Have we already seen the best the NHL has to offer?

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Even with a great overtime win by the Blackhawks, thanks in part to a terrific effort by backup goalie Cristobal Huet, it seems the greatest story lines in this NHL playoff have played out.
The President's Cup winner is gone.
The East's No. 1 seed Boston Bruins, who exceeded all expectations in snagging the top spot, then exacted revenge on those dirty Habs are gone.
The Blackhawks-Canucks series, which was supposed to be a bare-knuckle, knock down affair, was a flop.
To this point, the two greatest series of these NHL Playoffs has come in conference semifinals and the absolute best was not the one pitting the league's two best stars against each other.
While the fans in New England were developing a collective crush on Marc Savard and his strong playoff push and ESPN spent all their time pimping the Ovechkin/Crosby matchup, the best series of the quest for Cup was played between Pittsburgh and Anaheim.
The upstart Ducks (who to this day I believe have the second-worst name for a hockey team, next to the Blue Jackets) gave the Red Wings everything they could handle. Five of the seven games were decided by one goal, one of which in the third overtime.
Mike Babcock called it the best, hardest series he'd ever been a part of. And the quality of the hockey backed up his claim.
The Washington-Pittsburgh series was also a fine series, but its anti-climactic finish made it lose some of its luster.
Still, those two series' brand of hockey was second to none. After watching those two series and watching the two current series, you have to wonder if you're watching the same sport. That's not to say there haven't been great moments in this round (Malkin's hat-trick, Huet's heroics to keep Chicago in the series), but for those who flat out appreciate hockey at its finest, I'm afraid to say we may have already seen the best of it.
The most the NHL can hope for at this point is to keep fans watching with a Penguins-Red Wings Stanley Cup rematch.