Unfortunately, I'm still behind the 8 ball (for reasons listed at the previous link) and I haven't been able to spend more than 10 minutes thinking about the game tonight. (Although we did do a short pre-game podcast last night, if you want to listen to that.)GM Place:Dallas at Vancouver, 7pm, CBCIn a way, it's probably been good to have the distractions; instead of being overly nervous or excessively optimistic, I've settled into a state of neutral, "whatever happens, happens." I feel very zen at the moment. I could practically star in The Karate Kid:Miyagi: What matter? Daniel: I'm just scared. The tournament and everything. Miyagi: You remember lesson about balance? Daniel: Yeah. Miyagi: Lesson not just karate only. Lesson for whole life. Whole life have a balance. Everything be better. Understand?For now just call me Miyagi; Sensei; The Teacher; The All-Knowing-Totally-Reasonable-and-Relaxed-Hockey-Fan. (Though take fair warning: this is guaranteed to disappear incrementally, every minute we get closer to puck-drop. I'll be probably be swearing like a sailor in 4 hours and praying for the destruction of the entire state of Texas...)Meanwhile, in my temporary zen-like state, a few quick thoughts before game time.They say the fourth win is always the toughest, and of course that makes sense. When the team you're playing faces certain death at the slightest lapse, they're going to be vigilant and play their hearts out. Dallas might be pond-scum-sucking-cretins, but I have no doubt they're pond-scum-sucking-cretins with hearts. They'll be a nightmare to play against tonight.But damn, the Canucks can make everyone's lives so much nicer if they wrap this series up tonight. It's got all the ingredients to fill out Act One of a cheezy sports movie:
1. there's been one game lost (shows we have to be careful); 2. there's two goalie titans battling to the finale (the new kid, paying his dues, while the Evil One lurks, waiting for his chance at glory before time passes him by); 3. there's the grizzled veterans showing what they're made of at crunch time (Linden and Modano were both drafted in 1988; guess who has more points in this series? heh); 4. there's a rabid fan base in the house, desperate to move past The Dark Years; 5. and finally, it would be the perfect set-up for Act Two.Act Two would open with a brief break where our heroes could lick their wounds and prepare to engage battle with those psychos that the NHL refers to as the Anaheim Ducks.Eradicating Texas in Act One, then moving on to face Disney-Gone-Bad in Act Two... How the hell can that movie possibly fail?!Go Canucks!Update 3:45pm PT: Fun new discovery just made: Mike Modano's fiance -- Willa Ford -- has a blog on NHL Connect.Now I'm sorry to say that I'm exactly the type to make fun of supermodels (or whatever she is) purely on reflex, but not this time. It's actually a pretty good blog post she put up today (i.e. "Vancouver is just a fantastic team, and you don’t have any room for mistakes against them") and I'd hazard to say that she's probably smarter than her boyfriend. However, she did put this gem into her post and I feel the need to share:
It sounds strange, but we could actually be in a good position being down 3-1. [...] Focus on the next one, get that, and then re-focus for the next one. Before we know it, we’ll be in the third period in Vancouver, tied in Game 7, with all the momentum and nothing to lose. And I’ll take those odds anyday.Will you, Willa? Awesome, because I'll take the odds of being up 3-1 in the series myself. So I guess everyone's happy. :)
Create an Account
In order to leave a comment, please create an account.