No Logic in Hockey

The Chicago Blackhawks played the Nashville Predators in a Game 6 playoff game Saturday night. If we won, we’d move on to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If we lost, we’d have to go to Game 7 in Nashville. I really dislike going to Game 7. It’s basically a one game, winner takes all, pressure cooker. If your team is having a bad day or the puck takes a bad bounce, you’re done. And, Blackhawks fans will never forget how our season ended last year during a Game 7 bad bounce.
As we moved into the third period, the Chicago Blackhawks had an amazing opportunity. The Nashville Predators pulled their goalie so they could put another offensive player on the ice. The game was tied at that point. The Preds really wanted to take the lead. With an empty net, the Hawks kept shooting and shooting, yet they never scored. The puck took crazy bounces and went wide more than once. I was about out of my mind. I kept talking to the team about their inability to score with an empty net.  Not surprisingly, no one on the television screen responded to my rants.
Daddy looked at me and kept offering logical reasons why the Hawks weren’t scoring. He pointed out that while there wasn’t a goalie, other players blocked the net. He noted that at least one shot was not set-up properly and was just a bad shot. He was right, but at that moment when I’m so wound up that I’m offering coaching advice to the team, I’m not in a place to be that logical. The Blackhawks did win the game. The final shot went nearly from the blue line by four or five players, across the goalie into the net. It was much harder than a simple shot into an empty net, but we’ll take the win however we can get it.