Why Nashville (at) Florida Matters

Okay, in the overall scheme of things--The Big Picture as it were--it don't.  Nashville (at) Florida mattering, that is.  None of it does.  Whether or not the goddamn puck goes into the goddamn net is not going to effect world events at all or in the least.  One night a long time ago when I did hockey play-by-play for a living (as Donald Sutherland said in "Animal House", "Hey, this is my job!") I woke up in the middle of the night with the most dreadful thought: that I was wasting my life on that very thing.  That very meaningless thing: whether or not the puck went in the net.  Because, in the final analysis, who gives a damn? 

But...

If you are following the race for the playoffs in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League as I am now that I'm being allowed back in the Press Box again to cover Red Wings games for the Michigan Talk Network, it does matter.  Detroit, in the midst of a late surge which is remarkable in its scope, is trying to chase down the Nashville club (they are named "The Predators" although presumably not in honor of Catholic priests) for the coveted 5th position in the playoffs.  All the while Detroit is trying to hold 7th-place Los Angeles ("The Kings") and 8th-place Colorado ("The Avalance--you don't want these bastards falling on you) at bay as in the NHL the top 8 teams in each conference move on to the playoffs while everybody else sees their season end and fires their entire coaching staff and most of their front-offices.  This is how hockey works.

So, with all this in mind, there I was on the internet last night trying to find a feed of the big Nashville (at) Florida game.  I came across somebody (who said he was) from Austria who showed a few minutes of it after the Sabres (at) Boston game but then switched to another game and I wondered how he could do that.  Florida was leading by a goal with under ten minutes to play and if the Panthers (that's what they call their team there in the hockey hotbed of Miami--"The Panthers") could hold that lead the Wings would remain just a point back of Nashville.  So I was stuck following the scoreboard at espn.com and watched in dismay as the scored changed to 2-2 with under 4 minutes to play and then to 3-2 Nashville in overtime.  Damn.

So the Wings fall three points back of the Predators although Detroit has 2 games in hand which is hockeyspeak for Detroit has played 2 fewer games than Nashville.

Edmonton comes to Detroit tonight and I will be there.  Hopefully I'll get to sit next to Phil Myre again.  He's a former NHL goalie who now scouts for the aforementioned Panthers.  I've sat next to him the past few games and have some stories to tell because of it.  Like the other night when he said with 4 minutes left in the 2nd period, "This game is dragging.  It feels like we should be farther along than this.  I said, "You'd be surprised at how often I hear that from the person sitting next to me at a game."

Right now, it's off to play hockey and then tonight it's off to watch hockey.

I'll close by mentioning that which I wanted to mention in the first place but only now feel comfortable in bringing up because, really, who in the hell would still be reading this by now?  Eric Cantor is an asshole.

More on that later.