In the age of parity, I often think we expect a bit too much from the top NHL teams.
That is to say, on paper, when you have a Cup Contender if not Favorite (the Dallas Stars) playing against a Lottery Contender if not Favorite (the Chicago Blackhawks), the initial gut expectation is that the better team is going to crush the worse one. That it’ll be a 5-1 route, or something similar, and perhaps a shining example of that all too illusive 60-minute game.
But the vast majority of the time, that doesn’t happen.