The Real NHL Season Starts Today!
Yes folks, don't be fooled, the previous 82 games were just the preseason.
The NHL playoffs are where championship teams are born. It is not only a test of the most talented, best scoring, best defensive, and yes sometimes even luckiest teams, players and coaches out there; but it is a test for survival.
This year the odds on favorites by many, from bookies to sports experts, pick the Washington Capitals to win the cup. They have, perhaps the most talented group of offensive scorers assembled and finish as top record and point holders for the previous 82 games.
They even won the Presidents Award.
So the bookies have the Caps as favorites to win.
The Caps finish the 82 game season with the best record and the most points.
They are a gimme for the cup right?
WRONG!
First of all, anybody who knows me, I never bet on the favorite person, team or horse to win a race. And the playoffs are just that, a race.
Secondly, if you believe the stats, only 7 of the last 23 President Award winners have gone on to win the cup.
So, in a way, the Caps are the underdogs, so that means I can bet on them to win. Except I rarely bet and most likely will not for the playoffs.
But I can route for them to win it all!
Lets Go Caps!
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1 comments:
You know what I've realized in the last couple of seasons about the NHL??
The game has gotten so slow and boring, and it's not because of rule changes or anything like that. It's quite simply because the players...all of them from forwards to defensemen...are so much better at defending than they ever used to be. You can watch forwards backcheck like a defenseman, and watch defensemen literally shut an offense down when it's along the boards.
The fact that players have gotten so much more efficient at playing defense has slowed the game to a crawl. Rarely do goals seem like they are the result of anything other than luck...even when it's a breakaway goal or a power play goal, it seems like more times than not it's simply the product of some lucky (or unlucky if you're the other team) break.
Don't get me wrong...I love watching defenses play in sports...but the players are so good in the NHL that they have really caused the offenses to just not look so great anymore.
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