If you had told us on the eve of the playoffs that we’d be here today, we never would have believed you. Getting out of the first round is such a monumental task for the Devils that we were just happy at the prospect of losing to the relatively innocuous Panthers instead of someone more heinous. Then a matchup with the Flyers after they’d caused the mighty Pens such a massive mental collapse? Surely that was going to end badly, right? Just not trailing for at least one period was more than we were hoping for. So… now this. It’s amazing. It’s completely unexpected. It’s been fun. When was the last time the playoffs were fun for us? 2006? That’s not as recent as some of us would like to think. So really, our thought going into tonight’s game is that the rest of this is gravy. No matter what happens in this ECF, we hope we never forget the unmitigated joy that’s come from watching the Devils overachieve in the playoffs (and humiliate the Flyers in the doing).
Of course, we will forget as soon as the puck drops tonight, so consider this a note to our future selves that there was once a time when we were truly happy.
P.S. Check out what Pookie saw on her drive home, after skipping out of work two hours early in order to catch the game:
It’s a sign!
