The Colorado Avalanche Don’t Need Luck

The National Hockey League made sure to schedule only one game for Tuesday night because their designated daily centerpiece was intended to be the draft lottery, which by most definitions of entertainment lands somewhere around high-tech old-folks-home bingo night. And what playoff hockey game could compare with the spectacle of ping pong balls get shoved through pneumatic tubes while Gary Bettman, looking like a faulty AI-generated version of Ken Jennings, blurts out nonsensical commands to some functionary or other? The idea is to inject drama into what is mostly a night that commemorates a season of disappointment for the league's losers before rewarding one with a bit of lousy luck. The result is just what it is. And then the Toronto Maple Leafs won the first pick as a reward for their embarrassing season, decisions, and people. This made the whole production almost worthwhile for the joy, annoyance, and anguished cries of "FIX! FRAUD! CHICANERY!" that followed. It was cheap and yet somehow fulfilling in that half-hour-I-can't-get-back kind of way; as a lottery show, it was at the very least miles better than the NBA version. So the scheduled game, already relegated to a bare simmer at the back of the stove, would have to be another doozy to steal back the stage. Minnesota at Colorado was the designated show pony, a much anticipated second-round battle between titans which had already produced a Cirque du Soleil of goals in the first game, a 9-6 Avs win. The playoffs have already been a festival of weirdness, so a 15-goal night was all in keeping with the general theme.