Relative Something

Winning can be so sweet. Yesterday, I was able to enjoy Defenseman Quinn Hughes, of the NHL Minnesota Wild, scoring the winning goal for the USA in the last of the Men’s Hockey quarterfinal games in the Olympics. It was a fairy tale of a finish. If that had been scripted for a Hollywood movie, I would have thought it to be too cliché, over the top, and completely unbelievable.

The color commentary included in this video clip of the goal captures the essence really well, but I can’t help reiterating it here. In a prior shift of the 3-on-3 next-goal-wins overtime period, Quinn Hughes was defended so well by Team Sweden forward, Joel Eriksson Ek (a teammate of Hughes’ on the Wild), that Hughes couldn’t get off a forehand shot. He was held to a weak backhand flick that the Swedish goalie easily saved.

The next time Quinn Hughes was on the ice, the announcer pointed out that Quinn waved off the bench to indicate he wasn’t ready to switch and wanted to remain in the play. Sounds like Hollywood to me.

Then, he maneuvered himself with a quick passing exchange with his teammate, Matt Boldy (also a MN Wild forward), before gliding across the middle as the 3rd teammate, Auston Matthews, floated underneath to give Quinn a chance to position himself for the winning forehand shot.

An absolutely magical finish. That is, for US fans. The view from Sweden must be a lot uglier.

The view out our windows at Wintervale was pretty ugly yesterday for driving. Unfortunately, driving is what Cyndie did for around seven hours as rain turned to a freezing mix and then to all snow, making roads slick and accidents plentiful. She witnessed a dizzying number of cars that had spun out into ditches and medians or crashed in a variety of ways.

Visibility was greatly diminished, and the route she intended became backed up, so she had to go well out of her way to complete her journey, spending 4 hours straight to make her way back home around 8 p.m.

I might have been a little tense watching the hockey game go into overtime, but she was hanging on for dear life. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her so happy to be home.

We were both extremely happy to have been granted our desired outcomes.

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