This is as good a time as any to pull out an excerpt from Frank Brown's brilliant essay on the Stanley Cup, which I re-read each year at the start of the playoffs:
It is incredible what they put themselves through-the players, the fans, the coaches who would sign any deal with any devil if it guaranteed the last line change, the best match-up, another skate save in overtime of Game 7. And then again, it is not incredible at all. You stand in a rink and you see the faithful wave their towels or their shakers, you hear the choir of their voices in a temple of all that is pure about our game, and you know there is no place else to be.