Great column by Jeff MacGregor on the Devils not making playoffs for the first time in 15 years.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=macgregor/110404
His first 2 paragraphs hooked me:
In the right light, it is possible to ascend into a state of grace in Newark, N.J. A kind of secular exaltation. This is game time at the Prudential Center and the Devils are about to succumb to Fate. So you look out from the atrium, look long out past the fans moving in slow silhouette against those immense windows, out to a ballooning sunset that fires the clouds and the sky and the Eastern horizon and you make your peace with things. This is it. Tonight, for the first time in 15 seasons, it becomes official: The Devils will miss the playoffs.
A long winter of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and at last acceptance warms into spring. It's been exhausting. To let go, to arrive finally at the inevitable, to stop fighting, is to be set free.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=macgregor/110404
His first 2 paragraphs hooked me:
In the right light, it is possible to ascend into a state of grace in Newark, N.J. A kind of secular exaltation. This is game time at the Prudential Center and the Devils are about to succumb to Fate. So you look out from the atrium, look long out past the fans moving in slow silhouette against those immense windows, out to a ballooning sunset that fires the clouds and the sky and the Eastern horizon and you make your peace with things. This is it. Tonight, for the first time in 15 seasons, it becomes official: The Devils will miss the playoffs.
A long winter of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and at last acceptance warms into spring. It's been exhausting. To let go, to arrive finally at the inevitable, to stop fighting, is to be set free.
