NHL Playoff Bracket 2012: Intense Postseason Is Most Exciting in Pro Sports

There is nothing in professional sports quite like the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sure, baseball's playoffs have a unique tension that hangs in the air between every pitch or swing of the bat. But like the game itself, baseball's playoffs have natural breaks, gaps in the play, opportunities to take a deep breath.

Not the Stanley Cup playoffs. They are a free-flowing, non-stop source of exhilaration. Rooting on your team in an NHL playoff game is like living through a series of mini heart attacks, which are either followed by pure ecstasy or excruciating agony.

Commercials aren't breaks in the NHL playoffs, they're temporary respites from cardiac arrest.

The NFL playoffs are pretty good, of course, but what football game isn't intense? In a 16-game season, every game has a playoff-esque feel to it.

And though they've been better in recent years, the likelihood of a clunker in the Super Bowl is always a strong possibility. Plus, you have to sit through a bunch of over-hyped commercials and a horrible halftime show.

And if you end up at a lame Super Bowl party, America's football holiday can be a downright disappointing experience.

But the Stanley Cup playoffs rarely disappoint at any level. Since 1999, the Stanley Cup Finals have gone six or seven games 10 times. Six of those series have gone to a decisive Game 7.

That's high drama, people.

Now, the one thing I've always loved about the NBA playoffs is how much higher the level of play becomes in the postseason. The games become more cerebral, the matchups more intriguing, the superstars more compelling.

I suppose any 82-game season will have its clunkers—nights that players just wind up taking off. But in the playoffs, you get none of that and the adept fan gets to watch the game being played in magnificent fashion.

The same holds true in the NHL's postseason, except it also includes bone-crushing hits, the occasional fight and teams that seem on the verge of a brawl after every whistle. You can't tell me your blood doesn't boil when a goon on the other team gives your star player a face wash between faceoffs.

The NBA has the occasional scrap, I suppose, but more often it has players flopping in an attempt to draw a charge. I love playoff basketball, but it's just not the same.

And think of all the things I haven't even mentioned yet:

• Playoff beards. Is there a funnier, cooler playoff tradition than the playoff beard?
• Games every other night. The NBA playoffs last forever. At some point, I'm convinced baseball will play into December. You have to wait TWO WEEKS between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. But in hockey, they just keep chugging along.
• Teeth that go missing. What's more endearing than a hockey smile?
• Easily the coolest trophy in sports, Lord Stanley's Cup. A giant cup with engravings of every player who ever won it—how freaking cool is that?
• Overtime games that seem to happen every night.

Let's talk about that last point. None of the other professional sports give you as much extra time as the NHL playoffs do and the NHL is the only true sudden-death format, which is inherently exciting.

Sure, the NFL playoffs become sudden-death at a point, but it's sort of confusing, and stupid, and damn it, why can't the smartest-run league in America figure out something as simple as overtime?

Now, the NHL playoffs don't edge out one event, and I'm sure you know where I'm going with this—I'm talking, of course, about March Madness.

It's almost too tight to call, but there's just something about a 68-team, single-elimination tournament with a history of buzzer-beaters and the enthusiasm of college sports that is hard to beat.

But the NHL playoffs come close. Damn close.

More importantly, the Stanley Cup playoffs still stand high and above every other professional league's postseason. In every way, they are the gold standard.

So go ahead, grow out your playoff beard and join the party. I promise, you won't be bored.

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