
E.J. Hradek, ESPN: 11-4 (1)
John Buccigross, ESPN: 11-4 (1)
Jim Fox, Yahoo!: 10-5 (0)
Greg Wyshynski, Puck Daddy: 9-6 (2)
Ross McKeon, Yahoo!: 9-6 (2)
Puck Daddy has a terrific recap of this year's Stanley Cup playoffs (although I'm a little irked they didn't mention that Huet save from Game Seven), and I just don't think the NHL could have asked for a better finale. Friday night's conclusion to the season was widely dismissed by most pundits as presumably being yet another Detroit victory, seeing as the deciding seventh game was at the Joe and all. And since the home team had won all six of the previous games, the logic was certainly sound. But rather than being a game in which the championship veterans outlasted and outsmarted the younger returning runners-up from the previous season, the kids went at the old men, put two goals on the board (you know, conspiracy), and held off numerous desperate Detroit attempts to score right down to the final buzzer.
As a hockey fan, you really couldn't ask for more. Maybe overtime.
But this was my first true year of beginning-to-end following of hockey, and I picked the right year to do that. The hometown Blackhawks gave me a compelling reason to cheer for months on end. And considering that my most realistic demand of the team was just to win an opening round series of the playoffs, they went and got all the way to the conference finals. And while their five-game ouster at the hands of the Red Wings was somewhat expected, the memory of pains suffered by the Chicago Bulls at the hands of the Detroit Pistons led to something of a dynasty.
I don't want to get too far ahead of myself because the Hawks will have a number of issues to deal with during the off-season. And while it would indeed have been sweet for this storybook season to end with them hoisting the Cup, I can deal with this being a part of watching these players mature before our very eyes.
My pre-season predictions next season will certainly be a bit more expansive, and while my pick of the Dallas Stars to win the Stanley Cup wasn't even close, the Penguins actually ended up coming out on top instead of second for a second year, as I had predicted. And as has been said, the fact that arguably the game's premier player won a championship with such a young team can only help attract people to the game.
Of course, they keep saying that every couple of years. But I'm no longer really concerned with how or when hockey will ever leapfrog one of the other three major sports in the country. On a strictly local level, the rebirth of the Chicago Blackhawks has created a delectably euphoric buzz that seemed pass through many of the places I went throughout this season.
I can already hardly wait for them to drop the puck on next year.
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