Seven wonders

Do-or-die NHL games offer fans a slice of heaven

Tuesday evening in the life of a hockey fan: Clear nighttime schedule. Take nap. Order dinner and turn off the phone. Settle in, prepare to spend six hours on the edge of your La-Z-Boy. For the housebound pucklover the night was a little like hitting the jackpot: 7 7 7.

Even in the tightly wound, anything-goes NHL playoffs -- where games can skate into triple overtime and Ducks can fly faster than Red Wings -- a Game 7 gets your attention. Three in one night? Feels like March madness six weeks late.

Except that in hockey Game 7s come after Games 1 through 6, which means the players have bruised, unshaven and somewhat misshapen faces by the time an elimination game rolls around. Did you get a load of some of those mugs on Tuesday night? See Keith Primeau's eye? No wonder the Maple Leafs were scared witless on Broad Street.

The first Game 7 of the night (Flyers 6, Maple Leafs 1) was anti-climactic. Halfway through the contest you could tell Leafs goalie Ed Belfour was enjoying Philadelphia about as much as W.C. Fields did. And by the time Mark Recchi laced one high and short-side to make it 5-1, Toronto's play was about as well-disciplined as Will Ferrell on spring break.

Game 7 blowouts -- we well remember Detroit toppling the Avalanche 7-0 last spring -- always perplex me. How can a team cave so quickly?, I wonder. Didn't the losers read the papers? Hadn't they been energized by all those Game 7 cliches ("it's do-or-die," "the moment of truth," "play well or Toronto fans and online columnists will make fun of you")? Losing by five goals in Game 7 is so embarrassing that Belfour didn't even take his mask off for the postgame handshakes.

What one needs in Game 7 is a little innocence and a guy named Manny. The underdog Wild went into Colorado for that series' deciding game with a roster that, combined, had experienced only 12 NHL Game 7s. Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy had played in that many himself. See, when you're as green in the gills as the Wild, you don't know you're not supposed to rally back from a Peter Forsberg goal and take Cup-contending Colorado deep into the third period locked in a 1-1 tie. You don't know that Manny Fernandez is supposed to crumble at the sight of Colorado's highly paid, and highly dynamic, puck-carriers. And you definitely haven't grasped that it's rude to respond to a goal from the great Joe Sakic by tying the game at 2-2 with four minutes left, leading to overtime and to an arena full of Avs fans reaching for their Maalox.

While all this was going on in Denver, the Blues were in Vancouver enthralling fans the way a jackknifed tractor-trailer captivates rubberneckers. St. Louis had had the Canucks down 3-1 in the series and should have ended it last week. The Blues went into Tuesday's game with a Cup-winner in net (Chris Osgood) and opposed a goalie who'd never played an NHL Game 7 (Dan Cloutier). But Osgood had meltdown worthy of Belfour and the Blues, as they so often do at this time of year, slunk quietly away. It ended 4-1, in favor of the Canucks.

Of course you know by now that at 1:03 a.m. EST, not four minutes into overtime in Denver, the Wild's slow-footed forward Andrew Brunette somehow weaved his way to the front of the Avalanche net and there, by dint of his quick hands, flipped the puck past Roy. Final score: Minnesota 3, Colorado 2.

Can it be? Brunette beating Roy? The baby Wild knocking out the big, bad Avalanche? The tuned-in hockey fan wasn't all that surprised. In Game 7, anything is possible.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy takes sides each week at SI.com.

 

Related information

Stories

SI.com's complete Stanley Cup playoff coverage Previous Kostya Kennedy columns

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video