October 5, 2006 was a pretty big night in my life. It was a hectic time - my wife and I had just been married for five months and were getting ready to move into a new apartment - but that night stands out. My mom came through with a quality birthday present (a brand new X-Box 360) and my brother came over to our box-filled place to watch Game 2 of the Mets-Dodgers NLDS, which the Mets won. At that moment, all was well.
However, unbeknownst to me, all was *NOT* well. Because Fox airs their baseball games ridiculously late even on weeknights, I was forced to miss the start of the Islanders' first game of the season. Since it was in Phoenix, I was able to join the game in progress. When I turned the game on, my jaw dropped. 5-1 Coyotes in the second. Phoenix would go on to win 6-3. Saddest of all, in the first game of his 15-year contract, Rick DiPietro was pulled after two periods.
I thought that was the end of it until the next day, when I received a text from Zach, the esteemed Rangers writer of this great site. His paraphrased text:
"6 goals per game… for 82 games… for 15 years… equals 7380 goals… that's DP!"
Zach's number-crunching made me cringe, but made me laugh even more. Unfortunately, Zach made one erroneous assumption - that DiPietro would even come close to playing in every game of his contract.
Welcome back, DP.
Ahhh I remember that. I'm pretty sure I have also texted you "Isles trade DP for _____ and 2nd round draft pick."
ReplyDeleteYup, and I thought you were serious. I'm an idiot. My favorite text to you was right after the Ryan Smyth trade - "The Islanders just traded their entire future for two home playoff games."
ReplyDelete