It's over. It's really over.

The Stanley Cup Finals were not supposed to end this way.

I don't mean they weren't supposed to end with the Chicago Blackhawks winning, or even winning the way they did, a way that left Boston Bruins supporters to stare numbly, curse or both. The Blackhawks are fine and worthy champions, and as Michael Hurley noted, it was about the hockey, without a lot of other garbage.

"It was evident when, minutes after seeing their team suffer the most stunning of defeats, a healthy majority of the fans in attendance stayed in their seats to applaud the effort displayed on the ice. They didn't hurl cups and rags onto the ice but instead gave a rousing ovation before doing the work of any good hockey fan base and booing Gary Bettman."

No, they were supposed to end in Game 7, winner-take-all ... or even better, in overtime of Game 7, next goal wins the Stanley Cup, like when you're playing in the yard as a kid and your parents call you in for supper and you say, "Next score wins."

It was the only way the series could end. This was a series where neither team had a three-goal lead, and the only two-goal leads were as follows:

* Game 1 -- Boston from 51 seconds to 3:08 of the second period and 6:09 to eight minutes of the third period.

* Game 3 -- Boston from 14:05 of the second period to the end of the game.

* Game 4 -- Chicago from 8:41 to 14:43 and 15:32 to 17:22 of the second period.

* Game 5 -- Chicago from 5:13 of the second period to 3:40 of the third period and the last 14 seconds of the game after an empty-net goal.

The entire rest of the series was a one-goal margin or tied, and three games went to overtime.

It was thrilling stuff, between two outstanding teams in cities that are passionate about hockey, and the ratings, relatively speaking, were high.

There's only one problem ... next season won't consist of nothing but the Bruins and Blackhawks leaving their guts on the ice. Not only will there be untold nameless, faceless matchups (Columbus versus Florida in February, anyone?), but playoff hockey may be more different from regular-season hockey than any other sport's regular season compared to its playoffs.

It has to be. Not only are the teams better during the playoffs, players go out there basically every other night for two months putting their bodies through such punishment (Exhibit A, Patrice Bergeron) that if they tried it during the regular season, there wouldn't be any players left for the playoffs.

So savor what you just saw, everyone, enjoy next season where you can and get ready for another playoff ride.