In Game Four, the Florida Panthers break the ice in an important way.
By scoring late in the third period to nullify a 2-1 Washington Capitals lead, FLA becomes the first team in the 2022 playoffs to tie the game after pulling its goalie for an extra attacker (1GF/18GA).
And what a goal.
More on that later.
First, a short story.
A couple of months ago, I re-read The Art of Learning, a life-altering book written by Josh Waitzkin, a thinker and seeker who is at once a chess prodigy and a world champion martial artist.
Midway through the book, Waitzkin shares a harrowing story about how (not) to react when under mental duress, how to avoid “the ripple effect of compounding errors.”
It was my habit to walk the two miles to P.S. 116 every Wednesday, planning my (chess) class and enjoying the city. One fall afternoon I was strolling east along 33rd Street, lost in thought and headed toward the school.
Everyone who has grown up in Manhattan knows that it is important to look both ways before crossing the street. Cars run lights and bicyclists ride the wrong way down one-way streets. Drivers are used to narrowly avoiding bustling midtown crowds, and most New Yorkers are untroubled by the cacophony of sirens, blaring horns and taxis speeding ten inches in front of our noses. Things usually flow nicely, but the margin for error is slim.
There I stood, within the maelstrom of the midtown rush, waiting for the light and thinking about the ideas that I would soon be discussing with my students. A pretty young woman stood a few feet away from me, wearing headphones and moving to the music.
I noticed her because I could hear the drum beat. She wore a grey knee-length skirt, a black sweater, and the typical Manhattan office worker’s white sneakers for the trek home.
Suddenly she stepped right into the oncoming traffic. I guess she was confused by the chaotic one-way street, because I remember her looking the wrong way down Broadway. Immediately, as she stepped forward, looking right, a bicycle bore down on her from the left. The biker lurched away at the last second and gave her a solid but harmless bump.
In my memory, time stops right here. This was the critical moment in the woman’s life. She could have walked away unscathed if she had just stepped back onto the pavement, but instead she turned and cursed the fast-pedaling bicyclist.
I can see her now, standing with her back to the traffic on 33rd and Broadway, screaming at the now-distant biker who had just performed a miracle to avoid smashing into her.
The image is frozen in my mind.
A taxicab was the next to speed around the corner. The woman was struck from behind and sent reeling 10 feet into the air. She smashed into a lamppost and was knocked out and bleeding badly. The ambulance and police came and eventually I moved on to P.S. 116, hoping she would survive…
The Art of Learning (Chapter 6: The Downward Spiral)
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