Bill Mann's Canada: Stanley Cup: The long, brutal slog begins

By Bill Mann, MarketWatch

VANCOUVER, B.C. ? For hockey fans, it?s literally crunchtime ? bone-crunching time. The NHL?s Stanley Cup playoffs are a brutal test of endurance and an obsession for most Canadians ? just like the World Series once was in the U.S. This is the ultimate showcase for Canada?s national sport, and nothing else ? not, baseball, basketball or even football ? comes even close to the Cup playoffs as a sheer physical challenge, one that lasts for weeks.

The Cup playoffs are above all a test of endurance that lasts for weeks. In hockey, playoff players have 10 weeks of brutal physical contact to survive, like Marine boot camp. The baseball playoffs? Puh-leese. These guys stand around most of the time they?re playing. Pro basketball? Sure, it?s a physical sport, but nothing even close to hockey?s constant collisions. NFL football? Probably just as violent, true, but let?s see NFL players endure four combat sessions a week.

One hears often that baseball is a metaphor for life, which, to this former sportswriter who?s covered major-league baseball, is ridiculous in too many ways to count. But the quest for Lord Stanley?s Cup is in many ways a true reflection of the Canadian personality and Canadian history ? its constant physical challenges endured, on ice. It?s about teamwork and sucking it up. The Northwest Territories and British Columbia weren?t settled by wussies. Lumberjacks don?t get benched for ankle sprains or groin pulls.

Last fall, when the NBA?s self-entitled millionaires were on strike and many basketball fans were becoming converts to hockey, fan polls found that, as a whole, hockey players were seen as far more likable than other pro athletes. Which they are. That, I would argue, is largely because they?re Canadians, an agreeable people, as well as European.

Another appealing thing about the Cup playoffs is that statistically, fighting drops off markedly during these weeks-long battles on ice. The pointless, embarrassing, gloves-off fiascos that are such a dreary sideshow are replaced by crisper passing, better goaltending, and more solid hitting into the boards.

This year, finally, every Stanley Cup playoff game will air on American TV. That?s one direct result of the huge $2 billion, 10-year deal NBC signed with the NHL a year ago. The Stanley Cup playoffs this year will be a lot like NBC?s Olympics coverage, spread across three broadcast and cable networks. Instead of a rerun of Jim Cramer?s investment-as-sport ?Mad Money,? for example, Wednesday?s opening Detroit/Nashville game will air in prime time on CNBC. The main vehicle for NBC?s Stanley Cup coverage will be the renamed NBC Sports network (formerly Versus), with most of the games airing there.

But starting Saturday, parent network NBC will also be airing some Stanley Cup playoff games, beginning with Saturday?s match between the defending Cup champion Boston Bruins and Washington?s red-hot Capitals.

Big two TV markets

NBC will be watching this year?s hockey-playoff ratings carefully. It?s happy that the two largest major TV markets, New York and Los Angeles, have teams in the hunt this time. The powerful New York Rangers are expected to get by playoff newbies the Ottawa Senators in the first round. The L.A. Kings, on the other hand, may not make it past Canada?s other playoff team, the Vancouver Canucks, in the opening Cup round.

Canadians aren't happy that only two of six Canadian teams ? Ottawa and Vancouver ? are in the playoffs this year. Players from Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary will be on the golf course. But Vancouver is favored by many to win its first Cup this time. The Canucks edged out the Rangers this week for the prestigious President?s Cup, given to the team with the most points accumulated during the regular season.

But memories of Vancouver?s hockey riot last June 15 still linger here in this pleasant metropolis. The rioters trashed this city?s downtown after the Canucks lost in the final Cup game to the Bruins. City officials have announced there?ll be no repeat if the Canucks make it to the finals again. Instead of mass gatherings in Vancouver?s financial district to watch the game on big screens ? which attracted many drunk knuckleheads from the ?burbs ? this spring, the games will air in smaller venues, mostly community centers.

It almost goes without saying that all the Stanley Cup games will air on Canadian TV, on both the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Canadian cable network TSN.

Do Canadians always root for Canadian teams during the playoffs, as you might suspect they would?

Surprisingly, no. One national poll last year found that hockey-savvy Canadian fans usually root for teams with the highest number of Canadian players. That?s Canadian national pride.

Pennsylvania punch-out?

The first-round intrastate battle between the surging Pittsburgh Penguins, with hockey?s biggest star in Sidney Crosby, and the rival Philadelphia Flyers, is probably the best first-round matchup, one that may go the full bruising seven games. One Flyer, Scott Hartnell, drew headlines this week when he said of the Pennsylvania grudge match, ?It?s going to be a bloodbath.? Nice guy, eh? One NBC announcer then added that a ?steel cage? would be erected in Pittsburgh. That sure-to-be-ugly series launches NBC Sports Net?s playoff coverage Wednesday at 4:30 EDT.

Fans who tune in just during the playoffs or watch pro hockey for the first time this spring may not notice the difference, but playoff hockey IS assuredly different ? more so than any other pro sports I?ve watched. It?s far more intense, and it?s better hockey, unencumbered with a lot fewer fights (the Pittsburgh-Philly series may prove an anomaly). After each game, Cup players are dazed and contused.

Many Canadian authors have written about how hockey personifies Canada?s national character, the sleazy on-ice barroom brawls notwithstanding.

Imagine two months of getting crunched into the boards for 60 minutes four times a week, and landing hard on the ice. Or being hit by sticks and pucks and getting your face stitched up and waking up feeling like you?ve been mugged after every game. That takes sheer perseverance beyond most pro athletes in other sports.

And that?s how Canada was built: By warriors and those who could endure a long, cold slog.

That?s also how Canadians won a war against the U.S. two centuries ago.

Bill Mann is a MarketWatch columnist, based in Port Townsend, Wash.

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