I am not a fair weather fan, but rather I support the Canucks through the good and bad times. However, I doubt if I’ll be able to watch every game of the playoffs; I’m just too busy with things that should truly take priority. It’s likely that I’ll half watch a lot of them as small windows in the corner of my computer screen while I’m doing productive things like school work; but I’ll have to sacrifice even that if I’m not keeping up. As a true fan that has deprived myself for some time now, I did decide to treat myself to Game 1 of the first round of playoffs; as I have barely watched any hockey for a couple of years now and really wanted to catch at least one full game.
It turned out to be quite the game to watch. The two teams are so evenly matched in many different statistics, and as such the expectation was that the series would be very close. Addtionally, the low, close scores of the previous games had the paid and armchair experts alike predicting that we’d likely see a lot of games with scores of 2-1. Instead, we were treated to a game that was tied 4-4 at the end of regulation.
The teams were visibly tired in the overtime period, but the fatigue factor appeared to affect them equally and they remained fairly evenly matched. After a full 20 minute overtime period, the score remained tied and there was a 15 minute intermission until the 2nd overtime period. I went into the bedroom where Karin was already in bed. She was surprised when I left to watch the second overtime, as she was certain the game must have already been over. Her surprise became even greater as I kept coming back every half hour for 15 minutes, only to leave again. By the time the fourth overtime started, she was done watching her shows and I watched this period on the bedroom television.
The teams had become quite exhausted at the game ground on, but in the second half of the third and throughout the fourth overtime period the Sedin twins seemed to catch a second wind and were noticeably sharper than all the other players. I began to perk up myself each time they came out for a shift, and was rewarded in the final minute of the fourth overtime when Daniel fed his twin brother Henrik Sedin, who then scored the game winner.
If only I’d spent any money to watch the game, I could have said I certainly got my money’s worth. This was the longest game in Canucks history and the sixth longest game in NHL playoff history. Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo faced an NHL playoff record 76 shots, and his 72 saves was the second best in playoff history.
And while the score was higher than expected, there’s little doubt that the teams are pretty evenly matched.
So in the end I finally got to go to sleep happy and half past midnight. I’ll don’t know if I’ll manage to sit down and watch another full game, but I’m certainly glad that this was the one I did catch.
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