Sports Upsets Amazing When they Happen

Sports Upsets Amazing When they Happen.  It brings a huge amount of excitement and a lot of attention.  That is of course unless you are a fan of the team that got upset.  In the past two year we have seen some of the biggest upsets in the sports world.  last year there was the 16 seed University of Maryland-Baltimore County that beat the 1 seed Virginia.  Not just a 1 seed but the 1 seed in the whole tournament.  Something that had never been done before.    This year in the NHL we had the Blue Jackets an 8 seed beat the Lightning the 1 seed.  Not only were they the one seed they tied the record for the most wins in a season with 62.   That would go in the same air as the Warriors 73 win season.  It does not happen often and chances are in may never happen again.  The problem with regular season records is with out a championship they loose a lot of their luster.  They ring a bit hollow.

Regular Season Forgotten with Playoff Failure

Don’t get me wrong it is still an amazing accomplishment.  But 20 years from now it will be a foot note not though of as an amazing accomplishment.  Just ask the 1996 Red Wings.  The team that Tampa tied for the most wins in a season.  The Wings did not win the cup either but they did not go out till the western conference final.  Does not hurt any less.  Still a loss.  Here we are 23 years later and we have a Tampa teams that has put together an amazing team.  I guess at this point we would have to say an amazing regular season team.  Last year they flamed out in the second round to the Capitals.  Granted the Capitals went on to win the cup so that is something then.  This year it is not just that they lost in the first round.  It’s that they got swept in the first round.  Other than the first period of game one.  Tampa was completely out played in this series.  In fact Tampa was not jus out played.  They were completely handled by a team that only clinched a playoff spot in game 81 of the season.

Regular Season Domination

The Blue Jackets and the Lightning played three times in the regular season.  Tampa out scored the Blue Jackets 17 – 3 in those regular season games.  None of the three games were close.  The first game was so bad that the Blue Jackets goalie Bobrovsky got pulled from the game. Felt disrespected pouted about it and ended up getting suspended.  It happens.  The Lightning owned the Blue Jackets in the regular season.  The Blue Jacket team the Lightning played in the regular season is not the same team they played in the post season.

Set up for Playoff Run

The Blue Jackets decided to go all in at the trade deadline.  Most people were predicting that the Blue Jackets would be sellers at the deadline.  With two star players that were unhappy and saying that they would not resign.  It was pretty much assumed that Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin would both be traded.  Both  players are in their prime and top players.  Panarin had said that he would not resign with Columbus under any circumstances and Bobrovsky wanted to be paid $10 million a year to resign.  That seems like a lot of money.  After the first round of the playoffs the Blue Jackets should pay it.  Even though they did not need a spectacular goalie on the ice in this series.

The trades that the Blue Jackets made for Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel and adding some depth in Adam McQuaid and Keith Kinkaid.  The Blue Jackets added the right pieces at the right time to scare the Lightning and then take them out in dominating fashion in the first round.  Duchene led the Blue Jackets in point in the first round of the playoffs.  With 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points in the first round.   The other huge decision made was bringing up Alexandre Texier  from the Cleveland Monsters.   This decision paid off immediately with Texier scoring two goals and adding an assist in the series.

The Playoffs Total First Round Domination

The Blue Jackets did not win the first round series against Tampa because of goal tending.  While Bobrovsky had some very nice saves he really did not have to be unbeatable.  The Blue Jackets were the better team in this series.  It did not start that way.  Tampa scored three goals in the first period of game one.  After the first period people were all saying that Tampa would just cruise through this series in four games.  This may have been the best way this series could have started for the Blue Jackets.  They played better in the second period.  It still took to the end of the period before they scored a goal.  More importantly they did not give up a goal.  The feeling of the game had changed.   Then the crazy third period happened,.  The Jackets scored.. Then the Jackets scored again. All of a sudden the game was tied up.  With just under 6 minutes to go in the game.  The Blue Jackets scored the go ahead goal.  The come back from the Most dominate team in the last 25 years of the NHL was complete.

People were right this series would be a sweep.  Four straight dominant games. It was a dominating performance.  In four games one team dominated one period.  The other Team dominated the other 11 periods.  It was not even close.  The Blue Jackets completed the biggest first round upset ever in the history of the NHL.  An eight seed had taken out the one seed in the first round before.  Never had the eight seed taken out the one seed in a sweep.   There were no overtime games in this series.  The only game that was close was game one.  After the first period that game was not close.  This was one of the most dominating series wins in a long time.  People had the sweep right.  They just had the team that would do it wrong.