King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Triple overtime fun in the wee wee hours. Plus: A look at scab umps. And: Muhammad Ali.
Read more: Sports, Boxing, Baseball, Labor, NHL, Muhammad Ali, Ice Hockey, King Kaufman, NHL playoffs, Sports Daily
May 11, 2006 | Want to see perfect happiness? Watch what happens when an NHL team scores a goal in the third overtime.
When Shawn Horcoff of the Edmonton Oilers sneaked the puck past San Jose Sharks goalie Vesa Toskala at 2:24 of the sixth period Wednesday night, there was a whooping, dog-piling celebration worthy of at least a conference final clinch, if not quite a Stanley Cup.
This was just in my house, because I finally got to go to bed. Imagine if the team I root for had actually won the game.
The Oilers seemed pleased as well.
I wish I could tell you more about this game, because I think it had a lot going for it, and I know at least 243 of you -- hello, Albertans! -- are interested. The Oilers, down 2-0 in the series, came out hitting and flying, their fans rocking, but the Sharks held a 2-1 lead after two periods, having netted two goals on six shots.
Raffi Torres sent the game to overtime with a wrister that beat Toskala glove-side with 6:47 to go in the third period. The intensity, roaring, skating and crunching hits continued through one overtime and then another, Toskala standing on his head in eventually turning away 54 shots.
I think I lost my eyesight late in the first overtime and my sanity somewhere in the second, but it might have been the other way around.
And you know what? I still had fun. Overtime playoff hockey is just the bomb. There's no other sport that can give you such a combination of fluidity and -- bam! -- instantaneous game-ending drama.
I know you're going to write and say: "Soccer." OK, I'll give you that just so we don't have to argue. I'm short of sleep and don't have the energy. But let me just say, between yawns, that unless there's a steal on the doorstep or something, soccer goals tend to gather. The play develops, gains momentum toward a goal.
Because of the size of the playing field and the fact that people run slower than they ice-skate, it takes a few seconds for the situation to gain steam. That's its own kind of excitement. I understand that.
But in hockey, while some plays gain momentum, soccer style, such as a length-of-the-ice rush, as often as not goals appear almost out of thin air. There'll be a scrum much like a hundred other scrums in the same game, or some random perimeter passing, and then -- bang! -- red light. And in overtime it's -- bang! -- game over.