EDMONTON — There`s a classic anecdote in sports journalism circles about a reporter who submitted their story prematurely, only to find their team staging a massive comeback after being soundly defeated. Instead of completely rewriting, they supposedly called the news desk and asked: “Could you quickly look over my piece? Everywhere I wrote `brutal`, could you please swap it with `inspiring`?”
It makes you wonder about all the drafts that never see the light of day because a game takes an unexpected turn. The words typed out at 10:15 PM, when the third period is just beginning, as writers rush to “pump out a few paragraphs” for a game summary they anticipate filing within a couple of hours. This is before the post-game interviews and TV segments, while their exhausted editor waits by their laptop at 3 AM Eastern time, hoping for something coherent.
Consider Game 3 of the series between Edmonton and Los Angeles. The Oilers had let in 12 goals across their losses in Games 1 and 2. Their penalty kill unit had conceded five goals on just 10 power-play opportunities for the Kings. Aside from a brief burst of brilliance from Connor McDavid in the third period of Game 1, Los Angeles had maintained complete control over the series.
