The Fellowship of the Puck

When Gollum bit Frodo’s finger off to get his hands on the one ring, the desperation that he felt to hold the Precious again was also felt by everyone reading or watching the story of the “Lord of the Rings”. We felt bad for him, sympathetic to how much he wanted it, pity for how the thing had changed him into something unrecognizable after so long. Gollum had turned evil from too many decades of coveting the shiny piece of metal and, despite the blood loss, the good in Frodo had to prevail.

Decades of desire can certainly make some do extremely desperate things, especially when the prize at the end of the journey is a piece of metal with a whole bunch of writing engraved on it. Something that makes you powerful in certain circles. Something that so many others want but can never have.

Last night Alex Burrows somehow morphed into Gollum and in a selfish act to take steps toward the big shiny piece of metal he so desires, he bit Patrice Bergeron’s finger. Burrows bit through Bergy’s glove hard enough to draw blood.

Sorry Burrows but this isn’t called “Lord of the Cups” my friend, it’s the Stanley Cup finals. Can someone get this guy a muzzle before game 2 please?

In sports, like in life, sometimes evil looks like it might pull ahead enough to win, enough to smother good and send it crawling into the darkness; there are times when all seems lost. Especially when the opposing team to who you’re rooting for get a four minute penalty after the biting skirmish but still manage to hold off a scoring opportunity until 18 seconds before the end of the game when they place the puck in your net. Especially when that goal could be argued as non-legit due to a missed offside call.

But the good must prevail. Somehow the Felllowship of the Puck must rise up together and fight the battle of their lives at night inside that wall. Just when all seems lost there must be a rallying of the troops.

Led by the formidable wizard-sized captain Zdeno Chara, the been-all-over Ranger-esque Mark Recchi, and of course, the stout and tough Timmy Thomas with his L shaped axe, he will encourage the team to travel all the way to the other end of the ice with a conviction so strong to triumph over evil that there is no way the Canucks can stop themselves from falling into the lava.

Because in the words of the mighty Bergeron…

“…biting? I mean come on.”