Firstly, there's a normal playoff structure, back to our four mini tournaments in each division before the Final 4. There's no all Canada division this year. We get our normal rivalry matchups after a year on missing quite a few. There's also full arenas evrerywhere. At the start of the NHL Playoffs last year, basically only the Florida teams were playing to full houses, and while most American cities were close to full by the second or third rounds, we still had capacity limits in the Canada games, including the Final games in Montreal.
Not so this year, all arenas are back full. The atmosphere should be insane from the go. This should be a celebration of the sport, particularly as the sport was played at a much more enjoyable level in this season than the prior two - even pandemic issues aside.
Scoring was up this year, to its highest level since the mid-90's before the league entered a ~20 year morass known as the 'dead puck' era. A slight blip post the cancelled season was little by little chipped away at till we reached a new low point in the early-to-mid 10's. Slowly scoring started creeping back up towards the back half of last decade, but the pause and the odd format last year was met with a drop in scoring again.
Then this year things exploded. It exploded early (when scoring often is a bit higher than it is through the season), and continued throughout. It hit a fake high in the middle of the season as the Omicron waved surged through the NHL, and teams started playing street goalies and the like, but even as things calmed down, the goals did not. We end with a team scoring 340 goals (Florida) the most in nearly 30 years. Overall scoring the highest in 26 years. A 60-goal scorer, eight 100-point scorers, etc. It was beautiful. It should portend great things, as while scoring does often drop in the playoffs, it doesn't as much as you would think.
Also, this year is just so even. We say that often, and upsets happen often in the NHL, certainly more than the NBA (which for all the 'parity' and 'wide-open-ness' of the season, we have the top-4 seeds in both Conferences advancing). This year is something special though.
The eight teams in the East all had at least 100 points. Yes, part of the reason that is possible is the eight non-playoff teams in the East were woefully bad. But those top eight were all really good, and only one series (Florida vs. Washington) seems to be anything other than a potential 7-game war. The West is nearly as good, with a potential classic in St. Louis vs. Minnesota, two teams with a surprisingly lengthy playoff history, and an even more surprising offense-first, fast, exciting way of playing this season.
This season was such a joy to follow given the scoring, the pace, the greatness of teams like Colorado and Florida, and performances like Auston Matthews' 60 goals, or McDavid's 122 points, but in the end we have what we always do: a perfect postseason tournament, for a perfect championship trophy. The road to the Cup starts today, and while that road is always incredibly fun, it is far more so than even this year.
