We are now three weeks into the NHL playoffs and the unpredictable has already happened.
A historic, monumental, and ageless Boston Bruins team, full of career years and joy for this to be their version of a Last Dance, crashed and burned against a Florida Panthers team that, had the Buffalo Sabres beat them on April 4 instead of the result going the other way, wouldn’t even be in the playoffs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs finally got a series victory over the arch-nemisis Tampa Bay Lightning, who has always been seen as the big brother to the up-start Leafs. Strong-arming them as the Toronto team tries and tries again to take them off their pedestal. Well, they finally did that and their reward? They are currently down 2-0 in their first second-round series since 2004 against those same gutsy Panthers.
A Colorado Avalanche team – the reigning Stanley Cup champions – got beat in seven games by a team making its first ever playoff appearace, the Seattle Kraken. A Seattle team that has had terrible goaltending and was facing some of the most elite shooters and finishers and just good players, was able to clinch a clutch win and knock them out.
After barely making the playoffs in the first place, the Winnipeg Jets are a complete disaster and the first-round loss to the Vegas Golden Knights only furthers that point.
The Minnesota Wild couldn’t match the Dallas Stars in top-end skill and their special teams and defense failed them completely.
The New Jersey Devils are gross and disgusting and probably shouldn’t exist, but were able to defeat a New York Rangers team that many (including myself) projected to go at least to the Eastern Conference Final, if not win the whole dang thing. And then, full of promise and hope and Jack Hughes, they’re down 2-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes.
That was over 300 words essentially summarizing the point that no matter what the expectations are of your team heading into the postseason, when that team loses (or even wins in the case of the Devils and Leafs), the only thing waiting for you is eventual misery and anxiety.
Sure, the Leafs can go on and reverse sweep Florida into oblivion, and then go on a hot streak to win the Cup for the first time since 1967. But they will always remember this pain and anguish and consternation after going down 2-0 to the Panthers.
As a neutral observer to all of this chaos and uneasiness from fans of these failing teams, it almost makes you feel grateful that your favorite team isn’t even involved. The playoffs can be fun and exciting if you win, but even just remembering the feeling we experienced as the Philadelphia Flyers went on their little run in the bubble and the sinkhole of emotions that took place in the series against the Islanders, I could go without feeling that feeling for a couple more years, at least.
Maybe it was because there was nothing else to pay attention to and we were all just staying home and thinking and watching and writing and analyzing the Flyers. We had full attention paid. But still, even to put yourself in the gross and grimy shoes of a Devils fan for one moment, after they just lost 6-1 in Game 2 to Carolina, and know that that feeling is something we don’t have to experience for a good amount of time.
As much as this is copium for the Flyers being a horrible hockey team, I would be absolutely fine with watching this team plummet through the next few regular seasons and almost act like we were just skipping through the games in our favorite hockey general manager simulator. Let the results happen. Let the playoffs be far out of reach. Let us just think about prospects and future transactions that could be made.
The playoffs will happen again for the Flyers and that feeling of so desperately wanting a goal to go in or a power play to happen at a particular moment, will return. But for now, I am perfectly fine with sitting back, enjoying some nice hockey being played by some teams in the postseason and watching other fan bases crumble with just a pinch of empathy for them.
Let’s just do this for the next few years, please? With the world crumbling around us as we witness young people in need getting murdered on the subway instead of getting the help that they so desperately need; and the economy in the shitter because a few dozen people want to generate more wealth for themselves; and people needing to shoplift essential items to continue living right beside the government spending hundreds of millions on a parade for some person that was born into a certain family – let’s just say that we are not feeling the greatest right now and we don’t want the distraction that we have from this world to cause us more anxiety for a couple more years.
I will personally enjoy the ride of the Flyers installing a new management team led by a former player that I really liked when he was in Philadelphia, and thinking about some things that could happen or should not happen with this team. I’m not saying that it should fully distract us and be an orange and black blindfold, but I, personally, cannot handle caring about every single game and moment of a Flyers playoff game right now.
