Birthday Gift

VAN 4 - PHI 0

My younger older brother received two gifts for his birthday, yesterday: the Canucks snapped their four-game losing streak, and the Flyers let them do it in Philadelphia.

I could have done without it being a shutout, though, to be perfectly relevant to my brother’s age, the final score should have been 6-0.

Now the Flyers are on a streak of being shut out for two games in a row. Shutouts are normally measured by periods or minutes or whatever is the most humiliating, but this time out, I’m happily appalled at straight games.

On the other hand, no less than three Flyer games have been on TV this week – they won the first one 7-3, then quit scoring for the rest of the streak. Guess they used up their weekly goals-for allotment against Tampa Bay on Monday.

Funny that right after I promise to quit ragging on Rogers, the universe sees fit to reward me with a tripleheader. That my brother’s team happened to play against mine on his birthday was a bonus. That his team won is … well, I’d like to say that I engineered it just for him, but the reality is I’d rather have had the score reversed in Philly’s favour. However, I’m sure he was happy and that’s all that matters. I may be grateful to see my hockey team, but I am far more grateful to have him.

Happy belated, bro.