You’d thought you filled your
year’s quota. You sat down for the Olympic gold medal game, cheered when you were supposed to, and even
started affectionately calling Sidney Crosby “Sid.” Everyone appreciated you for being a trooper. That was
the one game for the year where you pretended to care for everyone.
But now it’s going to happen all over again. And you’re terrified. It could be more than one game. It could
be two, it could be three… it could be seven. For someone who will be forced to care three hours at a time,
enduring the screams of others around the TV, nothing seems more daunting. And you’ll be lucky if nothing
goes to double overtime.
Clearly, we know you’re tired. So, to save you the stress, Lifestyle has compiled a short list of
“need to know” facts that will make your late May and June much easier — separated by difficulty depending
how much energy you have to be impressive.
The Basics
It is the Chicago Blackhawks versus the Philadelphia Flyers in a best-of-seven series. That means
the first team to four wins takes the championship.
Philadelphia represents the Eastern Conference and Chicago represents the Western Conference. Think
geography.
Chicago is favoured to win.
The best player on Chicago is Jonathan Toews (Tay-vhs). The best player on Philadelphia is Mike Richards.
Both were Team Canada Olympians.
If a game is tied after the regulation 60 minutes, it continues in “sudden death” (next goal wins) for
however long it takes for a team to score. These overtime periods are also 20 minutes.
Hold Your Own
During the regular season, Chicago came in second place in the Western Conference and Philadelphia
came in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Therefore, of the potential seven games to be played, four
of them are on Chicago’s home ice.
Philadelphia beat New Jersey, Boston and Montreal to get to the finals, Chicago beat Nashville, Vancouver and
San Jose — that’s all in order.
When Philadelphia beat Boston, they were losing the best-of-seven series 3-0. Coming back to win 4-3, they
were the third team in history to do so and the first since 1975.
Chicago is known as a quick, young team that may lose out due to inexperience. Philadelphia is known as a
big, strong team that may lose out due to slowness.
Both teams have goaltenders who do not have strong reputations, but they are greatly exceeding expectations.
A hot goalie can win a series on his own.
The best player in the playoffs wins the Conn Smythe Trophy. It is a highly coveted award that will mostly be
decided by this final round of hockey.
Impress Everyone
The last time Chicago won the Stanley Cup was in 1961. This is the longest drought in NHL history.
If Chicago wins, Toronto will have the longest-standing drought.
It has been awhile for Philadelphia, too, as they last won in 1975. However, they were in the finals in 1997
against Detroit but lost.
Marian Hossa, a star Blackhawks player, is playing in his third Stanley Cup final in a row. He is the first
player to do this playing on a different team each year. He has yet to win.
A player drafted by the Ottawa Senators has never won the Stanley Cup. If Chicago wins, the streak is broken
by Marian Hossa. If Philadelphia wins, it’s unclear — one of their goalies, Ray Emery, played 29 games the
regular season but was injured. He hasn’t played enough to qualify, but the NHL does consider extenuating
circumstances.•
