Tonight, the Boston Bruins will square off against the Tampa Bay Lightning in game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals — the winner of which advances to the Stanley Cup Finals to compete for America’s oldest sporting trophy.
After having seen many of the games in this series, it’s sure to be a close game. This evenness brings us to the potential to witness the most thrilling five minutes in all of sports: the last two minutes of an NHL game seven where one team is losing by one goal.
If none of the above sentences made sense to you, or if they made sense and you just don’t care, read on. I’m going to tell you why it’s worth watching, who to cheer for, how to watch it and how to know what’s happening.
“I Don’t Care About Sports”
I know a lot of people that say this, and that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring to you all of the time. Yes, it’s probably a bunch of overpaid dudes being sweaty and grunting and all… caveman-y, but ignore that for now.
What’s something that you like to do? It can be anything. Baking, arm-wrestling, drinking, tying your shoes, bicycling, recycling, high-fiving, paper-rock-scissoring. Anything.
Now imagine that you’re in a competition with other people that do that thing you like. You and the people around you are the best in the area at whatever it is that you picked. You want to win, obviously, but even if you don’t win it is so amazing to see people doing this activity at such an incredibly high level. People this good at what they do are interesting even to people that don’t know anything about what they’re watching.
Humans seem to be really good at recognizing raw talent in any form. Something being done at its highest level seems to be universally recognizable.
Now let’s translate that into hockey.
We’re deep in the playoffs at this point, which for the guys playing means a lot. Most will go their whole lives never winning a championship, and for the teams left — just four — they’re so close they can taste it. Even if sports means nothing to you, the players you’re watching play are doing so at the highest level possible.
Ignore the money of it all or the pointlessness of sports in the bigger picture (“pointlessness” being another argument for another day). Immerse yourself in this world like you might in a movie.
Watching It
There’s a good chance that if you stumble into any bar tonight around 10:00 (eastern), hockey will be playing on the TVs. By this point, the game will have been on for almost two hours, and you should be nearing the ending point.
If you get there early, try watching it. With time ticking down, things are going to start to get frantic.
Game Seven
Game seven is do-or-die night; put up or shut up time. It is the longest any seven-game series can go. One team moves on to play for greater glory while the other hits the golf course. There are no more second chances, and each team puts everything they have into this one game. Emotions are high, and testosterone is in overdrive. Pressure is stacked to the arena catwalks.
But what about big events like the Superbowl? That’s do-or-die night too, sure, but imagine watching the two teams play for the seventh time in a row. In football, that’s impossible; games only happen once a week, and the teams playing get two weeks off before their big final showdown. Game sevens happen one or two nights after game sixes, where one team had to win to keep things going, and they did.
By game seven, there are no more surprises. The teams know each other well, and what you see is the pure, natural skill of players playing their sport better than just about everyone else in the world.
Luck can win you a Superbowl, but it requires talent and discipline to win a seven-game series (in any sport, not just hockey).
Power Plays
For those unacquainted with how hockey works, when players get caught doing things against the rules, they get thrown into the penalty box. (And if this happens to you when you’re in Vancouver, green men in body suits may taunt you.) This sets up the “power play,” a five-against-four scenario for two minutes where the rules change slightly, and for the most part one team will have a good chance at scoring. The penalized team will do their best to make up for a missing skater, but teams are so even from top-to-bottom that even the worst teams have a really good chance to score.
I told you that story to tell you this one:
Pulling the Goalie
The most players a hockey team can have on the ice at any one time is six. This usually consists of five normal-looking players and a goalie, but there’s no rule enforcing this. At any point of the game (even while the puck is in play and things are happening), the goalie can skate off the ice and an additional normal-looking player can jump on!
Remember power plays? This is sort of like that, except that it doesn’t take a penalty to make it happen. If a team wants to do it, they do it. This move is most common at the end of games where you’re down by one or two goals.
You may be asking, if a power play is such an advantage and this is like that, why not do it all of the time? Because, if you don’t have a goalie out there, there’s no one watching your net. It’s sitting there wide open. If you’re not careful and you let the other team get the puck it can make for an easy goal. Then you’re down even more.
It’s a big risk to take because goals can be really hard to come by, so it only happens towards the end of games where someone is losing.
Overtime: The Second Most Thrilling Part of the Game
If teams are tied at the end of the third period, they’ll start playing overtime periods. These are twenty-minute chunks of time where the teams play like normal until someone scores. However, once someone scores, it’s over.
People often talk about how overtime in a game seven is the most exciting part of the game, and sure, it is exciting. Both teams are on edge, and growing more and more tired by the minute. Hockey players are constantly switching in and out, but in overtime, your best players are generally out more than normal so that they might make something magical happen. Even with all of that switching, legs get tired.
But while overtime is exciting, it’s missing one thing: a time constraint. There are no ties in hockey (playoffs), so if the first extra twenty minutes ends and no one has scored, they’ll take a breather and then start another twenty-minute period. (And if no one scores in that one, another. Rinse and repeat until someone scores.)
The more tired teams get, the more exciting it can be, but at some point it just becomes about not making the mistake that costs you the season. That can be fun, but not as fun as seeing people perform at their peak.
The Last Two Minutes of the Third Period in Game Seven, One Team Down By One
This is it. What I say is the most exciting moment in all of sports. Everyone is on edge. The team losing will pull their goalie as soon as they can to have the extra normal guy, and once they do, it becomes an onslaught. The team leading will contract back and attempt to block every shot taken by the other team.
Having an extra player, there should always be one person on the ice that is somewhat open, so there will be a lot of passing. If a lane opens, a pass can lead right into a shot. Goalies and defenders will dive in front of the puck to save shots. The team defending will do everything they can to push the puck out past the blue line. The team that needs to score will take every good-enough-looking shot available, but has to be careful not to mess up. One breakaway in the other direction and the game is all but lost because their goalie is sitting on the bench.
It’s desperation by both teams, one trying to score to maybe force overtime, the other hoping to finally put an end to this long, taxing series.
And in hockey, the last two minutes takes at most five minutes to play, but usually it’s only a little over two minutes. It’s not like football where anyone can call timeout while the clock is running. It’s not like basketball where the last two minutes involve a lot of timeouts and fouling and commercials. It’s not like baseball where there is no clock. There is a clock, and it’s ticking.
You wouldn’t believe how quick (or long) the last two minutes can feel.
Finally, Who to Cheer For
If you’re ever lucky enough to find yourself watching this situation and you’re in or near one of the two cities that are playing, cheer for the home team. Everyone around you will be doing the same, and you can share in their collective grief or excitement.
If you’re not in one of the two cities that are playing, cheer for the team that is losing. I found that while watching two teams I knew nothing about, it was easier to cheer for the losing team because everyone likes to see scoring. It can happen at any point and not knowing is half of the fun. In the last two minutes as described above, it’s going to be crazy for both teams: if your team is on defense, those two minutes will take forever. If they’re on offense, those two minutes will be gone in a blink.
And if you’re still not interested in seeing people succeed at what they do professionally, then just watch with an open mind and remember: you’re watching people do something that they’re better at than almost everyone else in the world. In the world.
Yes, players make a ton of money and to some that may not seem fair or justified or right. But putting all of that aside, you’re watching a small group of people working as hard as they possibly can — using everything they’ve learned and worked for in throughout their entire profession (which for hockey players is their entire lives) — with just one of two goals: either getting a small black chunk of rubber over a thin red line, or preventing that very thing from happening.
