Are A Whole
Why The Leagues Top Regular
Season Teams Are Home
Watching The Playoffs
By Brett Schaffer
Well, my NHL Playoff Bracket (and yours too, don’t lie) was ruined.
Never mind ‘March Madness’; Welcome to ‘Anarchy April’, where
the kings of the regular season are overthrown.
If the regular season taught us anything, it’s the fact that it means nothing,
at the end of the day. The only thing it really was good for was setting highpressure
expectations for some teams, and home ice advantage.
In fact, every top seed (Nashville, Winnipeg, Calgary, Washington, Tampa
Bay) is now setting tee-times instead of preparing for the next match-up. Is
there a particular reason that the collection of 1-seeds lost?
Something to keep in mind going into the playoffs is that the goal of every
team is the same, but often the expectations aren’t the same for every team.
Sure, the goal of the Colorado Avalanche and the Carolina Hurricanes would
be to win the Stanley Cup.
But do you think that the
team’s President & GM is
expecting them to do so?
In a realistic world, no.
On the other hand, do you
think teams like Nashville,
Tampa Bay, and even
Washington went into the
playoffs with expectations to win the Stanley Cup, let alone compete late in
the playoffs? Absolutely.
Regardless, the first round of the playoffs was shocking, entertaining, and
revealing. A few takeaways and notes that I scribbled away during the
course of the first round, and some conversations with people within the
hockey community lead me to create a few bullet-points on a check-list.
This check-list includes things that a team needs to legitimately compete
for a Cup:
1. End the season/Enter the playoffs with chemistry, discipline, and
health.
2. Each player has a defined role that aligns with the team’s ultimate
goal of winning a championship. Some players will have larger roles
than others.
3. Players earning $4,000,000 a year or more: You are expected
to show up, and put up. If you’re a scorer, you better be scoring.
If you’re a lock-down defenseman, it’s time to shut down the
playmakers. Goaltenders who are looking to establish themselves as
truly elite, you need to not only make saves, but control the puck.
4. Contributions from top to bottom. It doesn’t have to show up on
the point sheet per say, but when those top players aren’t rising to the
occasion, it is up to the rest of the team to rise to the occasion.
5. Special teams: Special teams are so important to playoff success.
More importantly, being able to cash in on Power Play opportunities,
and deny access to high-scoring opportunities on the Penalty Kill are
crucial to advancing.
6. Mistakes: Games often come down to the team that makes the
least amount of mistakes throughout the game, and the team
that takes advantage of an error being made by another team.
The most shocking story of the first round of playoffs was probably either
the Tampa Bay/Columbus series, or the Calgary/Colorado series. Many,
including myself, were shocked at the Tampa Bay Lightning’s inability to
keep their dominant lead in the 1st game, and it lead to a crippling effect
for the remainder of the series. I think the series came down to adversity,
goaltending, and top-line production.
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