Mister Coincidence and Lady Luck - the idiot and the bitch again!

It struck me that these two were at it again - frolicking together, somehow, once more... and for the worst, not the better at all!

It struck me that this was happening all over again as I was scrutinizing the news ticker on the bottom of my television screen (that's right - I was able to indulge in my weekly ten minutes of TV time, late Thursday night...! Don't ask...!) and it became crystal clear then - what was happening... again!

The first clue was the reoccurrence of a key word or two: in this case, they were ''FUSILLADE'' (sue me, willya already; I wasn't watching CNBC or CNN - quite obviously!) and ''A H1N1'' (granted, the second word isn't much of a word at all - more like an insignia or an acronym if you ask me! But that is of secondary if not tertiary importance right now...)

FUSILLADE as in... there was a shootout in Texas - again. This one wasn't at the O.K. Corral - nor was it in any desertic compound full of whackos, no. This one was at Fort Hood and the shooter was a MILITARY MAN; not just that, he is also a PSYCHIATRIST! What were the odds of that ever being, eh: a trigger-happy (or trigger-crazy, truly) man-of-war AND a shrink who goes cuckoo, all wrapped up in the same person bearing an Islamic name... But I am digressing again here...

The casualties there were around a dozen - just barely as impressive (in a scary way, of course) as the nitwit who shot students to ease the anxiety that he felt, back in the early '90s at the Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada (I was there. But I wasn't the one doing the shooting, fear not!)

Montreal creeps up in the creepy subjects (ever since The Fly with Vincent Price, methinks... LOL) - for more reasons than one too!

Military trainees at Val Cartier, the local wanna-be Fort Knox or something, were ''reacting'' and 'shocked' if not outright ''traumatized'' by the news that one of their own (never mind his training and status as a shrink or his philosophy and being a Muslim - with potential for radicalism, always there...) could ''snap'' like that and shoot his own brothers and sisters in arms...

Val Cartier wimps - and wimpettes (Whippets?) too - REAL trauma was for the soldiers at VIETNAM: those whose average age was 19.

Nam-Nam-Nam-Na-Na-Na-Nam-Nam-Nam-NINETEEN!



But I am digressing - again.

FUSILLADE was the key word... as in the fact that the execrable Montreal (again that dirty town!) Canadiens stole victory from the injury-plagued but still vastly-superior Boston Bruins, but only in a ''shootout'' indeed. Basically, the game was so close, it was a miracle either team scored - and, in truth, the Boston Bruins still scored TWO goals, but one was disallowed. The opponent scored one and it was enough to make it a 1-1 tie headed to overtime, which solved nothing. But the NHL has, now, this equally execrable habit to ''have to have a result'' to any of their regular season games: they simply have to have one! Don't ask me why! Heck, don't ask THEM why either; they probably don't have a clue why, anymore! (Originally, it was simply because the then-owner of the Anaheim franchise -that's right: the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Disney creation- wanted that! Big money, even Mickey Mouse money, pulls strings, y'know... And it got approved! Now, of course, the Ducks are no longer affiliated to Disney, which no longer uses the mascot as a cartoon hero, part of a team of super-ducks...! Disney, in fact, has found better superheroes to market since their acquisition of Marvel! They have no need for ice hockey-playing, part-time crimefighting quacks, anymore; Donald, Darkwing and, now, Howard are plenty already! But I am digresisng in a majotr way now here...!)

Suffice it to say, the ensuing FUSILLADE... pardon, shootout... on ice... went the wrong way indeed. The team with lesser talent got a goal, while the better team did not; and the result was a 2-1 shootout O.T. loss for the Mighty... Boston Bruins, not the Ducks of Anaheim! Ugh.

Lady Luck -that BITCH- was on the WRONG SIDE - again!!!

In fact, she hasn't been on the Bruins' side - ever! The only times the Boston Bruins have things going in their way is when they stack the odds overwhelming in their favor - by adding talent, power and coaching saavy to a point where they cannot lose, practically... That is what happened last year when they only lost 25 games all year, while winning 45. Still, that bitchy (so-called) Lady Luck ruined it for them in the end - again, in an overtime decision in a crucial and series-deciding seventh game... She did that to them when they had virtually all the odds in their favor too: in the Eddie Shore days, in the Bobby Orr days, in the Cam Neely days as well... So, it is nothing new - at all.

In fact, right now, Mr. C and ''Lady'' L are indeed intermingling their powers to cause utter CHAOS for the true ''team of destiny'' in the NHL today: what, with so many injuries, the Bruins are battling on at a mere 45% of their true firepower! They are missing so many key players: Savard, Lucic, three K's (Kobasew, Kessel and Krejci) and MORE...!

They got reinforcements coming in, but really - they are reeling from all the injuries to key contributors and resulting line-up changes...

And as if all that wasn't enough, that last name on the list got sidelined by a dreaded cause indeed...

Which leads to the OTHER key word in there, at the bottom of my TV screen, on the news ticker: it was the acronym or sickness designation ''A H1N1'' indeed. David Krejci, one of the best all-around players in the Boston Bruins line-up (I would dare say all time) was officially diagnosed with the flu virus and immediately quarantined. He is the 5th player in the NHL to catch it - how lucky is that, eh, you bitchy Lady Luck!!!

Why couldn't it have been Carey Price indeed, hmm?

I am digressing - surely... again...

H1N1 has been growing steadily, if I believe what I read on the aforementioned news ticker indeed: lots of new cases reported, many hospitalizations, a few of which are now deceased.

It all adds a new dimension to the sport, all sports and all of life, really - we're living in dangerous times indeed!



Shaking hands might be dangerous, these days! Better to avoid contact now...?

And the Boston Bruins are celebrating an anniversary soon, this chaotic year - on December 1st, the franchise will officially be 85 years-old! As it is so concisely summarized here, the Bruins began their history playing the Montreal... Maroons, this time, and defeating them 2-1, on December 1st 1924. That season was a disaster, but then they were a brand-new franchise, right? The team still had the distinction of winning their first game, being the first American team in this ''N.H.L.'' thing and it would be a terrific year in 1928 when they moved to their NEW building (destined to be legendary: the Boston Garden) and they were soon winning the Stanley Cup there, in that very same season! Never mind the fact they had been robbed blind in their inaugural game at the Garden, playing the Montreal... Canadiens, yes, and being robbed by the score of... 2-1.

It hadn't been in the shootout, at least. They didn't exist, in those days...!

What did exist, though, in the 20's, was the Spanish Influenza epidemic!

And sportsmen, troopers, anyone and everyone - carried on as always, despite the invisible threat out there, in the air...

That epidemic killed millions worldwide; so-called ''experts'' expect similar ''scores'' for the pandemic that is H1N1...

That detestable score of ''2-1'' sure was the same damn thing - dammit.

I turned off the TV, once all that became apparent to me - and came online to blog!

It was the only sensible thing left to do...

I guess (not digress, for once!)

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