It was as if someone higher up, higher than Mr. Shanahan even, wanted the first round of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs – the best, most turbulent, and upset- and storyline-heavy opening round in memory — to go on and on and on.
Not until Calder candidate Adam Henrique finally scored at the 83:47 mark of his Devils’ Game 7 double-overtime victory over the Florida Panthers did the longest game in what felt like the longest playoff round come to a close.
We distill all 48 games of one of the most intense and entertaining fortnights of pro hockey into a bunch of statistics.
2 goalies it took for the St. Louis Blues to blank the San Jose Sharks 3-0 in Game 2, only the third time in history teammates combined for a shutout
2 games started, and lost, by the Vancouver Canucks’ Roberto Luongo before being replaced by Cory Schneider
2 Flyers with hat-tricks in Game 2 (Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier), the first time that feat was accomplished since the 2006 Sabres (Jason Pominville, J.P. Dumont)
2 points scored by Ottawa defenceman Erik Karlsson in his worst seven-game stretch of the regular season
1 point scored by Karlsson in his seven-game series versus the Rangers
9 suspensions handed out by NHL chief disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan
7 days needed to for the boundary-crossing players to earn those punishments
7 consecutive playoff home games the Ottawa Senators lost, tying an NHL record, before winning Game 4 at Scotiabank Place
16 games that required overtime, a new record
4-12 record of the home team in those OTs
30 points the Nashville Predators’ Jordin Tootoo had in 2011-12, a career best. With new forward acquisitions, Tootoo was a healthy scratch in Round 1
4 of the previous Stanley Cup winners eliminated in order (Red Wings, April 20; Penguins, April 22; Blackhawks, April 23; Bruins, April 25)
4 of the first four Coyotes-Blackhawks games that were pushed into overtime; the last time that happened was the 1951 Stanley Cup final
6 consecutive Hawks playoff games that went to overtime, dating back to last year, an NHL record
7 consecutive playoff overtime losses by the Rangers, the longest current streak
100 penalty minutes – and zero suspensions — handed out in Game 4 of Flyers-Penguins; Philly earned the lion’s share with 64
102-109, 113-120 sections of Washington’s Verizon Center, located behind the nets, encouraged to wear President Obama masks to rattle White House snubber Tim Thomas
87numeral underneath the surname “CRY BABY” emblazoned on unofficial Penguins T-shirts sold at crosbycrybaby.com
8 unanswered goals by the Penguins in Game 4, a franchise record
18 shots faced by the Flyers’ Ilya Bryzgalov in Game 4 (he saved 13 of them)
18 shots faced by the Flyers’ Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 4 (he saved 13 of them)
7 new rank, all-time, on the playoff points race for Jaromir Jagr, who now has 188, tying him with Joe Sakic
13 consecutive playoff series the Coyotes/Jets franchise lost before defeating Chicago
13 hours that Blues fans lined up for the opportunity to purchase Round 1 playoff tickets
44 saves rookie third-string netminder Braden Holtby made to complete his Game 4 victory for the Washington Capitals
24 playoff shutouts now recorded by New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, passing Patrick Roy to take sole possession of the NHL record
4 age of Holtby when Brodeur entered the National Hockey League
70 bears at the Pens-Flyers opener after Bryzgalov claimed he was only scared of bears: “I wonder what would happen if he said he is scared of beautiful naked girls?!” Jaromir Jagr tweeted
1:05 time it took Chicago and Phoenix to score three goals in Game 3
2:12 time it takes me to tie my shoes
1:58 ice-time coach Dale Hunter gave Alex Ovechkin in the third period of Game 4, benching the star in favour of “shot-blockers”
97,698 Twitter followers of the L.A. Kings, as of April 27, who caused a stir and earned plenty of “follow” clicks after tweeting this note after the Kings’ Game 1 win over Vancouver: “To everyone in Canada outside of BC, you’re welcome.”
122,547 articles written about the increased violence in playoff hockey (approximate)
9,999,999,999 tweets about the increased violence in playoff hockey (approximate)
0 games missed by Phoenix Coyotes netminder Mike Smith after being run by the Blackhawks’ Andrew Shaw
0 games played by the Blackhawks’ Marian Hossa after being run by the Coyotes’ Raffi Torres
0 tweets sent by Rangers players, who signed off from their Twitter accounts during the playoffs
5th congressional district of Illinois politician Mike Quigley, who said, “I will, however, ask Chairman [Darrell] Issa to have the House Oversight Committee investigate how the NHL officials at last night’s Hawks vs. Coyotes game could have their Lasik surgery go so wrong.”
2 minimum number of death threats Coyotes broadcaster Tyson Nash claimed to have received after calling Torres’ check “as clean of a hit as you’re going to get”
8 players to score back-to-back playoff overtime winners now that the Coyotes’ Mikkel Boedker achieved the feat
$12,500 combined fine for Zenon Konopka and the Ottawa Senators for Konopka trash-talking Brian Boyle during the Ranger’s live pre-game TV interview
$2,500 fine Shea Weber received for grabbing Henrik Zetterberg’s head and driving it into the glass hard enough to crack his helmet
$7,500,000 Weber’s annual salary
0.01 days that “Webering” in photos was a thing before it got played out
31 hits delivered by Alex Ovechkin; only Chicago’s Bryan Bickell (32) registered more
42 number Capitals Game 7 OT hero Joel Ward tweeted was in his thoughts “more than ever” after ignorant Bruins fans tweeted racist remarks his way – the same number worn by Jackie Robinson
2:57 exact time into overtime that both the Capitals and their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, scored to win on April 27
50 percentage increase in NBC playoff viewership after the first weekend of the playoffs
2 blown off-sides calls that led to goals for the game’s winning team
2nd intermission of Game 4 that the Penguins training staff borrowed the Flyers training staff’s sewing machine to repair Evgeni Malkin’s shoulder pads. Malkin was on the ice to start the third and scored four minutes in
0 Western Conference teams remaining that have won a Cup
0 Canadian-based teams hanging around for Round 2; last time this happened was 1996
0-5 record of the Ottawa Senators in Game 7s
5 of the Bruins’ last six playoff series that have gone to a seventh game
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 seeds of the teams advancing to the second round of the playoffs (this also happened in 2006 and 2010)
1,142 career points for Detroit’s Niklas Lidstrom, who might retire after the Red Wings were eliminated by the Predators
1,082 career points for Ottawa’s Daniel Alfredsson, who might join him
37 number of the glass pane that delivers “an illegal hit to the head” of Bruins forward David Krejci and consequently gets suspended indefinitely by Brendan Shanahan in this brilliant YouTube parody: