May 13, 2015 — A 16-year old me, who had just been licensed to drive 15 days prior, was sitting on his living room couch watching his favorite NHL team, the New York Rangers, engaged in a heavyweight fight against the Washington Capitals in game seven of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. That game went to overtime, and that’s when at some point during the overtime period my head felt like it had just been jolted back like Odell Beckham Jr. ramming into Josh Norman. Long story short, I was light-headed in that moment. That’s because the intensity and nerve-racking feel the game presented was immense. The Rangers eventually won on a game-winning goal by Derek Stepan- I replay Mike “Doc” Emrick’s call of that play word-for-word quite often- and it has remained one of my favorite memories as a sports fan to date.
Game seven. Survive and advance. Win or go home. Overall, the best two words in sports, especially in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Or, better yet, as is the case tonight in Boston, the Stanley Cup Final.
My memoir was of just a conference semifinals game, not a game with the Holy Grail of sports trophies on the line like tonight. There is no event for sports fans, even the casual ones, that is more edge-of-your-seat, pulse-racing, can’t-check-your-text-messages, etc. than game seven of the Stanley Cup Final.
Any game seven in the NHL, NBA or MLB is a game any sports fan should get excited about, but there is just something different about hockey.
It’s the pace of the game and how instantly fortunes can change at any point of the game that separates it from game seven in the NBA and MLB.
This can happen in any game. One instance a team can be trying to break through with a goal, but the next thing you know the other team is skating down the ice looking to, as Emrick yells into his mic, “SCORE!!” And if you are a fan of a team playing in a game seven, you’re in for a roller coaster of emotions like nothing else.
It’s also the fact that the greatest trophy in all of sports is on the line tonight: Lord Stanley’s Cup. The history, the aura surrounding it, how the players worship the Cup upon winning it- Josh Archibald and his wife baptizing their son in the Cup is one of the best images I have seen- and the can’t-take-your-eyes off silver color of the Cup; yup, that is what’s on the line tonight in the richest, in terms of winning, sports city in America; Boston.
They (Boston) are the Goliath in this matchup tonight against the St. Louis Blues, the David that is playing to deliver the city that is the Gateway to the West its first ever Stanley Cup. Boston has been here before. They won the last game seven in the Stanley Cup Final in 2011 on the road at the Vancouver Canucks, who had the most points in the regular-season in that 2010-2011 NHL season. The Bruins also, shockingly, have won the most and have played in the most game sevens all-time at 15 and 27 respectively. On a city-wide scale, the Bruins are trying to win Boston’s third professional sports championship spanning the last not even eight months. I haven’t even seen my favorite sports team, the Cincinnati Bengals, win a playoff game in my lifetime, let alone live in a city with three different teams win championship in two-thirds of a year.
On the other hand, St. Louis has been enjoying a ride to uncharted terriotry in this Stanley Cup Final. Before their game two overtime win at Boston two weeks ago tonight, they had never won a Stanley Cup Final game in franchise history. They got that monkey off the back, but then were clobbered 7-2 on their home ice in game three- the first Stanley Cup Final game in St. Louis since 1970. So, to me, the fact that they are here in this position is a testament to their resiliency that goes back long before responding to their game three drubbing. The Blues went on a tear to end the regular-season, going 23-6-4 in after Feb. 1. That was the second best record in that span to Tampa Bay, and the Blues have certainly had more playoff success this Spring than Tampa Bay did.
By the end of the night, or tomorrow morning depending on how long this fight will go on, one team’s players will be skating in Boston with the Holy Grail of Sports trophies hoisted over their heads. And, overtime game seven hockey is about as good as it gets in sports. Sudden death with the instantaneous changes of fortunes that can occur with the Stanley Cup on the line; enjoy. As for the other team, they’ll be feeling that other thing opposite of winning and a word that’s a feeling I downright hate as a sports fan. But one thing I don’t hate as a casual sports fan is game seven, especially with the Stanley Cup on the line.
Score prediction: Bruins 4 Blues 1
Let me be Frank and Cut to the Chase 