Our language, and how we say things, has borrowed much from the world of sports. Sayings such as “a win is a win,” “we gave it 110 percent” and “take one for the team” are commonplace.
One of my favourites is used as an attempt to cover all our bases (see, there’s another one): “any given team can beat any other given team on any given day.”
In other words, anything can happen.
Boy, did that come true in the first round of the NHL playoffs that wrapped up last week.
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All winter I had read about this historic Boston Bruins team that was doing something … well, historic.
The team had found its sweet spot and was putting up mind-boggling numbers.
Sports writers gushed about how there was the National Hockey League and then there was the Boston Bruins League — a league of one that no one else was good enough to join.
Nobody could touch them. The Stanley Cup winner seemed to be pre-ordained.
My brother is a die-hard Bruins fan, and I was amused as the playoffs loomed at how nervous he seemed to be. “Anything can happen,” he would say, even as he revelled in the team’s greatness.
And in the end, anything did happen — the Bruins were out at the end of the first round.
I can definitely feel their pain, even though those who know me might scoff, considering I don’t have an athletic bone in my body.
But it’s true.
A few years back my family started a new New Year’s Day tradition — a crokinole tournament.
We would start with an initial round robin, whose results would determine the playoff round. The player with the best results in the round robin would get a bye.
I was on fire the first year we did this, winning every game in the round robin.
This meant that I wouldn’t play again until the final. To say I was confident entering that final game would be an understatement.
But lo and behold, wouldn’t you know it but I went down to defeat in the final, relearning the truth in that old saying: “anything can happen.”
So yes, Boston Bruins, I know what you’re going through. I feel your pain.
