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puckinginsane · 4 years

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My Playoff Thoughts

Novel under the cut

I think this is as complete as I'm going to be able to put my thoughts together. I'm sure I'll think of more at some point, but this is my raw emotions as of right now.

There's so much you can take away from these playoffs that were just amazing. Dobby keeping them in it night in and night out. Guys stepping up that you wouldn't expect to. The hat tricks. Joel Kiviranta. The captain showing exactly why he is their leader. Miro doing Miro things. Rooting for Corey Perry. Pavelski showing exactly why they signed him.

What was incredible was the no quit attitude. The relentlessness. The way they were able to shut teams down and close out games. You weren't worried if they were down because you knew they'd find a way to come back. These are the themes that will be repeated throughout this mess. This is the team I hope comes back next season. We only got 2 months of that kind of hockey. Imagine what they could do in a full season. Imagine where they can go from here.

I refuse to talk about the negatives and the what could have beens and the what the hell happeneds. This loss hurts enough and we all know what we wish could have been better.

When the round robin started, which seems like years ago, I can truthfully say that I didn’t have high hopes for the Stars. I wasn’t in total panic mode. I had an idea that maybe they weren’t playing as hard as they could be since the games didn’t mean anything. I don’t really like the idea of acting like one game isn’t as important as another, but after all of the hockey they wound up playing I get it. For the most part. I would have loved to see them dominate and start out strong, but it is what it is. No harm, no foul. It just didn’t give me any idea of what we were in for for the following two months. They had the luxury of taking it a little more easy and they took it. They were able to ease into the playoffs when other teams had to come out guns blazing.

Something happened in that Flames series. The Stars came out with this level of play that we've never really seen before. It was incredible. That series also feels a lifetime ago and I wish I would have taken notes on my thoughts in the moment because so much has happened since then and it's hard to think back to the emotions. I just remember the no quit attitude in these guys. They kept looking like they were down and out and kept coming back, that was the turning point. It changed everything. I never gave up on them. I remember tweeting there's still a lot of hockey left and people thought I was crazy but I had a belief in them. More importantly, they had belief in each other. That was the Stars hockey I could get behind and feel good about.

I wish I had more to say but I can't even think back to those games and remember. My tweets were crazy, that's for sure.

Game 1 of the Avs series I tweeted Win the period. Win the game. Win the series. Win the cup. I truly believed that if they got past the Avs then they could get past anyone. The Avs were the favorites, right? They had all of the talent. Even that series feels like it was so long ago. For these guys to beat that team, that was something special. No one thought they could do it. They kept fighting and fighting and fighting. Prove them wrong, right? Every step of the way.

By the Vegas series I was confident in our boys. I knew they had the talent, but I wasn't scared of them. Lehner was a beast, though, and he'd be the hardest to crack. I knew it wasn't impossible. The Canucks managed to shut them out, surely they could figure it out. I didn't have a doubt in my mind that they'd make it out of that series on top. You know that it'll get harder and harder. No one said it's going to be easy, just that it'll be worth it in the end…if you win. I truly thought the cup was theirs and they were going to do it. It didn't seem like anyone would be able to stop them.

Then comes Tampa Bay.

The bias towards the Lightning was unbelievable and frustrating. I'm talking about the media mostly. It's a hard enough road to battle without everyone saying that you're not going to make it. That has to weigh on them in some way. I'm not saying that was a factor. I'm just saying they didn't deserve that.

The no quit attitude in these guys never stopped. Not for one second.

By the end of the final they were beaten up, out of gas, losing key members of the team. They were missing some real difference makers. I'm not using that as an excuse. I feel like anyone in that bubble could have stepped up and scored some goals no matter what the circumstance, but you have to give it to Tampa, they were just better. I can admit that. I'm not saying the Stars couldn't pull it off, I'm saying they had the cards stacked against them. It's probably the most Stars thing ever to be shut out 2-0 in the deciding game. God, it sucks. It feels so close that way. Just 2 goals. When you say it like that it seems so achievable. Then you forget that there's another team there that doesn't want you to score 2 goals and they want to win just as bad as they do and they'll stop at nothing to stop them, just like the Stars would stop at nothing to win that game. Of course I felt like they've come back so many times before, they'll do it, but you gotta give it to Tampa for shutting them down. It pains me to, it really does.

What makes it worse is that those goals didn't need to happen. A PPG and Maroon hitting that damn pass out of mid air. You try not to think of the what ifs but it's hard. They were so close and it just hurts so much.

They tried so. damn. hard. You can't say they didn't want it and you can't say they didn't give it everything they had. They just came up short. I'm so incredibly proud of that team for everything they accomplished in that bubble. It's hard to be happy they're western conference champions when they didn't win the ultimate prize but, shit, they're the western conference champions and that's something you can't take away from them. They battled for that title. They earned it. It should be celebrated.

As the minutes ticked down they did everything they could to score just one goal. Even when the minutes turned to seconds and 2 goals became impossible, they never gave up. They tried like hell for just one. I couldn't watch them lose. I didn't want to see their defeated faces. I couldn't handle it. I turned the game off with less than a minute to go, went into my room, sat on the edge of my bed, and cried like a damn baby. I still can't think about it without tears in my eyes. I can't watch the celebrations. All of it hurts too much.

If you follow me on Twitter then I guess I have to apologize. I tweeted a lot during the playoffs. That's how I talk to the guys when I'm at the games. Always talking, always encouraging, always positive. You feel helpless sitting at home and watching these guys fight for a dream they've had since they were very little. You want to help in any way you can so I thought if I put those positive vibes into the universe, the universe would pass that along. It's way more fun having faith and believe then feeling the doom and gloom. Even though it was nerve wracking as hell and my heart rate was through the roof every night, it was a lot of fun to watch.

I would walk my dog during intermissions, talking to the universe. Willing them to win. I'm not religious so I wouldn't call it praying but I would have done just about anything to have those guys come out on top. I was just trying to put more positive vibes out there and hoping that maybe, just maybe, it would work. I'm sure it sounds crazy and even I was like this probably isn't even doing anything but I wasn't able to take that chance so that's what I did every game night. I talked positivity into the air.

The closer they got to it, the more you could taste it for them, but also it got harder and harder and seemed further and further away. You immediately start to think what if that was it? What if they don't get another chance? It's heartbreaking. It's devastating. You get so emotionally invested in these guys and you just want to see them happy. You want to see them lift that cup over their heads with that smile on their faces that only winning that big shiny trophy can put there. I wanted them to win it for obvious reasons but then the more everyone kept counting them out, the more I wanted them to win it to shut everyone up. Prove them wrong. That's been the battle cry for 7 years now, and I guess it's going to have to continue.

All throughout the playoffs, during every series the Stars played, someone at some point said during one or more games of each series “this is the best hockey I’ve seen this playoffs” or something along those lines. Every. Single. Series. It’s not because of the other teams, the common denominator was the Stars. The Stars brought amazing, best hockey of the playoffs to every series they played in so why is it that everyone in the media kept counting them out? Why did they keep making excuses why they lucked into moving on? Why did no one give them the credit they deserved for playing hard to get where they were? It’s infuriating. It makes me SO angry that these men, who sacrificed SO much to get where they were, were not given ANY credit for getting to the Stanley Cup Final. You don’t just luck into winning 14 games in the playoffs. YOU. JUST. DON’T.

I saw something that said this is what should have happened. Like, if the Stars would have won the cup they would have acted like they didn’t deserve it. They’re not the ones who should have won. Why the hell not? Did they not prove time and time again that they would stop at nothing to win? Did they not battle hard to get to where they were? If they won the last two games THAT is what should have happened because THAT is what happened and they would have made that happen. It is unfair to act like the Stars were there because of a fluke. Give some credit where credit is due. It’s not a crime, you know.

I kept saying it throughout the playoffs. Everyone roots for the underdog until the underdog is the Stars. Underdog isn’t even the right word. Underappreciated. Undervalued. After everything they’ve been through and overcome this season how could people not pull for them? I'm not saying the Stars were perfect because obviously they had their issues, but don't sit there and tell me they didn't deserve it. I'm not saying they deserved it more or less than Tampa, I'm just saying they deserved to be there and deserved to win. They just couldn't make it happen.

#dallas stars #long post #had to put my thoughts together #im sure there's more #i got angry at the end #im still angry #and sad #so so sad #i love our boys #and i just want them happy

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sdfhfdg · 3 years

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Can’t be done

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wonkybraingirl-blog · 6 years

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Today, my brown-eyed girl turns 21.

My Brown-Eyed Girl

When we found out we were having a you, I wigged out. How was I going to be a mother to a little girl? My own mom, having left me feeling inadequate after getting pregnant with Corey, got in my head and stayed there. I didn’t feel that I was mothered as a kid so I wasn’t mentally prepared to raise a girl.

I want you to know that the first 21 years of your life have been a wonderful ride. I am a better person for going down that road with you.

There are a few things I want you to know. First of all, you are my best friend. I know that I drive you crazy and frustrate you at times but you know what they say, paybacks are hell.

I admire your tenacity. You are one of the most strong willed individuals I know. You always have been. You set a goal and attain it. You are a rock star.

I promise you that I will remain in your life as long as I am breathing. We may disagree but nothing will come between us, ever.

Being your mom isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. You make it pretty easy. Thank you for staying out of trouble throughout your teenage years. I never once worried about decisions you were making.

I think what I love most about being your momma is the fact you make me laugh. Not always but when you do it’s the “I’m gonna pass out, Casey” kind of laugh. I look forward to that laughter. Well, except for the lightheadedness that follows.

I was trying to come up with a few ways that we are alike. I was having a hard time, so I asked Daddy. He said we are alike in that we are both incredibly stubborn. I guess that’s accurate.

Picking a favorite memory was near impossible. I’m going with something I witnessed your freshman year in high school. It was a playoff game against Brenham, you were pitching and gettin’ hammered. My heart broke for you but at the same time, I couldn’t have been more proud at that moment. You’re ability to stay composed under those circumstances and your willingness to stay the course, I was in awe. I knew at that moment that you were going to be just fine with whatever life threw at you. Guess that stubborn streak pays off.

I miss watching you play softball. Those memories with you and our softball family are some of the best that I have and will cherish them always. I miss the red dirt, the cleats left in the floorboard and the never-ending practices.

Staying busy with softball was a good thing. You learned more about life than we could have ever taught you on our own. I am grateful for that game. That game was your first love. You didn’t have time for any other kind of “love” until that gangling Barringer boy started coming around. I was worried at first but only because you were so young. As Marie has said on more that one occasion, “the heart wants what the heart wants.” Watching you fall in love was inspiring.

Watching you marry your best friend was something out of a fairy-tale. If you”ll remember, your request that day was for me to get a picture of Blake when he saw you for the first time. In the process of making good on your request, I missed seeing you walk down the aisle. I couldn’t believe it. The moment every mother longs for, gone. It’s ok though, what I gained seeing the way he looked at you was worth what I missed.

At that moment, I saw a boy become a man. A man who was going to cherish my daughter for life. I imagine that you had a similar look on your face.

As you start your own family, I want you to start your own traditions. Keep what you liked about growing up and chunk what you didn’t. But please remember always, time is more precious than anything money can buy.

Marriage is tough. Daddy and I are proof that you can make it through anything. Marie and Robert are as well. It will not be easy, however.

Hold hands when y’all are walking into the grocery store. Sit by each other on the couch when you are watching TV. Laugh often. Cook for him, he’ll appreciate that. You are an amazing cook, by the way! Sit down and talk about finances. Money seems to be the cause of most fights in a marriage. Did I mention laugh? I watch you both and know that you have something special. I don’t need to give you a to do list, y’all are kicking ass.

Please don’t ever to ask come back home. I know that sounds harsh but unless you are being caused bodily harm, you need to stick it out. The only reason I didn’t leave during the “bad years” was because I really didn’t have anywhere to run away to. Thank God for that. So, while we are here for you through think and thin, you can never run away home.

You are already finding out that life gets hectic. Time flies, don’t blink and all of the other cliches. Please found a way to decompress. When life is a crap storm, find shelter with Blake. Figure out what’s most important and go from there.

I know that I haven’t always been the best mom and made the best choices in raising you but I went with my gut, always. Please forgive me for my shortcomings and know I was and am doing the best I can.

When you’re a mom, remember to let your kids get dirty. I know you will. The dirt will wash off, the memories will last a lifetime. If your kids don’t remember, you will.

You’ll think that you’re going to remember each moment, but you won’t. Take lots of pictures but don’t miss out on the moments while they are happening. My photo albums are worth more to me than silver and gold. Looking at pictures of days gone by helps jog my memory. They take me back to place that I long for but wouldn’t return to.

I’m not the best at saying I love you and for that I apologize. I’ve tried to show you I love you in other ways. Make sure that you tell your kids and Blake that you love them. Tell them often.

My birthday wish for you is that in twenty five years, you can be as happy as Daddy and I are. I pray that you don’t have to go the all-terrain way to get here. I’ve told you that there was a time I hated him. Don’t let that happen in your marriage. It takes too long to bounce back and time is precious.

What a ride it has been,

Casey Layne. Thanks for making me a better person.

Today, my brown-eyed girl turns 21.

A Brown Eyed Girl Today, my brown-eyed girl turns 21. When we found out we were having a you, I wigged out.

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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Ramblings: Wayne Simmonds, Carolina, NHL Awards – June 21

The NHL Awards took place on Wednesday night and as with most NHL awards shows, there were quite a few bad bits of comedy along with some feel-good stories mixed in. They started the show with a magic act and then a ventriloquist. I wish I was kidding.

Anyway, the winners are…

Ted Lindsay Award (Most outstanding as voted by players) – Connor McDavid

Not sure there’s a huge argument with this one. McDavid lapped the field in five-on-five points – he had more 5v5 points than Sidney Crosby and Patrik Laine combined – and was held back by an abysmal team. This is where the semantics between “most outstanding” and “most valuable” separate the Lindsay from the Hart. Just imagine what his point totals might look like next year if the power play isn’t awful.

Norris Trophy – Victor Hedman

This is another on where it wasn’t much of a surprise. Having a 60-point season with the plus/minus he did on a division winner is pretty much a lock. He’s probably number-3 in terms of fantasy defencemen behind Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson but given the team that’s employing him, I’m sure people are ready to make an argument he should be higher. Expect Hedman to be perennially in the Norris conversation. Shout out to the guy who voted Josh Manson (?) fourth (??):

Full Norris voting. Roman Josi finished seventh. pic.twitter.com/iVopwn5sEJ

— Adam Vingan (@AdamVingan) June 21, 2018

Calder Trophy – Mathew Barzal

This might have been the most automatic award of the night (though four people who voted someone else other than Barzal for first place, including Yanni Gourde). The kid is electric. Hope he’s ready to be the face of the franchise.

Not considered one of the major awards, but huge kudos to Brian Boyle on his win of the Masterton Trophy. Not only did he overcome leukemia with which he was diagnosed in the preseason, he came back and was a big part of the team that miraculously made the playoffs. A tremendous story of perseverance and dedication. All the best to him moving forward.

They also awarded the first Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award to Darcy Haugan, the head coach of the Humboldt Broncos who passed in that trafic accident two months ago. They had 10 members of the team come on stage and his wife accepted the award. It was a truly special moment and should inspire people to follow Mr. Haugan's lead in helping others before themselves.

Anze Kopitar won the Selke as the best two-way forward but the best part was they had the magician do the reveal with a magic trick and he screwed up the trick. He was supposed to reveal the cards to form a picture of Kopitar but they were all in the wrong order and no one could tell who won. Then Kopitar just walked past him:

Oh my god the magician screwed up and then got snubbed by Kopitar pic.twitter.com/gt8BGhFPus

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) June 21, 2018

Just amazing stuff.

Vezina Trophy – Pekka Rinne

The heavy betting favourite from Bodog came through as Rinne took home the Vezina. It’s truly a remarkable turnaround from just a few years ago. Remember that from 2012-2016, he posted three seasons with a save percentage of .910 or less, averaging .913. He’s posted a .923 over the last two years and then that wonderful playoff run in 2017. He has one year left on his deal, though, and we’re all waiting for the reigns to be turned over to Juuse Saros. It'll be interesting to see what the Preds do in 2018-19.

Hart Trophy – Taylor Hall

It was pretty close between Hall and Nathan MacKinnon but Hall won out in the end. I wasn’t going to argue one way or the other here. Both had fantastic seasons and led their down-and-out franchises to playoff appearances. Both should be commended.

But also, never forget:

Trade is one for one: Adam Larsson for Taylor Hall.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 29, 2016

As Ian pointed out in his Ramblings yesterday, rumours are that Wayne Simmonds is available in a trade. Per Cap Friendly, Simmonds has a limited NTC which has him able to submit a 12-team no-trade list. That kind of cuts things down a bit. But for the teams not on the list, he has one year left on a very cheap cap hit and is one of the elite power forwards in the game. As a net-front presence on the power play, there probably aren’t any better in the game.

Which playoff hopeful could use a player like him? Remember, this is without knowing which teams he’d have on his NTC.

Edmonton would appear to make sense because they need to rebound from an awful year but they need controllable, young players. A guy with one year left on his deal and turning 30 in August doesn’t fit the bill.

What about the Blackhawks? This is a team who believes their Cup window is still open and once they LTIR Marian Hossa, they’ll have more than enough cap space to add Simmonds. Their power play was a horror show at times last year and Simmonds can help a lot in this regard.

To me, the most sense is Calgary. This team *desperately* needs some depth on right wing. Assuming they don’t want to break up the 3M line, there really isn’t a whole lot else there. They need a guy who can play on the top line and they need a guy who can kickstart that abysmal power play. Simmonds can do both. Calgary should be doing everything they can to add him, and I say this not only as a greedy fantasy owner. The question is if they want to part with more assets given their lack of draft picks already.

Don Waddell was on Sportsnet’s Hockey Central on Wednesday discussing Carolina being ready to make some deals in the next week or so. This isn’t a surprise to anyone but Jeff Skinner’s name came up specifically while he downplayed the rumours on Noah Hanifin. He made it sound like their intention would be to keep Hanifin long-term.

With that said, a column yesterday from Bruce Garrioch at the Ottawa Sun said that Carolina had shown interest in acquiring Erik Karlsson. As pointed out by TSN’s Travis Yost on Twitter, the revelation that Carolina was one of the teams, on top of the usual suspects like Tampa Bay and Vegas, inquiring on Karlsson during the season is interesting.

Could a sign-and-trade package revolving around Hanifin and Skinner make sense for Ottawa? It would give them a proven scorer to replace Mike Hoffman that they could re-sign should they so choose, and a young, controllable defenceman that they could have on their blue line for much of the next decade. There would obviously be other pieces involved and I’m just spitballing. But a package like that could get the ball rolling on Karlsson. Just a thought.

With the NHL Awards taking place, now might be a good time to look forward to the NHL Awards of 2019. It’s prediction time!

These are almost certainly going to be wrong as we haven’t even gone through the Entry Draft yet, let alone free agency and the meat of trade season. But until we get the Draft, trades, and free agency, there just isn’t a whole lot to cover in the hockey world at the moment.

Hart Trophy

Winner: Jack Eichel

Nominees: Connor McDavid, Mark Scheifele

We saw this year that the PHWA is willing to vote not necessarily for the best player as MVP but the player who helped an underdog reach the postseason. When looking across the league, are there any bigger underdogs to reach the postseason than Buffalo? Sure, they’re getting Rasmus Dahlin in the Entry Draft, but this is a team which has been home in April in seven straight seasons and has averaged 63.4 points over the last five years.

If Buffalo were to make a huge turnaround, a lot of things have to go right: both Dahlin and Casey Mittelstadt have to be Calder-worthy, Ryan O’Reilly probably can’t get traded, Kyle Okposo has to be the player they signed in free agency two years ago and not the player he’s been since, Sam Reinhart’s production progression needs to continue, and they need to make a splash in free agency to reinforce their defence corps. They should probably add a couple good bottom-six forwards as well. I get that the East is tough, but if a few things go right, they can pass teams like Ottawa, Montreal, the Rangers, and Detroit. Depending on what happens with trades and free agency, they can pass teams like the Islanders and Hurricanes as well. It doesn’t leave them that far from playoff contention.

Of course, if Buffalo were to even make a playoff push rather than be out of contention by Christmas, Eichel has to be one of the top producers in the league. He’s coming into his fourth season (we love our Year 4 guys here at Dobber) and hopefully he’s healthy all year long. It might be a longshot that the Sabres can turn their fortunes around in one season, but we saw two stark examples of this in 2017-18, and if they can pull off the miracle, a monster season from Eichel will be a big reason why.

Norris Trophy

Winner: Erik Karlsson

Nominees: Victor Hedman, Brent Burns

This is all predicated on Karlsson being traded out of the raging landfill fire that is the Ottawa Senators organization. All signs are pointing to him having a new home for the 2018-19 season and honestly, it doesn’t matter where. There’s nowhere he can be traded in the NHL that will be a downgrade.

Karlsson has two Norris wins and two second-place finishes in the last seven years. And, honestly, it should be three wins but there was a season where Drew Doughty got a lifetime achievement award or something, so it’s not as if picking Karlsson to win is stepping out on a ledge.

In 2017-18, Karlsson managed just (and I say that laughingly) 62 points and did so on 219 goals scored by the team. But he missed 11 games and the Sens scored 30 goals in those 11 games. Karlsson thus figured in 32.8 percent of goals in games that he played. If he can go to a team like Vegas or San Jose, and play a full season, figuring in on nearly one-third of 250+ goals works out to a point-per-game season. If Karlsson is a point-per-game player on a playoff team, he walks to his third Norris Trophy.

Vezina Trophy

Winner: John Gibson

Nominees: Antti Raanta, Sergei Bobrovsky

The potential loss of Ryan Kesler undoubtedly hurts this team if he indeed misses the 2018-19 season, but he was injured and largely ineffective last year as it was. A full season from Ryan Getzlaf and Sam Steel making his way to the team should go a long way in shoring them up down the middle. Don’t forget that Hampus Lindholm started the season injured as well. Just this team being healthy, Kesler aside, should mean improvement from the Ducks. Despite the injuries last year, Gibson was still one of the best goaltenders in the league. He just needs to stay healthy himself.

Anaheim still boasts a pretty good top-4 defence corps with Lindholm, Josh Manson, Brandon Montour, and Cam Fowler. They can still ice a pretty good top-3 lines so it’s just really tinkering with depth that they need. A healthy year from this roster, and Gibson playing like he can, should have him in the Vezina conversation.

As always, goaltending is very uncertain. Feel free to throw this all in my face in 12 months.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-wayne-simmonds-carolina-nhl-awards-june-21/

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dmmowers · 7 years

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God works for good

I/II.

November 3, 2016. The time was just after 1 am. I was not yet asleep. I hadn’t been awakened by a certain sleeping toddler. Actually, I hadn’t yet made it to bed. The reason I was up? That was a long story. A story of fathers and sons, of heartbreak and faithfulness. It was a story of baseball.

My great-grandfather, George Edward Mowers, born in the 1890s, had been my last ancestor to see the Chicago Cubs win a World Series. His son, my grandfather, Lawrence Allen Mowers, was born in 1922. Later in life, he had caught the disease of loving a very bad baseball team: so much so that he would record TV broadcasts with Harry Caray onto VHS tapes so that he could watch them through the long winter offseason. The Cubs at least made it to the World Series once in his lifetime, but it was in 1945. He was on a boat, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, returning from his service in the Philippines in the Second World War. So when he died in 2006, he had missed the only time in his 84 years that the Cubs made it to the world series.

His son, my father, Ted Aaron Mowers, was born in 1954. He had the disease of Cubs fandom less than his father and his son, but he spent many afternoons in a tractor or grain truck with Pat Hughes and Ron Santo on WGN radio, the soothing sounds of baseball from the Friendly Confines of beautiful Wrigley Field giving him something to tell his oldest son about when he got home from work. When he died in 2011, he died without having seen the Cubs even make it to the World Series.

As for me, other than a two year flirtation with the White Sox as an 8 year old, I’ve been a Cubs fan all my life. Prior to November 3, 2016, my strongest Cubs memory was the heartbreaking collapse of the 2003 Cubs in their final two games of that year’s playoffs – when they were 5 outs away from going to the World Series and inexplicably blew that game and the one after it.

So as I watched Game 7 of the 2016 World Series that night last November, I watched it alone. I could not bear the thought of what would happen if they lost. With two outs to play in the 9th inning, the Cleveland Indians tied the game and much weeping and cursing ensued. But the Cubs pulled out an 8-7 victory in the 10th inning. I threw my scorebook in the air and fell on the ground and banged on the floor and cried.

Maybe it’s normal for people who cheer for more successful teams to act that way when their teams win a championship, I don’t know. What I do know was that my first thoughts in that moment of celebration were not just pure joy. They were joy, yes, but mixed with sorrow. Grandpa Larry was the first person I thought of, falling asleep in his chair with Haray Caray blaring away, of dad coming home from work and asking, “did you hear about the Cubs this afternoon?” I thought of sitting with my dad at the all too few games we went to together at Wrigley Field. I thought of announcers like Haray Caray and Ron Santo who taught me to love the game who had passed away, of people who would have lost their minds to see what I was seeing.

I think those reactions were born out of the solidarity formed between Cubs fans as they watched their lovable losers fail – and sometimes fail spectacularly – over a hundred years. Ask Cubs fans about 69 or 84 or 89 or 98 or 2003 and we have stories of being together with our loved ones, of making happy memories over our connection with the Cubs.

I never once hoped for any of those Cubs collapses, for any of those awful 95 loss clubs who had no shot at the World Series before the end of April. But that game 7 last November was so sweet in part because the drought before it had been so long, so frustrating, so endless. The suffering of generations of Cubs fans was finally, finally brought to an end.

For those of you who aren’t sports fans and have been sitting here gritting your teeth for the last few moments, I apologize. But I do have a point that transcends the Cubs. In fact, the plight of the Cubs helps us to understand something that St. Paul gets in our New Testament reading this morning from Romans chapter 8.

In verse 28, what we just heard read was this, from the New Revised Standard version of the Bible. “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” But that translation is not a correct one. The New International Version puts it this way: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Hear the difference? In the incorrect translation, we hear, “All things work together for good.” In the correct one, we hear, “In all things, God works for good.”

The incorrect translation, “All things work together for good” is incorrect in that doesn’t give us a correct understanding of the underlying Greek this letter was originally composed in. But it is also theologically disastrous in that it claims that all things that happen to us, no matter how terrible, work together as part of a good plan for our lives. It’s only a short step from there to saying that suffering is a good thing because it is ultimately for our good, and that is monstrous.

Not long ago, a friend in another state had a baby. As often happens in labor and delivery, things did not at all work out according to this mom’s preferred plan. All of you moms out there - can I get an Amen? When Elizabeth and I visited with her and her healthy new baby sometime later, she told us the whole story. You could see in her demeanor how hard it had been and hear in her words the physical and emotional pain it had caused her. But instead of being able to acknowledge how painful it had been, all she could say was the delivery was all a part of God’s perfect plan for her and her family. She was not able to verbalize what was written all over her body language, that the delivery had been deeply painful.

Another friend once told me of a favorite uncle who had passed away. It seems that the uncle had been morbidly obese with notorious eating habits until the day he died, even though his doctors had urged him to lay off fried and processed foods. At his visitation, someone told my friend that his uncle had died because it was his time to go, because his death was a part of God’s plan for the world. My friend, a professor of theology, shot back, “No it wasn’t. It’s never part of God’s plan for people to destroy themselves.”

In both of these cases, there is a confusion about how God works in our lives. Just because something happens doesn’t mean that God wills it to happen. Just because something happens doesn’t mean that it’s a part of God’s plan for our lives. In previous sermons this summer, we’ve learned that God is at war with the power of sin. Because of Jesus’ death, sin has lost the war, but it continues to battle, and there continue to be casualties in God’s good creation.

III.

The better translation for verse 28 says this: “In all things, God works for the good of those of who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.” This is the furthest thing from denial, from papering over suffering and calling it God’s plan. God working for our good means that we can tell the truth about the real ways in which we suffer. Where evil, tragic or terrible things happen, we can acknowledge that they are evil, tragic and terrible.

But in all things, even those that are evil or tragic or terrible, God works for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Many of us have faced things that we did not choose, that we did not choose, that we would not wish on anyone, even our worst enemy. We have watched our young adult children develop serious mental illness. We have gotten the phone call that’s made our stomach drop. We have been the victims of abuse and domestic violence. Those events, the ones that we measure our lives in terms of “before that thing happened” and “after that thing happened”, those events are not willed by God. And yet, God works in the wake of the evil things that happen to us for our good.

Earlier this week, I helping a friend at the Washington County Fair in West Bend for a few days. He operates food trailers for a living, and so I fulfilled a lifelong dream -- well, okay, that’s not true -- I helped him sell French fries for a couple days. While there, I got to meet a friend of his, a man who, for the last 7 years, has lived with ALS. He asked what I was preaching today, and I told him about this sermon. He said that he wished that he had never been diagnosed with the disease, that it has been terrible. And yet, he said, as a part of the process of the disease, he has learned things that he never knew before: how to gracefully receive the care and concern of others. How much he is treasured by others, not because of what he could do, but because of who he is. “I have come to appreciate how valuable and beautiful this life is,” he said.

In a 2015 interview for GQ magazine, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert shared how his father and the two of his brothers closest to him in age, Peter and Paul, were killed in a plane crash when he was 10. Colbert was the youngest of 11 siblings, but his remaining older siblings were already off to school by then, leaving he and his mother alone at home. He refused to do school work, but would lock himself in his room with books. He barely graduated from high school, started at a small private college and got into theater, which became an outlet for him to share his pain with people. One thing led to another – Northwestern University’s theater program, then performing at Second City, then the Daily Show, then the Colbert Report. One day, at age 35, he was walking down the street and stopped dead in his tracks when he realized that he was where he was grateful because of what happened to him. “I love the thing that I most wish had not happened,” Colbert said. “It’s not the same thing as wanting it to have happened,” he said. “But you can’t change everything about the world. You certainly can’t change the things that have already happened.”

But what Colbert and this man with ALS help us to understand is that God is at work even in the wake of tragedy, to take the hard things that have happened to us and to make them a part of a story. That is different than them being a part of God’s plan all along. God works on our behalf in the wake of them.

IV.

I don’t want to trivialize any of the hard things that anyone has gone through, and I know that there are many of them in this room this morning, but all of that is why I chose to start this morning by telling you about my family and the Cubs. I did not choose any of the adversity that the Cubs faced on the field of play. But when the World Series victory came, it was so much different than it would have been if it had happened last year, or if it had happened at any point in the last 108 years. It was sweeter precisely because of the adversity that they had undergone. That is a game, I grant you, and it is a little silly.

But Paul is not being silly when he finishes our reading this morning with this: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor live, nor angels, nor demons, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Some of us are still much too close to tragedy for us to see much that’s redemptive in our lives. We see only what is missing, what has been violated, what is damaged. We feel the absence of our loved ones and the presence of Alzheimer’s and cancer, and all that we can see around us is suffering. In those moments, nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. He is with us, suffering alongside us, bearing us up in the midst of hard years and hard decades. He is hearing our prayers, and he is at work within us for our good, even though things have happened that we would never have chosen.

I am convinced that God’s work for good for us never stops. When Jesus comes again to make all creation new, he will redeem all of our suffering, all our pain, all our tragedy. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory about to be revealed in us,” Paul wrote in last week’s reading. Some of us have undergone such hard things that I don’t know how they can possibly be redeemed. But the good news of God in Jesus Christ is that our God will repair the things that our broken, will restore lost parents to their children and children to their parents, will restore sound minds to those who have lost them, will restore innocence where it has been taken, will restore life where there has only been death. We will see the love of God reach into those moments in our lives that we wish never happened and hear the love of God say “Peace, be healed.” That is a glory we cannot imagine because our hard years have been so hard, our tragedies so terrible, our suffering so long. But when it comes, we will do more than throw our scorebooks in the air and pound on the ground. We will rejoice in the wholeness of ourselves and of this good creation. We will look back on the hard roads we have traveled, the paths we went down that we did not and would never have chosen, and we will know that in all things, God worked for the good of those who loved him and were called according to his purpose.

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