In the playoffs, everyone and their dog loves to write and talk about who the pressure is on. “Oooh! The Rangers are up 3-1. Pressure’s on them!” “Oooh! Caps forced Game 7! Pressure’s on them!”
Let’s all chill out for a minute here.
This is sports, right? (It is.) In sports, doesn’t Game 7 mean that the loser goes home and has to wait until next year? (It does.) So then how the hell is the pressure on any specific team? They’re all screwed if they lose. It’s not like one is going to get a free pass or get off scot free from their fans and the media. No team is going to go, ‘well, we gave it our best shot and since there wasn’t any pressure on us, we’re alright with losing’. And then the media/fans accept that as a valid reasoning.
There are two Game 7s in the NHL tonight involving four teams. You can bet that whichever two lose are really going to be feeling the heat from the home fans or, if they’re the vistiors, upon returning home. Let’s examine each one, shall we?
First, we’ll start with the powder keg of a series that is the Rangers and Capitals. There is immense pressure on both teams, no matter what anyone else tells you. There’s going to be panic in the newspapers of one of these cities tomorrow morning.
In Washington, it would be the second year in a row that the team has lost a Game 7 at home. They’ve lost in the first round in each of their last four trips to the playoffs. Of those four, three of those trips were on the heels of a division title and this has been the most successful season in nearly a decade. And I almost forgot, they’ve got that Ovechkin guy. Anyone still not convinced the media will have a field day breaking down where and how it all went wrong if the Caps lose tonight?
The Rangers are in a similar predicament. They play in the media capital of America. Sure, Alex Rodriguez isn’t involved, but the media will have a summer’s worth of material if Glen Sather’s Experiment goes awry in the first round. After a coaching change, the re-acquistion of Sean Avery, huge trade deadline trades and the circus that this first round series has been, this playoff loss would reverberate for a long time down the canyons of New York City. The stench of blowing a 3-1 series lead wouldn’t wash off for quite a while, either. Basically, everyone from Glen Sather down to the trainer who gave Dubinsky a tetanus shot would be grilled by Larry Brooks and his counterparts. It would be an awfully long summer in the city.
The other series pits the Carolina Hurricanes against the New Jersey Devils. Neither team would face the media backlash that Caps or Rangers would, but there’s pressure nonetheless.
If Carolina loses, I don’t think we’ll be hearing from McBrayer for a few weeks until he shakes off the effects of a series that’s basically been like a nightly drug habit for the folks watching with a vested interest. People thought — and think — that hockey hasn’t succeeded in Carolina. Tell that to the crowds that have packed the RBC Center for these playoffs. They love it and there’s not a fan base in hockey that could easily deal with a Game 7 loss.
In New Jersey, everyone would have to face the wrath of an angry Lou Lamoriello and Marty Brodeur. Newark is dangerous enough as it is (I’m not pulling a Melrose, look at the statistics) without those two guys being pissed off. And on a more serious note, there are the expectations. The Devils don’t lose in the playoffs. Or at least not before they make a good run of it. Despite having some real good teams, they haven’t made it past the second round since they last won the Cup in 2003. Five 100-point seasons in a row (OK, they had 99 one of those years) and not even a Conference Finals appearance to show for it? That’s downright Philadelphian of them (OK, so the Flyers had a few Conf. Finals appearances in those years, but they still flamed out pretty good). And nobody in New Jersey likes to be compared to Philadelphia.
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