Note: I've gone hockey crazy this week. Check out
Southeast Shootout to see exactly what I mean by that. Here is a wee little sample.
I'm not in the prediction business. My passion and excitement for this
game is strange and complex, filled with hope and optimism, and often
based more on wishful thinking and dreams not spoken than it is on the
facts, figures and empirical findings born out through game play this
season or last. I respect the facts and figures. I greatly admire the
selfless souls who spend hours crunching numbers through modeling
algorithms to predict outcomes. If I were a coach I’d have a handful of
these people on my staff, and I’d listen if they made a recommendation
about who to scratch come game time. But with all do respect to the
great math nerds of the world, that doesn’t mean jack come playoff
time. This is the time to put your heart on your sleeve, your mind on
the back burner and rely on your gut.
Without further ado, here are some predictions born in that place where fear and fragility meet rainbows and sunshine.
Just for tonight, the unsung will be heroes.
Andy Sutton
will do something dumber than dye his hair blue only to dye it brown
the next morning. He’ll play less than 15 minutes and be responsible
for giving up a goal. Ilya will try too hard, get too frustrated, and
make an early visit to the sin-bin. But the rugged veterans of this
team,
Scott Melanby,
Keith Tkachuk,
Slava Kozlov,
Bobby Holik and
Alexie Zhitnik
will come through as difference makers. With steady emotions they’ll
make the right passes, ease the right emotions, and make sure we hit
the Rangers hardest on the scoreboard.
Kari Lehtonen will recover from an early goal and give these Thrashers their first playoff victory, ever.
Embolden
by victory this team will win the series in 6 games. The losses will
come back to back and our third victory might even come at home with
Moose
in goal. This team has a recent trend of clinching the big ones (a
playoff birth, a SED championship) on the road. So its fitting we
advance in these playoffs by defeating the Rangers at MSG in game 6.
If the microchips prove me wrong, as they might do, that’s ok. When you write software for a living you get used to it.