playoffs

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I Can’t Pick A Winner To Save My Life

It’s safe to say that I can’t pick a winner in the NHL playoffs this year. 

I can't pick a winner to save my life, a coin toss

In fact, if you want to know which team is going to win a particular round, it‘s best to pick the team I don’t want to win. 

Sometimes you just can’t pick a winner and that’s how I am right now. 

If we were drawing straws, I would draw the short one. I feel if I was flipping coins to see how many heads would come up, right now most of the coins would turn up tails. 

Have you ever had a feeling that something was going to happen and then it did? Well, that’s foreign to me at this particular time.

Do you remember when you were a kid at Christmas and you were hoping, hoping, really hoping for a certain toy to be under the tree for you? Then you got to the last present and you were over the moon because you got just what you wanted? 

Well, that is not happening to me right now, and this feeling that whatever I get behind is going to flop, fizzle or fade is getting to be too much for me.

I kind of want to stay neutral; I don’t want to get my hopes up. I just want to coast along and go with whatever happens. 

With that attitude, you don’t bottom out emotionally. You can stay even-keeled and be unfazed at outcomes. Sure, you miss out on some of the highs, but you avoid the deep lows which are far more difficult to handle.

For me this started with the Toronto Maple Leafs exiting the NHL playoff scene really before it began. … They called it the playoffs but really the first round was to determine who would get into the playoffs. The plus side was that the Leafs were one of the teams battling to get in, while other teams didn’t even get that chance.

But that is a distant memory now. Since then, in every series, the teams I have been rooting for, and hoped would advance to the next round, have fallen flat. 

There have been teams I was glad to see ousted from the playoffs, but often in those series I was hoping for both teams to lose (as impossible as that was).

My latest two teams to go down were Colorado and Vancouver. I’ve never been much of a fan of either team, but I had watched some of their games and been impressed. I thought they were winners.

… Heartbreaks on both accounts: Colorado went down in overtime in game 7, after trading goals with Dallas in the third period. Vancouver – well, their goalie stood on his head keeping the puck out until 6 minutes left in the game, when one eventually got by him.

So who do you want to win the next round? Just ask me, and then go with the team I’m not cheering for. 

Here’s the thing: Life is hard to predict. You can make decisions, follow a direction that you think is best, only to find out it’s not leading you to the place you hoped for. That’s why it’s best to have a guide, a counsellor, someone with insight directing your way. God has given us a directional book in the Bible and He promises to give us the Holy Spirit to guide us through life. Don’t take gut-feeling chances with your life and future. Trust in God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What hope do you have that needs to be given over to God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I Gave Up On Them … There, I Admit It

I have to admit it: I gave up on them … but maybe it was for the best. 

I gave up on them ... There, I admit it

It is strange talking about hockey and the Toronto Maple Leafs in the middle of the summer, but anything goes this year.

By the time this post is published the final game of the series will already have been played. Their win last night might not matter, but what does matter is how I responded to the game last night. 

First, I wasn’t sure I could take watching the game at all, so I went for a long walk on the beach with my wife, Lily. The Leafs were battling it out while I was getting great drone shots of the sunset.

When I did start watching the game, I will be the first to admit that I turned the TV station when the Leafs went down 3-0 in the final half of the third period.  

I gave up on them.

I was convinced that it was over and that their season had come to an end. I’d seen the scenario take place too many times to watch it play out to its end. 

I flicked the channels for a bit, settling on a movie when I decided to check my watch. … I get scoring updates on my watch. I figured the game was over so I looked to see what the final score was. 

I couldn’t believe my eyes!

It said the game was 3-3, and that could only mean one thing: we were in overtime! 

I quickly grabbed the remote and turned back to the game. The first overtime period had just begun. 

There were chances at both ends. At times it looked liked the Leafs were beat, but our goalie made a save or one of our players cleared the puck. 

At one point, my son texted Lily and asked how my heart was doing. Lily texted back, “He gave up on them, but is watching now”. 

His response was “maybe it was the healthiest thing he could do.” 

The curious thing is, if I had have been at the game in person, I would not have left the building until the final horn sounded. I would have been there to watch every agonizing minute of the game. 

But being at home, watching from my couch, the sense of despair ate at me. Then it became 3-0 and it was too easy to just turn it off. It was too easy to walk away, find another program to watch, focus my mind on something more pleasant, become distracted from how I was feeling. 

As tense as the overtime was, I didn’t turn away. There was hope, a chance the Leafs could win. 

And then it happened. The four big stars of the team came together – Rielly to Marner to Tavares to Matthews, who made no mistake. 

They WON!! 

And my heart, at least for then, was at rest.

Here’s the thing: Maybe you are not a quitter. You would never give up on God or church. But maybe from your couch it becomes easier to have your heart turn to other things. Maybe all the bad news, the changed world, the no magic fix for the virus, the possible years we will have to distance and protect ourselves is too discouraging. So the easy solution is to turn your attention elsewhere. Let me just say, this is not the time to give up on God or the church. Now is the time to tune in, show up, be more vigilant than ever. Christ won on the cross and He will come in victory. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s your plan for staying connected to Christ? Leave your comments and questions below.

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The Health Risks of Cheering

For health reasons, maybe the Toronto Maple Leafs shouldn’t make the playoffs more than every nine years. That’s how long it’s been since the last time my stress level went off the scale.

Frankly, I had forgotten what it was like to watch a playoff game in which I really – and I mean really – cared about the outcome. For almost a decade I never really got too excited in the playoffs because I didn’t really care which team won.

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This year is different. I care, and I had forgotten just how much I cared until the series began. Unfortunately, my wife and I decided to take a week’s holiday in the US during the first five games of the playoffs.

The US usually does everything big: their stores are bigger than in Canada; their restaurants serve larger portions; their cities, for the most part, seem larger. But when it comes to hockey, it takes a backseat to basketball and baseball.

To be fair, NBC has done a great job of covering the playoffs so far. Their motto has been “every night, every game” … but not the Leafs! They were on CNBC, whatever that is. All I know is that our hotel room didn’t get that channel and neither did the places we went to look for the games.

By the time we returned to Canada, I had missed the first 4 games of the series, and the fifth game was being played while we were driving home. When we crossed the border, we checked for radio stations that might cover the game.

We finally found one but it was competing with a station that was airing a talk show in another language. I could barely make out that the Leafs scored to make it 2 – 0. I immediately pressed harder on the gas pedal believing that any police officer would understand my urgency to get home.

I got home with 10 minutes left in the game. There was no unloading the car, no unpacking – it was straight to the TV!

I was so stressed for the last half of the period that I couldn’t sit down. I paced back and forth in our family room, watching, holding my breath, screaming at the players on the TV to get the puck out of their end.

I thought I was going to have a heart attack, and I know what that feels like so I had my Nitro ready in my back pocket just in case. Well, we won and that set the stage for game 6.

This time I was home for the whole game. I was able to sit, but there was no talking, no distractions, just rocking back and forth on the edge of my chair. The only calming effect was the pizza and Dr. Pepper.

The Leafs played a great game and won, which brought the series down to one last game in Boston. It was do or die tonight. After a promising 4-1 lead, a loss in overtime has left me a little shaken. If there are no more blogs after this one, you’ll know the Nitro didn’t work.

Here’s the thing: Much of what we get stressed about is over in flash and has no lasting effect on us. Eternity, on the other hand, is something worth stressing over if we are not ready for it … because the effects are forever.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What thing or event causes you the most emotional stress? Leave your comment below.