For hockey fans, the fun is just starting.
The quest for the greatest trophy in all of sports—the Stanley Cup—begins this week, with 16 NHL teams in pursuit. In early June, the last team standing will win the ultimate honor—the right to drink from Lord Stanley's Cup.
Among the favorites this season are the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins in the East, and Colorado Avalanche and Anaheim Ducks in the West. However, favorites mean little when the puck is dropped this time of year.
Hall of Fame broadcaster Jiggs McDonald will be watching as closely as anyone. McDonald, who has handled play-by-play duties for more than 3,000 regular-season games and 200-plus Stanley Cup Playoff games, truly loves hockey's second season.
"This time of the year is so special," McDonald exclusively told Sports World News. "From a broadcaster's standpoint, you've watched your team progress and work hard just to make the playoffs. Yet now is when you have to have lots of gas left in the tank. It's a marathon, not a sprint and it all comes down to how well conditioned a team is. Being able to give everything, reload and come out gunning again."
McDonald—who began his career in working for the Los Angeles Kings in 1967—called New York Islanders games during their march to four straight Stanley Cup titles in the early 1980s. In those years, the Islanders dominated the competition.
"Those Islanders teams were so good at being ready," said McDonald, who was awarded the Hockey Hall of Fame's Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 1990. "The focus was on the playoffs and winning the Cup. Head athletic trainer Ron Waske had developed a season-long series of conditioning tests and made sure that everyone was at their peak on April 1."
And for McDonald, a winning formula during the Stanley Cup Playoffs is most often very simple.
"It comes down to goaltending," McDonald said. "It's not always the best team that wins—it's the team that's playing the best. If a team gets great goaltending, they'll win the Stanley Cup."
One thing McDonald is sure of as the 2014 playoffs get started, is that there are going to be upsets in the first round—there always are. And while the legendary broadcaster feels that the Penguins and Avalanche are safe to make it through to the second round, good teams will be heading home early.
CHECK OUT THE COMPLETE STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
"Especially in the West, two very good teams will be gone after the first round," said McDonald, noting that each of the teams in the Chicago-St. Louis and Los Angeles-San Jose matchups are among the league's best. "And while the power is in the west, those teams are going to be battling like crazy in every game. That may make it easier for the Eastern Conference Champ to win the Cup come June."
Let the games begin.
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