It's that time of the year where every team, or at least 16 of them, feel like they have a chance to win the Stanley Cup.
If they didn't, there'd be no sense planning to play hockey from the middle of April until the middle of June.
The snow is almost gone. The days are long and memories have to be short. It's one opponent for seven games or less before you move on or get moved out from the postseason. Playoff hockey is like nothing else in sports and the Edmonton Oilers, for a fourth straight season, have been invited to the quest for the Cup.
It really is a six-month grind to get the chance to play in the playoffs that every team dreams of when they gather in September for training camps across North America. It seems like more than a year from when the summer began and the preseason came around; from 60 or 70 players who arrive for day one, to the team that's crafted to carry forward when the season begins in October. A lot (and I mean a lot) happens from then until now.
Yet here we are, doing our spring cleaning, while the Oilers are cleaning up their game and readying themselves to spring into action against Los Angeles.
GENE'S BLOG: Playoff Prepared
In his final blog of the season, Gene discusses the Oilers entering the postseason the most-prepared he's seen the team in his many years hosting broadcasts on Sportsnet
© Andy Devlin/Getty Images
© Andy Devlin/Getty Images