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I need some hockey.

“Dig, Tommy Come’on” I yell as Tommy Goulden turns the corner trailing Reece Rodland by half a bike length on the home stretch of their race. The Rodland kid is bigger but Tommy has a great motor and high neighborhood BMX IQ, he definitely has the ability to win some races against the older Reece.  But not this time, Tommy runs out of gas and Reece wins pulling away. The climax of the race has an empty net goal after a furious 3rd period push feel to it for young Tommy. Ever the competitor, he chirps Reece about cutting him off at the Farrell house as they head to Reece’s yard for a backyard fire and s’mores.

It’s been 112 days since the NHL suspended operations, my daily life is a mess. My family is fortunate, my wife has been able to work from home as have I, our teenaged daughter is doing as well as can be expected in the current limited world or social interaction.

We’re good, really.

I have been a little “extra” though. Last week I complained to Mrs Mojo about Marcus “just taking his blades for a ride when he should have been mowing the hell out of that lawn”…I mean Marcus is a good guy, he’s got “plus” zero turning radius mower accuracy and is a hell of weed wacker, however, I can’t help but feel like he’s floating when he’s doing the backside of the industrial building that is adjacent to our yard. 

I think the problem here is there have been no Stanley Cup playoffs and it has affected my behavior in ways that are not helpful. To anyone.  My team, the Philadelphia Flyers, had been a perennial playoff fixture for most of my life, until the 2010’s when a series of bewildering trades and free agent signings turfed what was a championship nucleus for a 7 year rebuild that stopped and started a few times. Still the Flyers were playing meaningful hockey into April most years even when they did not qualify for the tournament. When my rooting interests were eliminated there were still teams I could root against and that was almost as fun. Almost.

The Flyers vastly underachieved in the 2018/19 season and it led to the dismissal of the general manager and then then mercifully the boneheaded coach.  It was an odd numbered year in Philly, so yes, it was the coach’s fault, not the goalie’s. The new GM Chuck Fletcher hired Alain Vigneault and together they assembled a quality staff comprised of former head coaches Mike Yeo, Michel Therrien while retaining Ian Laperierre.  Fletcher also signed Kevin Hayes to an eternal contract at way to high of an aav to suit many armchair GMs. He also made a few savvy trades that brought experienced, high-quality, players to the team while keeping the core and the highly prized young players on the roster and in the system. Still many fans were not delighted, I myself was warily optimistic, which is the default setting for most Flyers fans.

The competition in the Metropolitan division is fierce. The Flyers needed to play winning hockey to keep pace. Prior to January they were scraping along, playing poorly on the road but well at home. They had lost one of their top young goal scorers for the season and maybe forever, to Ewing’s Sarcoma. It would be another year in the “rebuild of the rebuild”. Then in mid-January this team began to “feel themselves”, they became confident and really fun to watch. The boys were skating teams out of the rink, and when they were heavy legged, the goalies stole games.  They beat the teams they should and were right there with the top teams in the league. They couldn’t seem to beat Tampa but they skated with them, and with a bounce could have won both games; they played the Bruins tough too with better results. The Flyers owned the Capitals and beat the top teams from the western conference. They were going to be tough to beat in the Stanley Cup playoffs because they were definitely going to make the tournament and maybe even have home ice for a round. This is going to be our year!

Then COVID-19 happened. Everyone’s life ground to a halt. In March and April sports was the furthest thing from my mind. My focus needed to be on wiping down the produce I purchased at the grocery store with Lysol and not whether James vanRiemsdyk was effectively forechecking (he had been). The weather got better, kids began to play outside. Home projects that “only needed some time” were completed, we had reached the end of Netflix, (the home screen becomes all “watch it again”).

There is certainly a space sports can occupy to help the nation escape for a time. Can hockey fill that void? I know the answer is yes, the Stanley Cup tournament is the most difficult to win in professional sports, it is nightly drama, feats of skill and courage that must be seen to be believed. Can the NHL resume play safely? I hope so, I would love to see the game resume. I don’t want anyone to get sick with the virus. I am starved for a return to some sense of normalcy and sports can offer that. If the NHL can do it and everyone involved can do it virus free, then drop the puck! It can grow our sport, showcasing the cup playoffs to a nearly captive audience. I think the nation would be grateful to hockey. I know the Rodland kid would rather have me yelling at Todd Marchand through the TV than rooting against him every time he rides his bike with his younger buddy.

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My entire life has been about hockey, and especially watching the  playoffs in the spring. As much as I miss hockey , I really don’t believe there will be a playoff season. To me ,the NHL is better off canceling  this season and  
prepare  for next year. Look at the spike in COVID cases already. As soon as the traveling starts and all the players get together there will be an outbreak, It’s July already , who wants a half assed playoffs with no fans and the games played in other cities. I’m predicting now there will not be any playoffs. Imagine if  there is a playoff season and  after 45 years of suffering the Flyers finally win the Cup and we didn’t get to go to a single game , they won in some other city,  in a empty arena and there is no Stanley Cup parade . Who the hell wants that. Who needs a ******** gimmick playoff and then a shortened season next year.
 

Forget this year and also forget this social distance crap, open everything up , you can’t stop a virus, it has to run its course. We have been shutdown for 4 months ,we partially opened up and people are getting sick again, you can shutdown for 10 more months and the same thing will happen and we will be bankrupt and half the population will be on welfare. Unfortunately, the virus has to run its course and lots of people are going to die , you can’t stop it, just like you can’t stop a cold or flu. We are only prolonging the inevitable.

 

P.S. All the allegations against me are false, they all wanted it...

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3 minutes ago, mojo1917 said:

Was actually asking for input on my writing.

 

15 hours ago, mojo1917 said:

James vanRiemsdyk was effectively forechecking

 

See, I knew it was fictional writing.

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12 minutes ago, Podein25 said:

See, I knew it was fictional writing.

 

Strengthen by the fact that the "He" in this: 

 

15 hours ago, mojo1917 said:

He also made a few savvy trades that brought experienced, high-quality, players to the team while keeping the core and the highly prized young players on the roster and in the system.

 

is Chuck Fletcher.

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@Villette/Lavaux

 

I laughed heartily at your post - thanks!

 

This did actually happen though. 

Radko Gudas and some $ for Matt Niskanen

Kevin Hartman for Tyler Pitlick

An extra second round pick plus a 3rd for Justin Braun.

 

My tune may change in year 5, we will see. 

In the short term, perhaps all Chuck needed was "a change in scenery"

 

 

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On 7/3/2020 at 10:07 AM, mojo1917 said:

 

Was actually asking for input on my writing.

There are other threads where we can discuss COVID-19.

My reply was not just about COVID, it was about how much it would suck , if we finally won the Cup and we couldn’t go to any games or have a parade.  I guess we could all wear our Flyers Jerseys and loot and burn and just call it an overly exuberant victory parade.

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