The Show.

This year's NHL Playoffs have been extremely exciting. We saw the #1 overall seed Capitals get upset by a Canadians team which is currently on the brink of taking the defending champ Penguins to a 7th game. We've seen the San Jose Sharks actually get past the first round, and we're seeing a playoff that will not have the Red Wings in the finals. All in all, we've seen some great hockey, but how come we're seeing so many upsets? The 4 teams that made it to the Eastern Conference Semifinals were a 4 seed, a 6 seed, a 7 seed and an 8 seed. We've seen some big upsets, but should we be surprised by this? No, we shouldn't, and the answers to why this is happening is simple: softies, grinders, and hot goalies.
Playoff hockey is different than regular season hockey. There seems to be a switch that goes off amongst most NHL teams when they play past the regular season's 82 games. This switch triggers a boost in intensity that makes it hard for some teams to survive - those teams being the ones that don't flip the switch. With this switch, the stakes are higher, the hits are a little harder, the goals are a little bigger, the crowds are a little louder, and the bodies of these players are a little more disregarded than usual. Just ask Ian Laperriere, right winger for the Philadelphia Flyers. In the third period of game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Devils, with the Flyers up 3 goals, Laperriere stepped in front of a Paul Martin slap shot. Fortunately, Laperriere blocked the shot. Unfortunately, he did so with his face. The slap shot hit Laperriere right in the forehead, resulting in a huge gash in his head that needed to be repaired by 60-70 stitches. The best part? He wanted to get back in the game. Now if this man is not the epitome of playoff hockey, I don't know what is. It's players like these that thrive in the playoffs, and as we've seen with the Flyers, not having Laperriere has seemed to hurt them. His brain contusion and mild concussion have kept him out of the Flyer's lineup, and the haven't been the same team as a result.
When it comes to playoff hockey, we see grinders thrive, and in the process, these grinders eliminate the skill players who can't match the intensity needed to win a championship. A perfect example of this instance? The Washington Capitals. The Caps finished the regular season with 121 point. Yes, 121. That's 8 more than the Sharks who had the best record in the West, and 18 more than the Devils, who finished second in the East. Heading into the playoffs the Caps looked like the clear-cut favorite to win it all, but they got upset in the first round by a team that barely even made the playoffs. How did this happen? It's simple. The Canadiens, who finished the regular season with 88 points, played harder, nastier, and hungrier than the Caps. The Caps didn't get enough from their big guns, and they got sent home early because of it. Mike Greene had 76 points in 75 regular season games this year for the Caps. And yes, he's a defenseman. He was 4th on the Caps in points, and averaged over a point a game. In 7 playoff games this year he had 3 points and no goals. He disappeared. He wasn't the only one either. Alexander Semin had 2 points, Brooks Laich had 3 points, and Tomas Fleischmann had 1 point. This is the kind of production that will get your squad on the golf course in a hurry. That, and the fact that at any moment you could run into a hot goalie, ultimately putting your postseason in jeopardy, regardless of your seed.
To the Caps credit, they ran into a red-hot goalie. To say Canadiens goalie Jaroslav Halak stood on his head would be an understatement, and he currently boasts a league-best .933 save percentage in the playoffs. We've seen a good share of hot goalies in the playoffs. Tuukka Rask played well enough to get his team past Ryan Miller and the Sabres, Chicago's Antti Niemi has a playoff save percentage over 90, and even Brian Boucher has surprised many, reminding us of the way he carried the Flyers during their 2001 playoff run.

A lot can be learned from this year's playoffs, but not much of it is new or surprising. Playoff hockey has always been this way - the teams that want it the most and the teams willing to do anything to win are the ones who survive. Teams that continue to play as they did in the regular season will find themselves behind pace, and in a 7 game series there isn't much room to slip up. So as we continue to watch these playoffs unfold, we should take a lesson from the grinders, a lesson from the underdogs, a lesson from some hot goalies and a lesson from the teams that aren't playing anymore, and as we watch, don't be surprised is we see the leagues most skilled teams going home empty-handed.