Former Hockey Fan
Joined: Jun. 2017
Posts: 13,144
Likes: 10,516
Definitely the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Usually there’s at least 1 team that I really want to win like Washington in 2016 and 2018. When the habs are in it it’s really special, and nothing can compare to the feeling I get when I’m watching a habs playoff game.
And the World Juniors are always really good (much better than the World Championships), but I’m usually mostly cheering for the handful of habs prospects that are involved. I still cheer for Canada, but it’s not anywhere close to how nervous or excited I feel when the habs are in the playoffs. It might be a bit of winning fatigue, because Canada wins so often and usually has the best roster on paper, that eventually winning doesn’t mean as much anymore. For example, in 2019 the excitement in Finland about the gold medal was amazing, and no win by Canada could come close to that.
I also feel like part of it is the 82 game build up to the playoffs, rather than just 7 games to decide the whole thing.