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The Morning of Opening Night

by Mike Chen on 10/09/08 at 12:33 PM ET
Comments (1)

There are a few days in the year when I wake up with the feeling that nothing can ruin my day. The first day of the NHL season is one of those days. And sometimes, I get the feeling that fate’s out to test my little feel-good boast. Take, for example, this morning.

It’s the usual drill for me in the morning, or at least it starts that way. Take the dogs out for their morning business, stare at our unkept lawn, and ponder whether to make coffee now or later. Except on my first step out the bedroom door, I notice the cat’s litter box has a big wet spot in front of it.

Uh oh. Fate: 1, NHL: 0.

A quick sniff confirms my hunch—unfortunately, the cat didn’t pour a glass of water in front of the litter box as a friendly prank. Nope, this little spat of attitude problem is probably a “Screw you” to dear old mom and dad for bringing in a little hyperactive kitten into the household a little while ago. Of course, she does this on the first day of the NHL season, so nothing can ruin my day.

Once I get that properly cleaned up (thank you Nature’s Miracle spray), I head downstairs and the first thing I notice is that the coffee table is knocked over (Fate 2). The little dish of candles and tiny pebbles that my wife set up is spilled everywhere (Fate 3). And my half-full (see, I’m optimistic) glass of grapefruit juice from last night is spilled over, making a nice pink/red stain on my carpet (Fate 4). This is what happens when you have a hyperactive kitten and an overweight cat expressing a love/hate relationship through random bouts of spirited chasing.

If you’re keeping score, that’s Fate: 4, NHL: 0.

Wow. That’s a hat trick of bad mojo right there, but you know what? Nothing can ruin my day—it’s the first day of the NHL season. I set forth to try and take care of each thing one after the other, and while I’m picking up the little pebbles from my wife’s candle display, a strong not-good odor hits my nose.

A quick look to the right and I see my greyhound with an extremely guilty look on her face. Right beneath her is a big steaming pile of poop. Fate: 5, NHL: 0.

Of course, this is my fault. I should have let the dogs outside while I cleaned everything up. About 20 minutes later, everything’s cleaned and sprayed and disinfected and all that stuff, the dogs are happy, the cats are content, and I’m ready to sit down and view the morning’s hockey headlines. And you know what? Nothing, outside of, say, getting hit by a bus, can ruin my day. It’s the first day of the NHL season and I’m optimistic that this is a great year. In fact, I like to think that in my little corner of the world, I’ve gotten all the bad mojo out of the way so we can have a great opening night and a better season.

I’m optimistic because we’ll get to see the first steps of blossoming young talent like Steven Stamkos and Kyle Turris. I’m optimistic because I see coaches all across the league talking about wanting to move away from stifling defenses and emphasize speed, skill, and puck possession (quick aside: they’re obviously emulating Mike Babcock’s system in Detroit; however, most teams don’t have the talent to pull it off and that’ll lead to more breakdowns which will hopefully lead to turnovers and higher scoring. I think you’ll see the overall goals-per-game go up after two seasons of decline). I’m optimistic because I get to restart my regular father/son bonding sessions with my dad as we head to opening night at the Shark Tank.

It’s going to be a good year. I can feel it. And just in case, fate transferred any lingering bad mojo the NHL had (probably due to Gary Bettman being at the NYSE yesterday) over to me, and that’s fine. Cause it’s the first day of the NHL season and nothing can ruin my day.

Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Opening+Night, Superstitions,

Comments

Two things:

1. Apple juice won’t stain the carpet, just for future reference.

2. You can purchase a couple of products (one clear, the other white) of putty-like substance that you can use to stick items to surfaces - such as a decorative dish with pepples and candles. Museums use the stuff so vibrations won’t gradually wobble an item off a pedestal or out of position in a display case.

Kudos to you for not letting it ruin your day.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 10/09/08 at 12:10 PM ET

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About Mike Chen’s Hockey Blog

Mike Chen prides himself in being the only hockey writer integrating puck discussion with both Morrissey quotes and Star Wars references. Since 2004, he’s blogged about all things hockey and currently contributes to FoxSports.com, the Battle of California, and RotoRob.

Questions? Comments? Hate mail? Contact Mike here.