Hockey Playoffs: The Time of No Sleep | April 12, 2007 |
One thing quickly forgotten from years past while gearing up for this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs is that I need to condition my body to run at half the sleep than its used to. The playoffs are in a word, awesome, but we need to make sacrifices for experiencing the full effect of that awesomeness. And that sacrifice is a complete lack of proper sleep, and the resulting effects of sleep deprivation.
Living in the Eastern time zone, not only are the west coast games a killer to begin with, but overtime with a capital “O” is pushing things too far. I just connected the facts that overtime starts with “o” and an “o” is a circle, and a circle goes around and around with no end. Do you see what is happening to me when I get no sleep? My mind turns to mush. And that is after only one night.
Double OT. Triple OT. Quadruple OT between the Vancouver Canucks and Dallas Stars! Are you kidding me? My body is not ready for this, especially on opening night! I admit it, I bailed after double OT at roughly 2:00am Toronto time.
Things would not be so bad if I was still in university. Ah, university. Talk about living in a fantasy world. Now the problem is the kids (my kids, ages 4 and 1.5) have zero cognizance of this new distraction in my life. My darling wife has less than zero sympathy.
Some advice: Do your best to not give any indication you are walking around like a zombie. That is exactly when your non-hockey fan significant other recalls household chores you long thought had fallen by the wayside.
If we can get through the first round, then things shoudn’t be too bad the rest of the way. The first round games have the biggest time commitment in sheer number and often length. After that we’ve more or less adjusted to the new schedule. Come on guys, we can do it if we stick together!
To the purists out there though, is the shootout really so bad? What exactly does it solve for Henrik Sedin to pot the winning goal 5 hours and 21 minutes after the game started, and most everyone with half a clue (and some of us without) are no longer watching. I like the shootout. I can live with the shootout. Most importantly, I can sleep soundly after the shootout.