The Stanley Cup is the Hardest Major Sports Championship to Win
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sickbizzle
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like it or not the Stanley Cup is commonly referred to as the most difficult major sports championship to win in the sports world. here's an old article that attempted to explain why:
Upon watching Outside the Lines on ESPN, I was urged to write this article. Having played hockey for the last 20 years of my life, I want to explain why the Stanley Cup is by far the hardest major sports championship to win.
First, let me not affend golfers, tennis players, or any other non-team related sports. Hence the reason they are no considered major sport championships. I really admire Tiger and A-Rod (Andy Roddick,) who doesn't? They are athletes beyond what I have ever dreamed of being and have accomplished more in their respective sports than my measly ACHA hockey national championship.
Now Basketball players are amazing athletes. I admire 50% of them. Kobe, Duncan, Nash, Shaq, Lebron. We have something to watch and kind of look up to in basketball players, but no Jordan. Basketball is a game of running and utliyzing 7-8 plays which are used 25% of the time because of selfish A.I. type of players who think they know what it takes to win, but hold no rings to back it. Basketball is the same, best of 7 series play with 4 rounds to win a trophy. But, its just another trophy, not one that has been passed down for over 100 years to the winners. It is not a Cup that brings back memories of watching your childhood hero hold the same cup over their heads 15-20 years ago. Basketball players are not made like hockey players and could never be compared to hockey players. They are extraordinary athletes that nearly 100% of the time have the ability to be completly dominant with extra work ethic. Hence, Lebron, Kobe, Nash, Arenas. Aside from these guys and maybe a handful more, if an NBA player took an 80mph hockey puck off their fore-heard, I guarantee you they would be out for 2 weeks. They wouldn't take 15 stitches, sit a game and be back the next. If an NBA player got his face shoved on a smooth wooden NBA floor, he would probably make a fuss about it, punch a player, get kicked out of the game, spit on a ref, and lose the game for his team. Alex Kovalev of Montreal got his face washed last night while a 200+ Lb defensman lay on top of his. He got up threw a slash and took a pentaly. But, then returned to the ice, helped his team tie the game to go to OT, then scored short-side with inch-accuracy to win a game in OT. Allen Iverson you make me sick.
Now this is hard, because I love baseball and I'm a huge huge baseball fan. Baseball players play 2x the amount of games in a season. But when it comes time for play-offs they only have 3 series, with the first only a best of 5. Cummon, baseball players work out a ton and play alot during the regular season, but this article is about the hardest major sports championship to work. Baseball players don't touch eachother unless a guy is being a ? sliding into second or if a player wasn't good big enough to play football and tackle guys so he decided to take it out of little Ivan Rodriguez to make himself feel like a bigger man. Try your ? tackles on a real man like Chris Neil of the Ottawa Senators or Chris Pronger of Anheim and you'd get your clock cleaned in a one-punch knockout. Baseball is a non-contact sport that you just have to train your body to withstand the long haul of 162 games. Tom Glavine was drafted to play hockey, he just knew it would be alot easier to play baseball. So many players to the same thing.
Next, Football players have it made. They get paid tons of money to play 1x a week. Whoo Hoo. Mind you, they are huge Spartan-like athletes that throw tackles that probably hurt like a gun shot. But a simple physics equation can relate how an athlete weighing 2x less, but traveling at a speed of 2x more could easily exert the same amount of pain. Hockey players take the same beating as football players while playing 82 instead of 18-20 games a season. Superbowl playoffs take 4 games to win? Hockey playoffs take a minimum of 16 games to win, and sometimes take up to 28 games to win. MOST STANLEY CUP CHAMPS PLAY MORE PLAYOFF GAMES THAN AN NFL TEAM DOES IN A SEASON. It makes me sick to look at players like T.O or Chad Johnson. They are more of a WWF wrestling show than a major sports championship. Not to mention their trophy is made new every year by Tiffany & Co. in NYC. HOW ? IS THAT?
Finally, soccer players are amazing athletes too. They they just run around in fun outfits. Its the worlds sport and I'm being ignorant because I don't know enough to write about soccer compared to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but I just know its not as hard to win a World Cup or Fifa Championship. I mean, have you ever seen how much soccer players dive and fake stuff!?!?!? It is embarrising. I player soccer for 10 years and I was so much better than everyone else b/c I played with a hockey player's mentallity that never let anyone get in my head. No one could ever hurt me and when they tried I laughed. I've been punched in soccer, had my mother insulted, been kicked in the ? , had my feet stomped. None of it phased me. I just think, I've taken more pain when I was a 9 year old squirt playing against punk ass teams in Ontario for a trophy I might look at once.
Hockey is definately the hardest of all major sports to win. Its trophy carries the most tradition and therefore it is fitting that it is the hardest trophy to win. There are certain rules in hockey you learn at an early age. Thou shall not ever touch or kiss the Stanley Cup unless you win it. You make look at it and dream about it. Pictures are border line, but if you're ? like that take a flick b/c you'll more than likely never win it. When your eyes view the Trophy in Toronto, it engulfs you with a feeling of no other. When you can view every player to ever win that trophy, it is like a list of the best of the best.
I love this game, I love its trophy, and I still to this day think about what I could have done different to put myself on a better path that could have led me to the Cup. It is hard because once it is in your mind, it never leaves.
i'm interested to read your response attempting to dispute any of the above points relating to each other major team sport.
bet on the Hawks if you want to make some money - i put $100 on a sweep we'll see how that goes.
Upon watching Outside the Lines on ESPN, I was urged to write this article. Having played hockey for the last 20 years of my life, I want to explain why the Stanley Cup is by far the hardest major sports championship to win.
First, let me not affend golfers, tennis players, or any other non-team related sports. Hence the reason they are no considered major sport championships. I really admire Tiger and A-Rod (Andy Roddick,) who doesn't? They are athletes beyond what I have ever dreamed of being and have accomplished more in their respective sports than my measly ACHA hockey national championship.
Now Basketball players are amazing athletes. I admire 50% of them. Kobe, Duncan, Nash, Shaq, Lebron. We have something to watch and kind of look up to in basketball players, but no Jordan. Basketball is a game of running and utliyzing 7-8 plays which are used 25% of the time because of selfish A.I. type of players who think they know what it takes to win, but hold no rings to back it. Basketball is the same, best of 7 series play with 4 rounds to win a trophy. But, its just another trophy, not one that has been passed down for over 100 years to the winners. It is not a Cup that brings back memories of watching your childhood hero hold the same cup over their heads 15-20 years ago. Basketball players are not made like hockey players and could never be compared to hockey players. They are extraordinary athletes that nearly 100% of the time have the ability to be completly dominant with extra work ethic. Hence, Lebron, Kobe, Nash, Arenas. Aside from these guys and maybe a handful more, if an NBA player took an 80mph hockey puck off their fore-heard, I guarantee you they would be out for 2 weeks. They wouldn't take 15 stitches, sit a game and be back the next. If an NBA player got his face shoved on a smooth wooden NBA floor, he would probably make a fuss about it, punch a player, get kicked out of the game, spit on a ref, and lose the game for his team. Alex Kovalev of Montreal got his face washed last night while a 200+ Lb defensman lay on top of his. He got up threw a slash and took a pentaly. But, then returned to the ice, helped his team tie the game to go to OT, then scored short-side with inch-accuracy to win a game in OT. Allen Iverson you make me sick.
Now this is hard, because I love baseball and I'm a huge huge baseball fan. Baseball players play 2x the amount of games in a season. But when it comes time for play-offs they only have 3 series, with the first only a best of 5. Cummon, baseball players work out a ton and play alot during the regular season, but this article is about the hardest major sports championship to work. Baseball players don't touch eachother unless a guy is being a ? sliding into second or if a player wasn't good big enough to play football and tackle guys so he decided to take it out of little Ivan Rodriguez to make himself feel like a bigger man. Try your ? tackles on a real man like Chris Neil of the Ottawa Senators or Chris Pronger of Anheim and you'd get your clock cleaned in a one-punch knockout. Baseball is a non-contact sport that you just have to train your body to withstand the long haul of 162 games. Tom Glavine was drafted to play hockey, he just knew it would be alot easier to play baseball. So many players to the same thing.
Next, Football players have it made. They get paid tons of money to play 1x a week. Whoo Hoo. Mind you, they are huge Spartan-like athletes that throw tackles that probably hurt like a gun shot. But a simple physics equation can relate how an athlete weighing 2x less, but traveling at a speed of 2x more could easily exert the same amount of pain. Hockey players take the same beating as football players while playing 82 instead of 18-20 games a season. Superbowl playoffs take 4 games to win? Hockey playoffs take a minimum of 16 games to win, and sometimes take up to 28 games to win. MOST STANLEY CUP CHAMPS PLAY MORE PLAYOFF GAMES THAN AN NFL TEAM DOES IN A SEASON. It makes me sick to look at players like T.O or Chad Johnson. They are more of a WWF wrestling show than a major sports championship. Not to mention their trophy is made new every year by Tiffany & Co. in NYC. HOW ? IS THAT?
Finally, soccer players are amazing athletes too. They they just run around in fun outfits. Its the worlds sport and I'm being ignorant because I don't know enough to write about soccer compared to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but I just know its not as hard to win a World Cup or Fifa Championship. I mean, have you ever seen how much soccer players dive and fake stuff!?!?!? It is embarrising. I player soccer for 10 years and I was so much better than everyone else b/c I played with a hockey player's mentallity that never let anyone get in my head. No one could ever hurt me and when they tried I laughed. I've been punched in soccer, had my mother insulted, been kicked in the ? , had my feet stomped. None of it phased me. I just think, I've taken more pain when I was a 9 year old squirt playing against punk ass teams in Ontario for a trophy I might look at once.
Hockey is definately the hardest of all major sports to win. Its trophy carries the most tradition and therefore it is fitting that it is the hardest trophy to win. There are certain rules in hockey you learn at an early age. Thou shall not ever touch or kiss the Stanley Cup unless you win it. You make look at it and dream about it. Pictures are border line, but if you're ? like that take a flick b/c you'll more than likely never win it. When your eyes view the Trophy in Toronto, it engulfs you with a feeling of no other. When you can view every player to ever win that trophy, it is like a list of the best of the best.
I love this game, I love its trophy, and I still to this day think about what I could have done different to put myself on a better path that could have led me to the Cup. It is hard because once it is in your mind, it never leaves.
i'm interested to read your response attempting to dispute any of the above points relating to each other major team sport.
bet on the Hawks if you want to make some money - i put $100 on a sweep we'll see how that goes.
Comments
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Started reading, but it was just too long but, i disagree. I'd say the NCAA championship, Superbowl, and other one loss elimination type tournaments are harder to win, because you have to be the best team every game. In a best of 7 series there's no such thing as an upset IMO because they just won 4 games. It may be a surprise...but not an upset because the best team wins. To win the Stanley Cup you have to be the best team...to win those other championships you have to be the best team everyday. That's why I'd say the other championships are harder.
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stanley cup ftw!! i feel you t/s, we aint won since 67....
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nhl playoffs just as hard to win as nba, this is just a biased article from a former hockey player
if anything i agree more with dude that said its the nfl, when you lose once and you done -
didn't read all that but you should change it to major team sports championship. Cause I'm pretty sure winning a major in golf is harder than winning the stanley cup;.
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No point in reading after this ? idiot says "BY FAR the hardest"....one of the most biased articles I've seen in some time.
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he says its the hardest to win but then goes on about how it carrys the most tradition etc. wtf does that have to do with the difficulty of the playoffs
if i have a trophy thats been around for 1000 years, that is awarded to the ? who can spit or ? the furthest, is it the most difficult championship to win? -
SMMFH its the superbowl and its not even close
with NCAA b-ball being a close second -
the NHL playoffs are random as hell but I still think getting in that National title football game is the hardest...
not only must you win every game or close to it, you gotta be highly regarded enough in the off-season just to even get consideration to start at the top of the polls
then you gotta pray the computers like you
the system is set up for you to fail in college football...not saying it's good but it's the toughest -
Football is far more physical than hockey. In a hockey game there may be 2-3 hits tops there are more hits than that in a single play in footbal, I like Barry Melrose and all but stop it with that Hockey players are tougher stuff take the biggest strongest player in the NHL and put him up against Hines Ward a reciever.
Plus get that same trophy bs outta here go inside the Celtics facilities you'll see 17 trophies how many inside the Candians??? -
how many people could learn to skate well enough to make the NHL? that ? takes years
there's people that pick up football in their jr or senior year of high school and make the NFL -
likwid-cyance wrote: »how many people could learn to skate well enough to make the NHL? that ? takes years
there's people that pick up football in their jr or senior year of high school and make the NFL
so that makes the NHL a tougher championship to win?
c'mon son -
so that makes the NHL a tougher championship to win?
c'mon son
I was talking about dude above that was saying football was physically demanding
ice skating is a ? -
likwid-cyance wrote: »I was talking about dude above that was saying football was physically demanding
ice skating is a ?
both sports are extremely physical but at the same time I dont see 300 pound ? skating waiting to check some dude
retired players are having a tough time just walking around and living -
Not only is it not the hardest to win. It is the most boring to watch, most random, and unwatchable.
I guess you could make the argument that it is the hardest because a lot of playoff goals are flukes.
Not really a big fan of soccor either, but that world cup seems like a hard championship to win.
And ask and NFL running back who career is an average of 3 years how hockey is more physical than the NFL. Please, they got 43 year olds playing hockey. -
Went back and read more of the article...that ? is trash. Just bias opinion and talkin ? about other sports, and ? . And dude said the world cup is easier to win?!?! GTFOH. That comes along once every four years, and it's a lot of the world competing. It's basically the olympics but with just soccer.
T/S "i'm interested to read your response attempting to dispute any of the above points relating to each other major team sport." You should be ashamed if you find that article that convincing -
both sports are extremely physical but at the same time I dont see 300 pound ? skating waiting to check some dude
retired players are having a tough time just walking around and living
you can't be a 300lb ? and skate like they do in hockey
you can be completely out of shape and make it in the NFL...word to Albert Haynesworth -
? said Stanley Cup is harder to win than World Cup...
I stopped reading. -
anyone that agrees with this is a fool. unless you can play all pro sports you cant really compare one to the other.
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another thread millz 4got to lock
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alot of people really do think this in sports if you didn't know this then you're just asleep. no where in the thread did i say i agree with this article. like it or not though in the world of sports the Stanley Cup IS referred to alot as 'the hardest sports championship to win'. watching a recent hockey game i heard the announcers refer to this and so went on the internet wondering why people think this and came across this article. i'm happy to see anyone rip this to shreds i couldn't care less i don't have anything invested in this.
i find it interesting the perspective of a one-off game versus a 7 game series.. that was a good point but i'm not sure where i stand on it. i think more discussion could be helpful and i'll come back to that once i've made my mind up on what i think.
and the guy before me is just tryin to play off the fact that he made a legitamate wack thread called 'is baseball really a sport?' or some ? . don't try and act now like you made wack threads on purpose or some other ? ? - just take your L and move along sonny.
or better yet go put on a catcher's mit, catch a fast ball from a pro pitcher and feel the intense pain your hand will suffer for the next 3 weeks. -
you made a thread about hockey and your saying my ? wack? lol
