Welcome to the fourth season.
There are actually five in hockey, by a measure once offered up by no less than Wayne Gretzky. There is the exhibition season, which means nothing. There is the regular season, which runs quietly until the trade deadline. Then comes the stretch season, which ended rather dramatically last weekend. Now begins the playoff season, leading up to the Stanley Cup final, which Gretzky always considered a separate season.
As season No. 4 gets under way tonight, perhaps a playoffs primer is in order:
Goaltending: Some say the position has become too dominant and requires a hockey equivalent of the lowering of the mound in baseball. Still, as former Philadelphia Flyers head coach Terry Murray once said, "You only go as far as your goaltender takes you." Goaltending has been a major factor in Stanley Cup wins in every year since the Montreal Canadiens' Patrick Roy all but won it on his own back in 1993 — the only year goaltending being not all that important coming in 1998, when powerful Detroit won with Chris Osgood in net.
globesports.com: Hair we go, it's playoff time
Hair we go, it's playoff time
Hair we go, it's playoff time 
