[Edit: We won! Yes, the Islanders won something big in 2008-09! Thanks everybody for the "congrats" and such. Keep 'em coming. We'll have more in the morning.]
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The future was bright, the future was absolute, nauseating uncertainty. We need a forward, we need a defenseman ... we need a bionic goalie.
Hell, we need everything, and we don't know what or when we'll get it.
But with the big post-season, hockey-all-night, divorce-inducing, Cup-chasing, beard-growing extravaganza beginning tomorrow night, tonight is the final evening when Islanders fans will see anything that matters involve their team until Montreal in June.
Tonight is when pomp meets circumstance to smile upon either the Islanders (for once), the Lightning (again?!), the Avalanche (what?! unfair!!) Thrashers (Stefan lolz) or Kings (Oh really now). Both pomp and circumstance will be broadcast at 8 p.m. EDT on TSN and simulcast on Versus (between rasslin' and fishin'), opposite some poker show on ESPN, I'm sure ("And boo-yah, what a full house!").
And we'll be here, live retorting blogging to our hearts' content.
After a season of explaining to my wife why I need to watch all 82 games of a 30th-place season, this week I explained why I need to watch some balls or placards bounce around to help grown men in suits determine the fate of a fanbase's fragile psychological health, based solely on their access to some 18-year-old kid that Canada has stalked like some such Michael Jackson child since before this "proven winner" of a kid could recite "just taking it one game at a time."
The best part? After our fate is determined, we still won't know anything because -- understandably so -- Garth won't tell us. But we'll still have humor and beer. God yes, beer.
Wishes, jinxes, superstitions and curses [edit: and congratulations, too!] are welcome in comments. This is your live draft lottery thingamajig thread.