THE TOUGHEST PLAYOFFS IN ALL OF SPORTS

The Stanley Cup is the oldest sports trophy in North America and the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs for that cup are now in progress. The toughest of all sports playoffs is ice hockey.

In order to get into the Stanley Cup playoffs, hockey teams have to go through an eighty game regular season schedule, much like the schedule for the National Basketball Association. But there is a huge difference between the beating hockey players and basketball players take, and for that matter, football players.

The top eight teams in the Eastern Conference and in the Western Conference of the NHL are paired-off in the playoffs. Each playoff series is a best of seven games. There are four series in the quarterfinals, two in the semifinals, and one in the conference finals. The winner of each conference gets to play for the Stanley Cup.

If every series went to seven games, the eventual winner would have played at total of 28 playoff games. However, many of the series are over in five or six games. Nevertheless, even if a series were swept in four games, the constant hard knocks taken by hockey players are almost unimaginable.

The boards that surround the ice surface of a hockey rink are unforgiving. Despite the protective gear worn by hockey players, when they get checked (blocked, for you football fans) into the boards, it hurts! Then there is the occasional hockey stick to the face. And when a hockey player gets hit by that hard rubber puck flying at close to, or over 100 mph, that really fucking smarts! You've sure got to admire the guts it takes to go down on the ice in an attempt to block an opposing player's shot with your body.

While there is much pain in basketball and football, it just doesn’t compare to the pain suffered in each game by hockey players. During the playoffs each team will play every other day and sometimes on consecutive days. That doesn’t give much time for the pain to go away. In between each period and after each game, out come the ice packs. All together that adds up to the fact that most hockey players play hurt in every game.

The grueling NHL playoff schedule makes hockey players the toughest of all professional athletes. Many of the players will continue to feel the hurt well beyond the end of the playoffs. That is why there is no doubt that the Stanley Cup playoffs are the toughest playoffs in all of sports. And that is why the oldest sports trophy in North America is so prized by those who get their names engraved on it.