Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Why I Quit Hockey Playoff Pools



McEechnieShaveOffThat(Playoff)Beard
BCTeeVeeVille


I consider myself lucky, especially given my obsessive tendencies, that I have not yet been hooked by online sports pools of any kind.

And for that I can personally thank Esa Tikkanen.

Why?

Because I quit such pools, cold turkey, after the 1990 Stanley Cup playoffs when I realized that I had no interest in cheering for players I hated just because I had drafted them.

Case in point - the above mentioned, and pictured, Mr. Tikkanen who helped power, and 'agitate', the Gretzkyless Edmonton Oilers to a surprising Cup win that spring.

So.

With that as background, I, for one, was ecstatic when the slewfooted hypoglossal king, Brad Marchand, was goated, and I mean that in the literal rather than acronymized sense of the word, at the end of a long goal sucking shift on the Blues' game seven winning goal last night...




________
Subheader refers to an on-air exchange between a then still young John McKeachie and Jack Webster when the former had the audacity to show up with a scraggly beard that made him look like the butler's younger beatnik brother on the Munsters....Or some such thing.
And, yes, I'm actually old enough to actually remember the spring night in 1970 when Mr. Orr flew through the air to win the series for the Big Bad Bruins...After the goal my brothers and I went outside and started knocking the stuffing out of each other in the twilight...


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1 comment:

e.a.f. said...

oh, dear remember that all also and I'm older than you.

I'm hoping Toronto wins the basketball tournament, the U.S.A. took home the Stanley Cup. Its only fair.