Fansided

Why, oh why, would the NHL schedule a Game 7 on Friday night?

By Jonathan Bass

May 26, 2015; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) makes a save against New York Rangers left wing Rick Nash (61) in game six of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
May 26, 2015; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) makes a save against New York Rangers left wing Rick Nash (61) in game six of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

If the puck drops on a Friday night Game 7 in New York, does anyone outside of the tri-state area know?

The Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers will play Game 7 tonight, and that just sucks. Not that there’s a closeout game in the most exciting postseason of all sports. But rather that it’s on the one day out of seven when even the biggest matchups cannot compete.

There should never be a Game 7 held on a Friday night. Not now, not ever. Thursday: go for it. Saturday night: why not. Hell, even put it up against the Sunday night primetime television juggernauts. Just never Friday.

Friday is when we release the pressure valve. All week we’ve been grinding – 35, 40, 45, 50+ hours – and it’s time to let loose. High schoolers flood movie theaters and house parties. College students and young professionals flock to the bars. Parents either snag babysitters, or they enjoy some downtime with the kids.

In other words: life happens.

It’s the one night of the week where we shake free from our remote control manacles, peel ourselves off the sofa and venture out into the real world.

It’s the reason why Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing (essentially Home Improvement with daughters subbed for sons and Outdoor Man instead of Binford) has been picked up for a fifth season. If you pull a 1.2 on Friday, that’s considered good. Old folks and divorcees: that’s the TV market you’re staring at.

So why bury, at this point, your sport’s most important game at 8 p.m. on Friday? Naiveté? Arrogance? The answer likely lies somewhere in the middle.

Sure it might be playing in sports bars around the country, but any and all buzz that comes out of Game 7 falls off a drunken cliff come hungover Saturday morning. The news cycle doesn’t hum as quickly on spring weekends. Discussion will be at a muted volume.

Tonight’s Rangers-Lightning game is only the latest example of such hubris. It’s no different than The Shield actually thinking we care enough to watch the NFL Draft’s 2nd and 3rd rounds on a Friday night. Or the NCAA’s confounding refusal to move this season’s College Football Playoff semifinals off of New Year’s Eve.

Sports are not the cosmos. They are a distraction – best served as a placeholder for when the real wold becomes either too heavy or too mundane. An interlude between actual doing.

And so it’s a shame that the NHL’s Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 is tonight. The series has been all over the place. Even with three games having been blowouts, the goal differential is almost identical (+2 for the Rangers). Things will likely even out, the stats will hold firm and this will be a close contest. Beyond that, there have been few moments more enjoyable for a casual fan than watching the Blueshirts nut up whenever their backs were against the wall. The Garden will be electric tonight. It’s all you ever want as a sports fan.

Alas, it’s a beautiful spring Friday in Atlanta, and there’s a Grateful Dead cover band playing at an art festival not three blocks from my place. What a shame, because I really wanted to catch the game. Then again, sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes you gotta decompress.

More from New York Rangers

Home/New York Rangers