Spring is by far my favourite season when it comes to watching sports on TV, for not only do we have hockey playoffs taking over the city, but baseball is getting into full swing, and hey – even the basketball playoffs have some exciting matchups this year.
Tonight, I had to decide between watching the Jays battle the Yankees in New York and the Lightning in Boston for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final (ECF). The Lightning and Bruins have had some exciting games, and the stakes are certainly high being the conference finals and all, but I actually found myself watching the baseball game over the hockey game for most of the night, or at least until the Jays broke it open with their big inning. Note that I might have made some different decisions if the Canucks were playing, however.
I find it challenging to get anything productive done during this time. Every year of my undergrad in university, the opening round of hockey playoffs coincided with my final exams. This of course meant that I had no classes to go to – just exams to study for. Needless to say, there were a lot of students watching hockey games in our residence lounges during the exam period.
I’ve heard others (who I will keep anonymous) express similar complaints about their love-hate relationship with playoff hockey:
“It’s awesome that we keep winning, but I’m looking forward to not having 3 hours of my night devoted to the game every second day.”
“Man, watching the hockey playoffs is expensive!”
“I’ve cancelled work three times for the Canucks!”
… and so on.
I’ll have to keep up with the multi-tasking, at least for another couple of weeks (or so I hope, as a Canucks fan). Here’s to many more extended springs of playoff hockey in Vancouver!