To borrow a phrase from fellow Torontonian Neil Young, tonight's the night. It all comes down to this. One game will settle the score and determine who is the supreme hockey nation. Canada faces off against Finland at the ACC.
I'm quite looking forward to this game, but it's bitter sweet. After a hockey-less summer we've been blessed with this great hockey tournament and my biological clock is telling me NHL training camp is right around the corner. My Leafs Countdown page confirms this by indicating there is exactly 31 days, 7 hours, 26 minutes, and 26 seconds left until the Maple Leafs 2004/2005 season opener. It confirms this, yet I know I won't be sitting down with James to watch the blue and white 32 days from today. I'm not that naive. It's not going to happen and that bites.
So, I'll get together with my brothers and watch Canada win the World Cup of Hockey tonight but I'll do so knowing it may be my last taste of NHL-calibre hockey for a long time. The puck won't drop in 32 days. The puck may not drop in twelve months. It may be 2006 before the NHL resumes and while owners and players squabble over millions the only victims are you and I, the hockey fans.
Savour tonight. It's going to have to hold us a while. Go Canada Go!
