As a sports fanatic, I enjoy any competition that keeps me on the edge of my seat with a sort of laser focus that I wish I could have when studying for my next big exam. There are very few things that truly measure accomplishments in sports. Obviously winning a game is fun, winning a division or a pennant is fun too, but winning a championship is second to none, and the NHL has the most coveted trophy in all of sports. The trophy in the NHL is called Lord Stanley’s Cup, Stanley Cup or Lord Stanley.

The Stanley Cup is the league championship trophy awarded to the winner of the NHL playoffs, which requires the winning team to win 16 more games after a grueling 82-game regular season. But it is not the length of the season that makes winning this trophy so difficult, but rather the journey it takes to get there. Each team and player is required to endure mental, physical and emotional obstacles that stand in their way of achieving hockey’s greatest feat.

As a young hockey player, it is not uncommon to be alone in the garage shooting pucks, and there happens to be something like three seconds on the clock, and it just so happens to be game seven of the finals and you have the puck on your stick on a breakaway. I don’t know about you, but I always scored, and I always threw my stick up in the air, imagining I had just won the Stanley Cup. Little did I know, I was much like at least a billion other kids doing the same thing.

Throughout the game of hockey, so much work is required to be put in to make the NHL in the first place. Some players get drafted, some players get signed as a free agent and some players never make it. The players who play in the NHL are there with one reason and one reason only: they want to win a championship. So, before the playoffs even start, you are going into each game knowing the other guys don’t care how it gets done; they are winning that Cup.

The NHL playoffs rival any other major sporting event as the greatest time of the year. Not only is there a game on every night, but each game is going to be war with every player fighting tooth and nail to get the edge that will propel their team to victory. Each shot on net could be the one that ends the season, and let’s be real, no one wants to go home empty-handed on a cheesy shot that the goalie should’ve had. But the best part is raising that 30 pounds of solid silver over your head, knowing your teammates, brothers and family are there for you to pass it to them. So go ahead and fasten your seat belts while you enjoy the greatest game on Earth.

May the odds be in your favor.

Go Wild!