For it to still be a surprise that the NHL postseason is a fickle beast whose results so often fly in the face of 82 games worth of evidence to everything we thought we knew requires a dedication to logic and rationale that is entirely unwelcome in most hockey circles this time of year. Therefore, while we weren't yet to the point where the unexpected is to always be expected, seeding being nothing more than a formality is far from a new concept. Still, there were very few things that you can get the vast majority of society to agree upon in the year 2019, and the love of a true underdog was one of them. Unfortunately, with a mesmerizing meltdown for the ages, the 62-win Tampa Bay Lightning took that love and stomped all over it, as there is no longer such thing as a sure thing to root against during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As fans of unforeseen failures, we've officially peaked in watching the Columbus Blue Jackets go all-in to win their first ever playoffs series by way of an uncompetitive dusting of a team whose talents will undoubtedly make for multiple hilariously uncomfortable appearances at the NHL awards. In terms of shock value, it is now eternally depreciating. Every other matchup in which the favorite falls short for the foreseeable future will be met with a mere shoulder shrug, as we've been desensitized to dumbfounding outcomes by the All-World juggernaut that took not one single step in a middle ground in going from Valedictorian to dropout in six days time. If there is a saving grace to a series that was really only intriguing in the way that a billionaire going broke is intriguing then it's that an organization managing their assets how a drunk college kid might manage his bank account actually worked out in a way that might result in franchises being less risk adverse going forward. The Columbus Blue Jackets gave a middle finger to the future on behalf of the present, and not only narrowly avoided suffering an embarrassing end to their own season but basically pulled down the pants of the Presidents' Trophy winners and sent them into the summer with the most public of spankings. At least we can appreciate the boldness it takes to even attempt that, because we certainly can't continue to appreciate even the most astronomical of NHL postseason odds after they were overcome with such ease.
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