Hockey is an ultra competitive business. It’s ruthless. It’s unforgiving. It’s also human. To tell you the truth, even as I watched Game Seven last night between Florida and Toronto last night, I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened on Saturday in Dallas. It was a reminder of what really matters.
The Winnipeg Jets lost a Stanley Cup playoff series. Mark Scheifele lost a parent. The first one stings for a few weeks. Then you shift gears and focus on the next hockey season. The latter is something from which there’s only coping by necessity. There’s no “getting over it”. Thank God, I still have my folks. But I lost my sister, Sarah Beth, to sudden cardiac arrest. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about her in some way, shape or form.
Don’t get me wrong: Losing a Playoff series is a lousy feeling. The further your team plays into the spring, the more you feel deep in your gut, This is our year! I went through that every year of my career. Lost in a Stanley Cup Final. Lost in a Game Seven in the Eastern Conference Final. Lost in six in the second round.
Different seasons, different reasons. One achy feeling in the pit of your stomach.
The hockey gods can be cruel. Why, of all players, did it have to be Mark Scheifele in the penalty box when Game Six ended in overtime? On the flip side, who better to score Winnipeg’s only goal than the same guy?
Ultimately, this, too, will pass. The disappointment. The sudden quiet that hangs over the offseason is deafening.All you want is to is take in the energy, the noise, of the next playoff series. I know. I’ve been there.
Even so, it’s just hockey. Life is what matters. Family is what matters. My colleague Bill Meltzer once shared a famous quote from me said by the legendary Fred Shero: Life is just a place we spend time between hockey games.
There was a time in my life, when I was younger, that I felt exactly that way. Then I grew up. Then I went through things much more important than playing hockey games. Saturday night’s game in Dallas took me back to that realization that hockey is just a game, when all is said and done.
I don’t really pull too much for or against particular teams at this point of my life. I pull for people. Craig Berube is one of my closest friends in life. So I was rooting for Chief to win. I think a lot of Scott Laughton, on and off the ice. I was pulling for Sarge.
The Maple Leafs? The Panthers? Two hockey teams. There are players and teams I like to watch more than others: their style of play. Their moxie. Their skill. But do I care deep in my heart whether Carolina/Florida or Dallas/Edmonton win their respective Conference Final? Nah. Not the way I once did. I care much more about my own kids’ teams.
I don’t love hockey less than when I played the game as a kid, in college, or in the pros. But maybe I have a little more perspective on the big picture. I don’t know Mark Scheiele personally. But I think the world of what he did on Saturday, win or lose a hockey game. Sometimes, we all can use a reminder.
Well said Chris.