Game Seven

Game Seven. Two words that tell you pretty much all you need to know. Whether it's baseball, basketball, or hockey if it's playoff season and you hear that there's a Game Seven, you know that both teams will be giving it their all as they are in a win or go home situation. The whole thing comes down to a single game.

A Championship game seven in any of these sports represents one percent or less of the season for both teams, but it will forever serve as the divider between Champions and Also-Rans. Tomorrow night will see Game Seven of the Stanley Cup finals in the NHL and the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins will each end up with one of those labels.

Championship game sevens don't come around every year. The most recent one was in June, 2006 when Carolina beat Edmonton to win the Stanley Cup. The year before, the Spurs topped the Pistons in an NBA Finals Game Seven. Baseball's last all-or-nothing World Series game saw the Anaheim Angels beat Barry Bonds's Giants.

So I know what I'll be doing this Friday night. But don't ask who I'm rooting for. It's hard to say whether I want to see the Wings lose as revenge for them beating (up) the Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs or if I want to see them win so I can say "Hey, we lost to the eventual Cup winners." I gave up trying to decide which was better and just want to see a close, hard-fought game where both teams are still in it at the end of the game and the season's still on the line when the third period clock starts counting down the tenths of seconds.