Of All The Nights...
By Elliot Olshansky - January 06, 2008
When you start with the idea of seeing as many of the Division I men's hockey teams as you can, the schedule you come up with can often seem fairly random. However, that random schedule can sometimes put you in unexpectedly convenient positions.
Last season, I was lucky enough to be in Denver on the night that Danny King saw the only game action of his Pioneer career, and had the pleasure of writing about his long-awaited debut.
It also just so happened that I was in East Lansing on the night of that wild postgame fight between Michigan State and Alaska, which produced
And then, I just so happened to be at Bowling Green on Friday.
Actually, being in the building for the Falcons' stunning win over the No. 1 team in the nation was just about the only bit of luck I had all weekend. I postponed my lunch until 2:00, right when I got to Bowling Green, so that I could watch the US-Canada game at a Buffalo Wild Wings, only to find out that the BW3 in question didn't get the NHL Network as part of its DirecTV package. Then, about half an hour before game time, I discovered that when I was packing up my computer after eating, the pin that the power supply hooks into had broken, leaving me without a computer. (In case you're wondering, Friday's updates at Power Plays were typed on the computer of Miami sports information contact Nick Banaszak...thanks, Nick!)
I think I've covered this subject before, some of the coincidences I happen upon, the phenomenon my grandfather, may he rest, used to refer to as "rechteck farblunget," or "correctly lost," but it's kind of funny, because it all comes back to hockey.
If you're reading this right now, you've undoubtedly read a lot of recaps of hockey games, with lots of quotes from lots of coaches, and you've probably read the phrase "get the bounces" somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 times. The truth is that that phrase is one of those that has a nice broad application in life.
I used to describe my evening commute in "coachspeak" - i.e. "We were slow getting out of the gate, but we kept our feet moving and made some good things happen out there," or "we just didn't get the bounces tonight" - but even the rnadom occurences that I've stumbled on in the last couple of years can be described as "getting the bounces."
I certainly got a nice bounce on Friday night - computer issue aside - in being in attendance for a loss by the No. 1 team in the nation - and for that matter, another one on Saturday, when I saw Tessa Bonhomme of Ohio State's women's hockey team tie the program records for points in a period and points in a game.
And that's just the beginning in 2008.
Who knows how the puck will bounce next weekend?
Posted by Elliot Olshansky at 11:54 PM on January 06, 2008
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