The Reverie of Game Seven

The Edmonton Oilers have a chance to duplicate a very rare feat on Monday night.

“Game seven.” The words themselves have a magical ring. Just saying the two “most exciting words in sports” sends the cliché generator into the red zone. For, indeed, players give “110 percent” in these games and “don’t leave anything on the field” as both teams have their “backs against the wall” and “everything is on the line”; it’s “winner take all” in a “do-or-die seventh game.” The hockey game Monday night ... provides an opportunity for the rarest of rare feats — a comeback from a 3–0 deficit to win a finals series. They’re the words that plant even non–sports fans in front of the flat screen to partake of the drama, the urgency, the finality that a game seven offers. And on Monday evening, the National Hockey League will have its ultimate showdown, its cash cow, the event that puts the suits in the home office in back-slapping mode as they watch the TV ratings soar: a Stanley Cup Final game seven between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers, and it’s for — forgive me — all the marbles. Game sevens weren’t always a thing. The early days of baseball featured random final series in which the finale could come in game three or, in 1887, in game 15. From 1919 to 1921 baseball experimented with a best-of-nine World Series, before settling, for the 1922 fall classic, on a best-of-seven, which is where baseball has been ever since. (READ MORE from Tom Raabe: The WNBA Needs Caitlin Clark) Professional hockey, too, has used a variety of formats to crown its champion. In the early years, a single game determined the champion. Since then, Cup-winning teams have been determined by composite score after two games, best-of-three series, and best-of-five series. Only in 1939 did major league hockey settle on the present best-of-seven format. So intriguing — and profitable — is the idea of a final do-or-die game that three of the four major American sports have built this finality into their playoff structure. Seven seems like a fair number. Fewer games could produce ...