Welcome to The Hangover, a semi-regular offseason item I’ve elected to start on weeks such as this, when children/work/travel/obligation have elected to cut deeply into both my subconscious and my time. The promise of two things per week holds true, and thus has been born this attempt at offering tips, tricks and tales for better living until college basketball returns.
Playoff Hockey
As ever, the only opinion that truly matters is that of Jon Bois.
I have been a Nashville Predators fan since they entered existence, but hockey-at-large has often been tough for me to give myself over to. It’s hard to catch up on the greater hockey narrative and immerse yourself in it after largely not caring about the puck-sport during all its overlap with basketball, particularly the collegiate variety.
The nice thing about playoff hockey is that it doesn’t matter. More than almost any other sport, hockey cares not for its regular season outside of structuring its playoff—present NBA and most recent NCAA Tournament very much excluded. Beyond that, a hot goalie can end the most dangerous attack, legends can be rendered mortal and others can burnish their profiles with a flurry of scoring in May and June. Every shift matters, every player on the ice for both teams knows it and becoming a legend or a villain is a matter of perspective as much as opportunity. I will always consider James Neal a god for what he did for the Predators in 2017, and I will always wonder what might have happened had Colton Sissons buried even one of his opportunities when Game 6 of that season’s Stanley Cup Finals was still scoreless. I suspect he does to, and if I ever see him out and about in Nashville, I will buy him the stiffest drink possible and wish him all the best while cursing his great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren until my deathbed and beyond.