For Avs-Sharks, it’s About Time

Just over a minute into game four between the Avalanche and the Sharks, a goat found redemption and a hero became human again.

Dan Boyle was a very unlucky guy in game three. With a little help from the Avs’ Ryan O’Reilly he managed to score on his own goal and hand a win to the underdog.

For anyone other than Dan Boyle it would have been as though time stood still till game four. But this is playoff hockey. The time between games is imaginary. For Boyle, it had to be. Real time must be defined by the game clock.

For Craig Anderson, time stood still after that fifty one save effort. He stepped on the ice as the number one star and it was as though the crowd was stuck in a time-warp. They cheered their hero endlessly. With a smile plastered on his face he waited for it to end. It didn’t.

For the rest of us, time went on. We discussed, hashed and rehashed the series. None of that mattered. Illusionary. The game clock wasn’t moving.

But once the game clock did start moving it only took one minute and twelve seconds to change everything.

Boyle buried the puck in the Avalanche net on a power play and in a mere 1:12 a game-ending goof was forgotten. Redemption.

Craig Anderson, the hero of game three was human again. Just a minute-twelve after hero-time, after time stood still, time suddenly blurred forward faster than Anderson could handle.

Back to the “real” world of playoff hockey.

Paul Stastny tipped the puck into the Sharks net at 3:27 of the second period.

That’s when time froze for me. I was on edge as these two teams dueled on the ice. This was supposed to be a lopsided affair. It hasn’t been. And that’s when I become motionless in time. The game clock moves and yet I’m frozen.

At 10:24 of the OT period Joe Pavelski stops the game clock and suddenly I’m in motion through time again.

The series is tied.

For me, time is dragging until that game clock starts ticking again.