Because it's the Cup.
That old NHL marketing campaign, which featured players battling through adversity, injuries and insurmountable obstacles on their way to winning a championship, is one way of explaining what happened to Sidney Crosby in Monday night's game against the Washington Capitals.
Playoff hockey is high-stakes hockey. It's violent, aggressive, and sometimes dirty. It's both ugly and beautiful. It's putting away the whistles and letting them play.
It's Scott Stevens literally knocking Paul Kariya out cold with an open-ice hit, only to have Kariya come back and score the game-winning goal. It's Claude Lemieux ramming Kris Draper's face into the dasher boards, or Nathan Horton being stretchered off the ice in the Stanley Cup final.