Sports analogies are like...well, you know.
Most often now the point of sports analogies spewing out of "SportsCentre" talking heads is to challenge you the viewer to keep up with the story you are actually being told. Images of war, politics, family relations are all employed. Watching the Senators and Devils in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals last night, however, I was struck by how the game as arguement was being played out on my screen and, in fact, it was an argument that has taken about ten years to put in place.
The game was one of the finest I have ever seen. Both goalies made saved pucks that ought not to have been seen let alone stopped. The other players had the required crazy eyes - something I doubted Ottawa had in them - but, also a requirement, they found how to control themselves just shy of the point of turning into the flailing human cudgle that speeding athlete with a sticks gliding on ice in an enclosed pen ought to become.
What really made the game stand out, however, were the both the success and interaction of the disciplines of theory each team has sought to achieve: the Devil's trap, the patience of Ottawa. Both have been called boring and undermining to the game for years. Last night those claims were proved wrong.
Also, see my dismal 2003 hockey pool performance - despite being the guy in charge of the rules! Brother Doug leads the pack.
