Meadowlands Mishegas
Even if it is one of the best songs in Avenue Q, I really shouldn’t take joy in shadenfreude when it involves both the Islanders and Leafs. For 56 minutes, the Islanders fans were dancing and Leafs fans wore long faces, only to have fortunes reverse and emotions invert as Madden popped in a goal with less than a full tick left in the Leafs’ season. Sadly, for those of us enjoying the mishegas in the Meadowlands, the Devils couldn’t pull it out and the Islanders backed into the 8-ball spot.
As my ticket-share host Ernie points out, with three New York area teams in the hockey playoffs, the local sports press should devote some ink toward Lord Stanley’s Cup. But I harbor such low expectations of the popular press. A mere few months ago, the hockey press speculated that the Northeast Division would place four teams in the playoffs while their mid-Atlantic cross-conference foes would be thankful to get an automatic seed for the division winner. As usual “common wisdom” is neither: Devils, Penguins, Rangers, Islanders in the playoffs, Leafs and Habs playing off the tees in Florida.
Best moment of the afternoon: as the Devils showed highlight reels from previous seasons, and gave away autographed items from previous Devils, any player who had the audacity to don a Rangers sweater professionally (Shanahan and Holik specifically) was uniformly booed for it. By everyone - Devils and Islanders fans alike.
Next up: dealing with Tampa Bay. The Devils lost 3 out of 4 to the Lightning in the regular season, which means little in the second season but we have to have something about which to worry. Although we did break Passover a bit early, and skipped this year’s “Matzah in the Meadowlands” mess, avoiding a lightning strike from a higher authority. I’m hopeful this is a portent of good luck to come.