In a best of 7 series, Game 7 is IT.  Do or die, win or lose.   There is no tomorrow.  Lots of clichés.  The level of intensity in a Game 7 is unparalleled.  The Curse of the Billy Goat for the Cubbies originated in Game 7 of the 1945 World Series.  The Brooklyn Dodgers won their only Championship in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series.  Bill Mazeroski hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 in the 1960 World Series to propel the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Yankees.  Aaron “bleeping” Boone hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS to complete the Yanks come from behind victory.  The Red Sox returned the favor in 2004 in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS to complete one of the greatest comebacks ever.

In golf parlance, scoring a 7 is also known as the dreaded Hockey Stick.  Let’s hope this Game 7 between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins is an oxymoronic Instant Classic.

If history gives us any indication of where this year’s final may be headed from an outreach and viewership analysis, in 2004 Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals featured Calgary squaring off against Tampa Bay and drew the lowest-rated game for a Stanley Cup Finals since 1990,…and Calgary is a Canadian team. A Vancouver-Tampa Bay series does not bode well for NHL viewership. Even more troubling for positive Canadian numbers is the composition of the Canucks team. Vancouver’s five most productive point-scorers are the Sendin twins (Swedes), Ryan Kessler (American), Mikael Samuelsson (Swede) and Christian Ehrhoff (German). Vancouver does have a few Canadian skaters, but the studs on that team are foreign-born.

So, Commissioner Bettman, rub your lucky rabbit’s foot and hope that your plans to Americanize the NHL by developing small market teams in cities where it never snows does not backfire into a virtually unwatchable San Jose/Tampa Bay Finale.

Stanley Cup Playoff hockey is in full swing.   The Flyers have cycled through all three of their goalies (Bobrovsky, Boucher and Leighton) in the 6 games with the Sabres thus far.  In the other 3-3 series, Roberto Luongo, who helped lead the Canucks to the President’s Trophy and is finalist for the Vezina Trophy has twice been pulled in favor of Cory Schneider.  Loungo’s .750 save percentage over the last 40 Blackhawk shots is causing some panic in the mean streets of Vancouver.

If you look at the last 20 years of Stanley Cup history, winning the Cup is about  the goalies.  Even if one breaks down the all-offense Gretzky era of the 80s, Grant Fuhr’s stats tell the same story.  Before you say Fuhr had nothing to do with the Oilers’ dominating reign with the Cup, “Coco” played between a half to almost one full goal better in the playoffs than he did during the regular season.  Quick quiz:  How many Rocket Richard Trophy winners (awarded for most goals by a player during the season) also hoisted the Stanley Cup during the same season they were goal scoring leader?  Answer: 1 – Sid the Kid in 2009.  In recent Cup history, Roy, Hasek, Brodeur & Osgood– all won Stanley Cups and all won either the Vezina or the Jennings.   Hot goaltenders win the chalice.  During the Playoffs, coaches fully acknowledge the magnitude of this holy truth and will try anything to capture lightning in a bottle – if only for the 16 victories needed to be annointed Champs.

There are many rules for the playoff beard but Rule #1 is: The devotee stops shaving when his team enters the playoffs and does not shave until his team is eliminated or wins the Stanley Cup.  Grooming is acceptable only between playoff rounds, however, any cultivation is frowned upon by the purists.  And there are no style points awarded for goatees; it’s a full beard or it does not count.  Some growers invoke the Canucks’ Roberto Luongo exception – where one may trim the beard after a loss in an effort to change the team’s luck – but that’s just garbage.

So put away those razors boys and girls and grow one for the team.  The Bench Jockeys tale of the tape suggests that Canucks or Red Wings will be there in the West and that Caps and Penguins will be sporting the ZZ Top look in the East.

http://thebenchjockeys.com/2011/03/30/blackhawks-down-and-almost-out/

Tonite the Dallas Stars almost stole the 8th and final playoff spot from the Chicago Blackhawks.  All the Stars had to do was get a win against the Minnesota Wild.  Toews and the boys better send a case of bubbly to Jose Theodore and each of the Minnesota goal scorers who played an inspired game and prevented the Stars from displacing the Blackhawks from the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs.   The schedule could not have been more friendly to the Stars and more ripe with stumbling blocks for the Hawks.  Earlier this afternoon, Chicago gave a lackluster effort in a 4-3 loss to Detroit which was all too happy to do their part in trying to knock out the 2010 Stanley Cup Champs.  Dallas could not keep up with the lowly Wild and lost 5 – 3 playing from behind all evening.  The Hawks escape the regular season, back into the playoffs and will play President’s Trophy winner, Vancouver, in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs.

Karma Factor:  Medium High.  Dallas’ opponent, Minnesota, was once represented by the North Stars franchise which was sold to Dallas in 1993 and became the Stars.

We think The Plus-Minus has applicability to an array of scenarios.  At its core, it is essentially a measure of how a team performs when certain participants are involved in the effort.  In this Blog, entries categorized under our section appropriately named, The Plus-Minus, concern matters where we are either: a) looking for your participation, input and opinion; b) offer a comparative analysis of a sport, team, or player; c) consider the merits of a particular gameplan [whether that strategy relates to sports (e.g. the intentional walk to create a doubleplay opportunity), politics (e.g. the selection of Sarah Palin as the White Tornado’s running mate in 2008) , or controversial decision-making (e.g. Barack Obama’s decision to join the UN Coalition action in Libya, thereby initiating an act of war without seeking Congressional consent)]; or d) all of the above.

We fully expect that The Plus-Minus will be heralded as the newest evaluation tool in a wide range of team sports and political discourse.   See our Sidebar for any of a number of our hotly debated sporting or political matters.

Fast fact:  20 year defensive stalwart, Larry “Big Bird” Robinson of Les Habs holds the all-time career highest Plus-Minus of +730.  The “Great One” finished his career in 3rd place –  212 behind Robinson – but he is the highest non-defenseman.