The NHL Playoffs

I know that it is a bit late for all of this but watching it on YouTube again and again never gets old so I felt the need to post my experience.

Hockey has become much more fun for me over the past year, especially has been helped by the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup this year. However, the Wings winning the Cup has been just a footnote compared to the experience that was had by all who celebrated throughout the playoffs. Let me tell you the story so that you feel the joy and angst that was these playoffs.

Rick, Justin, Josh, and I (Biz was there for some, not all) enjoyed the entirety of the NHL playoffs together at our local "watering hole." What started with the Nashville Predators and ended with the Pittsburgh Penguins become a great time had by all. We would get together for almost any playoff game throughout the month or two that is the NHL playoffs. We would stay up as long as it took (sometimes very late) to watch the Red Wings move their way through the competition. I was priveliged enough to go to the Red Wings vs. Avalance Game 1 at the Joe and watch that fantastic game in person. I was hooked after that and we watched every game together as though we were the ones out on the ice. Once we got to the Stanley Cup Finals against Pittsburgh is when we really had our fun.

The first two games won easily by Detroit has us betting as to how far the series would actually go, but we found out that Pittsburgh has life after winning Game 3. Detroit took Game 4 and it looked like the Stanley Cup would make an appearance at the Joe on that fateful Monday night...but it was not to be had. 1 am rolled around and the Triple OT goal was scored by Pittsburgh, despite the lingering headache that was the following morning at work, without the Red Wings even having the audacity to win the game, we felt that they had won in Pittsburgh once, they could do it again.

Game 6, Detroit leads 3-1 with 1:30 to go, when Pittsburgh scores to make it 3-2...my heart can't take this shit. As the seconds tick away towards the end of the game Josh, Rick and I are watching on one TV literally one arm around another while the clock brings Stanley closer and closer to home...the clock hits 0.00...joy and ecstacy fills the room...we scream, holler and jump around in a cluster of humanity as we celebrate what has come to be a wonderful time for the city of Detroit, but even more importantly a great time celebrated by the group that has watched them get to this point. Words cannot begin to tell you how great of a feeling it was to be able to celebrate such an accomplishment that, even though we had no physical part in, felt like something we had earned together.

It is a moment that will live in my memory as a time that was celebrated as a group, that was something we could appreciate together (the last time the Wings won the Cup I wasn't all that into hockey) and made all the late nights worth while. The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup but what I will really remember it as the day that we erupted into celebration together.