FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE: Fates

May 21, 2013 · 0 Comments

Leafs vs. Bruins: Fates Change Quickly
By Stephen Somerville

I work for a company that develops and constructs large natural gas fired generation projects and large scale wind energy projects both in the U.S. and Canada. My bosses reside in Silver Spring, Maryland (just outside Washington, D.C.) and in Braintree, Massachusetts (just outside of Boston.)
All of the U.S. employees are huge hockey fans and, as you can imagine, there is no shortage of “smack” talk between the offices when it comes to hockey.
I am used to receiving e-mail commentary from different members of the company stateside, whenever the Leafs are playing the Boston Bruins or the Washington Capitals.
What follows is a partial transcript of the e-mail exchanges between my various U.S. based colleagues and myself during game seven of the Leafs / Bruins series as well as some supplementary commentary on the morning after.
Gary is our company President. Sean is our Senior Vice President, Renewables and Rob is one of our wind development managers.
I would not call the following at all insightful but it is entertaining when you juxtaposition the e-mail exchanges with the timing of key events during the third period and overtime.
Leafs up 2-1.
Gary @ 8:58 PM: “What, no trash talking? Come on guys, we can do this!!!”
Leafs now up: 4-1.
Gary @ 9:09 PM. “Ok, maybe not…Bruins will be golfing tomorrow.
Congrats.”
Sean @ 9:26 PM: “Well they may actually just be standing around the golf course.”
Robert @9:32 PM: “I hope we see some changes this off season. I was an Islander fan but now I guess I’ll pull for Ottawa.”
Boston just scored to make it 4-2.
Robert Mastria @ 9:34 PM: “Wow!”
Stephen @ 9:35 PM: “My heart is going
to stop”
Boston ties score at 4-4.
Sean @ 9:40 PM. “Good last few minutes. Next goal wins. Stephen start shining the clubs – the Bs finally showed up to this series.”
Stephen @ 9:41 PM: “Even when we were up 3 I was scared – Kessel will pot the winner in OT!”
Overtime. Bruins win.
Gary @ 10:05 PM: “Holy sh–!”
Sean at 10:05 PM: “Wooooooooo-hoooooooooo”
Sean @ 10:06 PM: “Stephen – I will give the Leafs credit, they almost delivered.”
Stephen @ 10:07 PM: “I was still nervous but I thought we would win when we were up by three.”
Robert Matria @ 10:12 PM: “That was one of the greatest comebacks I’ve seen. And Toronto came to play but the Bs just decided to hit the gas at the end. Tough series.”
Stephen @ 10:16 PM: See the attached (which was a picture of my T-Shirt that reads – “Stanley’s Coming To Town (with a Leaf Logo on it)) – I bought this in 1992 and it has been in my drawer for the last nine years – I was going to wear this for the second round – back to my drawer it goes -big sigh.”
Sean at 10:30 PM: “Don’t worry Stephen, you can wear it after the Bs win the cup and Dougie Hamilton brings it back home to Toronto for a visit.”
The morning after (Tuesday May 14).
Stephen @ 7:20 AM: “I had this really bad nightmare last night – the Leafs were up 4-1 with about 13 minutes to play and I was getting ready to design the Stanley Cup Parade route past our Toronto office, then the Bruins tied the game and won it in overtime – thank god it was just a very bad and horrible dream – better luck next year guys – I hope the Bruins like playing golf – regards – Stephen”
Sean @ 8:33 AM: “Sounds like a terrible dream…one you only want to have every 9 years or so.”
Stephen @ 9:08 AM: “I was wondering why it was fairly easy to get tickets on line this morning for round two.”
Gary @ 9:30 AM: “By the way, I retract my congrats statement, that was in bad taste…”
Then Sean e-mailed me a picture of Phil Kessel carrying a set of golf clubs over his head around the ice.
Stephen @ 10:49 AM: “Touche!!! Ouch!!! Thanks for worrying about my delicate pysche at this critical time!”
Robert @ 10:50 AM: “Hey I didn’t send it to you on purpose. Sean is the one twisting the knife!”
Stephen @ 10:55 AM: “Just kidding – I will be fine and will fully recover from this…in about ten years!”