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With the Anaheim Ducks getting set to play a deciding game 7 tonight in Detroit, I have to say that — for me — there aren't too many sports scenarios with more potential to be entertaining and physically draining for the faithful. I already know that most of you don't agree, or understand, or care to hear more. That's the burden hockey fans endure, especially during the advanced stages of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Joel Stein, in his Time magazine hat, amusingly carries the puck for the rest of us in a column today beseeching you to vote to let him write more hockey columns. Sample:
This is not the time to fight with your boss. but after more than a decade as TIME's hockey-beat writer, a job I wrestled from no one, my editor, Josh Tyrangiel, has refused to hear any more of my hockey-story pitches, arguing that the sport is not relevant enough to be in a mass-circulation magazine...Luckily, I can drive anyone to a point where they get so annoyed that they yell something stupid. Josh yelled that I could write one more column about hockey during this incredibly exciting playoff season, but it had better make a convincing argument about how excellent hockey is. If I failed to convince, TIME.com readers could vote to bar me for life from ever referring to the sport again (vote below). Therefore, this is the most important column I'll ever write.
Luckily, in L.A. we have one of the smartest hockey writers going in the Times' Helene Elliott. She's in Detroit for the deciding game.
Ducks eliminated: Thrilling game to the end. 4-3, Red Wings.