Confessions of a Hockey Fan on the Brink

So it's 3:30 AM and I can't get back to sleep. My dreams are of nothing but the NHL playoffs, and the Ottawa Senators' 2 game deficit to the Buffalo Sabres. I see Sabers netminder Ryan Miller laughing as he intercepts a bad pass and skates the puck down the ice, deking out the Sens defense and scoring on a blinking Ray Emery.

The wife, of course, thinks I'm completely off my rocker.

You must understand, I'm a rabid Sens fan. I've followed them ever since I was interested in hockey, which admittedly has only been about 7 years. When we lived in Ottawa a lot of our friends, and even the 70 year old priest who married us, were Sens fans, and I just kind of absorbed it all by osmosis.

I'm the kind of Sens fan who will still cheer them on if they are swept out of contention yet again. But I'm not counting them out just yet. I knew going in to the playoffs that if Ottawa faced Buffalo it would be their most challenging series to win, against East or West. I also predicted a six game series, with the first two wins going to Buffalo and the last four to Ottawa.

So we'll see.

But why on earth can't I sleep? I think I'm too emotionally invested in this team. Not that I'm bailing on them, but gee, if it's interrupting my sleep patterns... I gotta wonder if they can get their sleep. I'm sure they can.

But isn't that what a fan is and does? After all, "fan" is short for "fanatic." And anybody who can simply shrug off their team's rough loss and not have a rough next day at work is somewhat... balanced, I guess. Huh.

So I'm trying to justify being an unbalanced fanatic. Perhaps that's not a stretch for a believer in God. As a Christian I must recognize that I am not capable of providing balance to my life. I must recognize that God is so awesome that I cannot help but be a fanatic for him. Of course, I don't mean "fanatic" in the religious terrorism sense, but rather defined as "a person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause." Yes, unreasoning. There is no reasoning with God. He is beyond reason. We must shut down our intellects and simply believe, as would a little child.

As would a guy who still thinks the Senators are gonna pull off one of the greatest Cinderella stories of hockey history.