Ok, so due to a rather inconvenient 24 hour internet outage in my neighborhood, I wrote this blog yesterday morning, and so it details the first night of the playoffs and not last night.
Perhaps I am being overly optimistic, but I still thought since it's doesn't really involve any time sensitive data, that it was still worth posting.
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I don’t think the NHL could have had a better opening night to the playoffs. First off, you get a triple header, and thanks to recent technology, you don’t even have to pick between the games. The DVR allows you to tape two simultaneously airing games and play them back alternately, meaning that you can watch one until its LIVE then switch back to the other one, all the while avoiding the archaic and annoying, lowest-common-denominator-garbage that is intermission talk between so called experts.
Now, I know the DVR is not exactly cutting edge technology, but let’s stop being cynical and cool for just a second and let’s appreciate this modern wonder (and keep in mind, it has only been maybe ten or fifteen years since you could – assuming you were fairly affluent – watch more than the occasional out of market game with your giant backyard satellite dish) which allows you to view two games at once. Considering I am not even 50% certain how my toaster works, but considering also that we all walk around with (and presumably take for granted) cell phones in our pockets, and that the level of technology in each one is not something most of us can even come close to understanding, I happen to think being able to watch two games almost simultaneously, to say nothing of the fact that I can delay the third game until I am ready for it, is something close to magic.
And so, this is my mood before even the first beer is cracked or the first puck is dropped. I am not going to get too game re-cappy here, since there is lots of that to be had if you should so want it, but in addition to the sheer wonder of a triple header which you can actually watch all 180 minutes, + potential overtime of, should you want to, the games were actually excellent.
You might not call it “playoff hockey… but you would have to be one low-down son-of-bitch to not have enjoyed that Montreal/Tampa game. Nine goals? Overtime? Damn!
And this only serves to remind me that overtime in the NHL playoffs is the best thing in pro sports. The chance that it will never end. The sudden death aspect. The grueling endurance contest nature of the whole thing. This is just one (of many) reason(s) why things like Olympic hockey can never compete with the NHL. You could say that unlimited OT is an invention on par with the DVR.
And of course, the team I am cheering for – Les Canadiens de Montreal – pulled out the victory. Which was nice and exciting and made me temporarily forget that my little buddies from Phoenix are at home being millionaires and not playing the hockey. (sad face).
On to the Pittsburgh/Columbus game, which also featured a seductive number of goals being scored. Perhaps owing to the fact that I was trying to watch this game concurrently with the Montreal game, and because I kept fast forwarding to try to keep up so that I could watch the Dallas/Anaheim game in a less schizophrenic fashion, this game seemed to lack the gravitas and excitement of the aforementioned Montreal game. It could be that I just don’t care about these teams, really, or that the DVR really does have some drawbacks, but it was still a good game. Lots of scoring and all, but it would have been nice to see Columbus pull this one out.
Important note though: I think this game showed that Columbus can skate with Pittsburgh and that an upset is not out of the question. Certainly it would seem at this point that all Sergei Bobrovsky has to do to outplay M.A Fleury is get out of bed. (An observation, admittedly, not based entirely on last night’s game).
By the time I moved onto the third game of the triple-header, you might think that I would have been a little done in or that the excitement might have waned. If I tried to actually watch three hockey games in a row, you would no doubt be correct in that assumption. We have, however, and don’t forget, the magic of the DVR to see us through. Instead of 7-9 hours of hockey, I was able to do the whole thing in half the time or less. (N.B: By the end of the Dallas game, my time keeping and observation skills had perhaps gone through a slight downgrade due to my choice of refreshment).
How I do it is I wait about an hour plus after puck drop – get the kids to bed, make lunches etc. – to start the Montreal game. Then I can watch only the actual play of the Canadiens game. By the time I catch up live, I can switch to the Columbus game and do the same thing. While I did miss large chunks of the Columbus game, I was able to watch both games in roughly the time it would take to watch one game live. Then, after a pretty long intermission, I switched on the Anaheim game and since it was nearly entirely taped (if we aren’t using a VCR, can we still say ‘taped’?) by that point I was able to watch it in just over an hour. This owes also to the fact that once the Ducks took a huge lead, I was going through it pretty quickly.
And this is what brings me to what is so great about hockey in the playoffs: A game that was 4-0 turned into a pretty tense and exciting game. I started off cheering for Anaheim, but by the time Dallas had made it 4-2, I was a fully converted Stars fan. Too bad they didn’t get the tie, and that Getzlaf puck in the face thing was scary as hell, but both things promise to make this series more interesting that it at first seemed.
Anyways, I love the playoffs. My liver and wallet might not like them so much, but I can’t wait until the games start tonight.