Here I am on a Tuesday morning getting ready to do another show. Of course, we’ll be talking about the playoff games from last night. Detroit takes a commanding lead against Phoenix. Pittsburgh and Philly take the lead in their series against Buffalo and Tampa respectively. And we’ll certainly be talking about the Bruins getting back into the series against Montreal with their win last night. Wait a minute…something isn’t right about that last sentence. Were the Bruins out of the series to begin with?
A lot of people will say that a 2-0 lead for the underdogs with two games coming up at home would signify the opposition being “out of it”, but I think it actually serves as a perfect example of how reactionary we’ve become as sports fans. In a world of daily sports talk and a constant bombardment of fresh content and instant analysis, it’s almost as if we’ve forgotten how to look at things from a broader perspective.
We dissect every single game with the precision of a surgeon as we look for any single hint, clue or reason as to why one team is going to take the series over another and I wonder to myself, why? It’s probably not the question I should be asking when it’s my job to sort of do that to get through the day, but it would be hard for me to take myself seriously in the position that I’m in if I didn’t ask these questions of myself.
I got to thinking about this even more after the latest media confrontation between New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella and Larry Brooks of the New York Post. In the latest exchange, they get into a heated argument over the term of “backs against the wall”. The problem to me about using this term last Friday morning is that the Capitals had a 1-0 series lead.
Really? Is Tortorella really being asked about the Rangers having their backs against a wall after losing one game in a seven-game series. I understand that it’s the 1-8 matchup with the Rangers being the major underdogs, but are we really now reduced to asking coaches about being in perilous situations because of losing one game? I agreed with Torts’ assessment of the situation. It’s a series. The Capitals had won one game and needed to win three more. The situation isn’t bad enough yet to break out that phrase.
And yet, we do as a media because it’s all about that instant reaction now. When it comes to sports talk, people want answers immediately. They want to know what their teams are doing right, doing wrong and how everything is going to get fixed. There’s no time in people’s lives to live through a process or a rebuild or a re-tooling. If they have no time in their own lives for themselves because of work, family and other commitments, why would they invest time in other things?
I guess if I want you to take away one thing from this, it’s that we need to get back to the thought of letting thing play out a little bit more before we cast judgment. I picked Boston to win in seven games. For that to happen, Montreal has to win three. They just happened to win the first two. I’m not panicking with my pick. I’m just letting things run its course.