The Stanley Cup Blowout is Alive and Well

The 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs might be remembered as the year of the good, old-fashioned butt-kicking.

The playoff tournament is not yet a week old, but we've already seen four blowouts (game decided by four goals or more). Buffalo's 8-2 mashing of the hapless Flyers set the gold standard, and Ottawa answered with last night's 8-4 win over Tampa.

By comparison, the entire 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs saw five games end in blowouts, while in 2003 it happened seven times.

The early results could be an aberration, explained by all the 5-on-3 power plays and all those rookies and career back-ups playing in net. Or maybe the blowout is making a big comeback in the "new NHL."

We all know the gospel of Gary Bettman's crime-stoppers campaign: eliminate the hooking and holding; open up the ice; free the stars; more speed; more excitement; goals, goals, goals! For the fan, it hopefully means that last season's 2-1 street fight is this season's 6-5 barn burner.

But the obstruction crackdown is just as likely to leave the lesser team exposed and more vulnerable than ever before. What used to be a overtime thriller might now end with the winners holding a margin of two or three goals. And without the freedom to clutch and grab and wrestle, an out-classed group that might have hung on for a respectable 3-0 or 4-1 loss in the old days is now in danger of being run out of the building.

Does it make for more entertaining hockey? As usual, that depends on who you're cheering for and what the score is.