Yes, the playoffs are hard -- Sorry, this point is not debatable. There is no trophy harder to win than the Stanley Cup. You can email me with tales of soccer's World Cup, the NBA, the NFL, the NCAA basketball tournament, your neighborhood cumquat rolling tourney, whatever. Doesn't matter. Winning the Stanley Cup is the hardest.

If you need proof --- and by the way, if you're reading this, you probably don't require said proof -- check out these quotes for the Tampa Bay Lightning--New York Islanders series and remember, the comments are from the first round.

"That's what the series is all about," Lightning coach John Tortorella said after a win. "With a win or a loss, everything changes as far as the mind-set with the team and what you are looking to do."

"One second -- you're not on top of the world -- but you are feeling good up 2-1," defenseman Dan Boyle said after Tampa went up after three games. "But if we lose [tonight], all of a sudden it's pressure again. It happens pretty quickly."

"It just looked like it was mental," Islanders coach Steve Stirling said after a loss in Game 3. "I don't think anybody was tired. They might have thought they were tired, but that was coming from the brain. ... It just looked like at times that is was just too, too difficult tonight. And that's when you really have to pick yourself up and grind it out even though your brain might say, 'I'm not going to do it or I can't do it.' "

Mind over matter. That's one of the essential abilities needed to win the Cup. It's also among the hardest to possess. Much like the trophy the players are after.

-Taken from NHL.com, and absolutely correct. You cannot convince me that any other title in professional sports is harder to win.

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