Sens push Lightning to elimination brink
TAMPA - So much for the Ottawa Senators being vulnerable in the first round of the NHL playoffs because of rookie goaltender Ray Emery. Emery stopped 30 shots and Martin Havlat scored for the fourth straight game Thursday night, leading the Eastern Conference’s top seed to a 5-2 victory that pushed the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning to the brink of elimination.
My time in Tampa hasn’t exactly been wasted, although it’s been close. Last night, though, made up for all of the wheel-spinning I’ve done this week. For the first time in 25 years, I was able to go to an NHL playoff game. I saw the Ottawa Senators dismantle the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 to take a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first round series, and it was everything I’d hoped it would be.
It would be difficult to understate the connection that hockey has with memories of my childhood, most of which I don’t really care to revel in. Growing up in northern Minnesota as I did, there were three primary diversions that kept people occupied during the winter: ice fishing, snowmobiling, and hockey- and not necessarily in that order. I worshipped the game of hockey…which is ironic for a kid who never learned to ice skate. No, I’ve never played ice hockey, but it has always been my passion. Tonight, I got to indulge it.
Most sports are more enjoyable when seen live and in person than on television. For no game is this more true than hockey. Television just simply doesn’t do justice to the speed, the grace, and the beauty of the game. Every time I see a game live, I’m struck by how much of the game television simply cannot convey.
I got to the St. Pete Times Forum about an hour before gametime. The first thing I did was to to walk out onto the first level and just look at the ice. I’ve always loved the smell of the ice and the chill in the air. Walking into a hockey arena, I can close my eyes and travel back to a time when I was 12 years old and at my first Minnesota North Stars game. Tonight, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and just listened to the sounds of the arena. For just a moment, I felt as if I could cry. I was surprised at just how emotional that moment was for me. It’s difficult for me to describe my feelings as I stood there and just look at the pristine sheet of ice and was transported back through the past 30+ years.
There is someting otherwordly about watching an NHL game in Florida. Palm trees and ice aren’t two things that normally mix well…unless there’s a margarita involved. As I sat in my seat eating a pressed Cuban sandwich, all I could think of was that I’ll bet you couldn’t be eating the same thing at Montreal’s Bell Centre. Yes, things look different here.
The game itself was a blast. It was actually a game for about 36 minutes, until Ottawa scored two goals in 40 seconds seconds to turn a 2-2 game into a 4-2 lead that they never came close to surrendering. Sloppy goaltending and careless, indifferent defense in front of their goal doomed Tampa Bay. The Lightning simply don’t have the talent and the offensive firepower to hang with Ottawa. All you have to do is to compare the Senators plus-minus statistics with that of the Lightning. Not a single Senator is a minus, while about half of the Lightning’s roster is a minus. It’s tough to hang with a team like Ottawa when you can’t play team defense.
The only downside of my personal Hockey Night was minor, but annoying. I have an enduring and deep hatred for Thunder Sticks- those execrable inflatable instruments of Satan that you clap together when you want to make a racket and earn my undying enmity. When I walked into the arena, I noticed that every single seat- all 20,682 of them- had 2 Thunder Sticks draped over the seat backs. Imagine my delight…especially when the kid sitting behind me kept bopping me on the head. That kid’s lucky that I was having too much fun to fillet him. I still have a headache from the incessant pounding.
The Thunder Sticks aside, last night’s pilgrimage was a phenomenally satisfying and very emotional experience for me. I love the game of hockey, and there’s nothing on this earth that competes with the passion, the fury, and the speed and beauty of NHL playoff hockey…especially when seen live at an arena. At the risk of sounding corny (and possibly blasphemous), it’s an experience that I can only adequately describe as quasi-religious. An NHL hockey arena has an almost cathedral-like quality for me, and last night I got to go to Thursday night chapel.
I can only hope that it won’t be another 25 years before I get to do this again.
Game on, eh??
