College basketball has March Madness. Baseball’s final series is the Fall Classic. The NFL has its day-long Super Bowl. Nothing in pro sports, though, matches the wildness that occurs from the end of April until early May with the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Sixteen teams qualify at the end of a rugged 82-game season. It is not uncommon for an eighth seeded team in either conference to knock out a top seed in a grueling first round seven-game series.

This year’s ice path to the cup has been one of the wildest skates in recent memory. The top team in the league was knocked out in the first round. Teams with stars such as Sidney Crosby and Patrick Sharp faltered in the first or second rounds. The game’s top referees, who called games “tight” all season long, all of a sudden decided en masse to “let them play.” This resulted in a first round filled with snarl that included many fights, illegal hits, checks that were legal but still were disciplined by the league and several highly questionable suspensions.

Through it all, fans repeatedly have been yanked from their seats by outstanding stick handling, unbelievable speed, wild shooting, surprising breakaways, incomprehensible saves by goaltenders and countless overtime periods. Each round and each series in each round have been nerve-racking and thrilling. Even popular television play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick remarked several times that only viewers who didn’t a vested team interest in a particular game could enjoy all the action while sitting comfortably in their seats.

An NHL season, from training camp to the raising of the Stanley Cup, requires a lot of heavy lifting by players, coaches, trainers and equipment managers. Their collective focus is to grab the top prize, and it is similar to what we do every day on the job with our colleagues.

We concentrate on preparation. We continue to refine our talents. We review our game plan. Each day, we are ready to face new opponents and unforeseen obstacles. Sometimes we play a starring role and at other times we provide the goal scorer with a valuable assist.

If you are prepared every day, you never will slide aimlessly on the ice. You will meet deadlines, you will win the respect of co-workers, you will obtain the confidence of clients and you will get to celebrate many rewards at center ice.

Jim

2 Comments

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  By Wally Walkup, June 4, 2012 @ 5:07 am

  Jim, I agree….planning at the front eliminates a lot of pain in the end.

  The plans of the diligent lead to profit, as surely as haste leads to poverty. Proverbs 21:5

  Be well Hollywood!
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  By Peter Lee, October 6, 2012 @ 11:51 am

  Winston Churchill once said, “I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

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