It Turns Out I Really Love Sports, Even Without Fans

In March, sports without fans seemed too depressing. In August, sports without fans has been a godsend.

This past Friday, NBCSN had playoff hockey on for nearly 15 straight hours. The games could not have been more exciting, with the only exception being my Islanders calmly dispatching an overmatched Panthers team. The rest? Brilliance.

We had two Original Six 12-seeds knock out two teams with mega-stars in Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. What is this, March Madness? The Predators scored a goal in the last 30 seconds of regulation, only to get eliminated in overtime. The Canucks scored a late goal to force overtime, where they eliminated the WIld in only 11 seconds. Five playoff clinching games in one day!

Yet, none of those were the game of the day, which was the Leafs doing its best Undertaker sit up by scoring three goals in three minutes to force overtime, just one day after blowing a three-goal lead. They won in overtime to set up a winner-take-all Game 5. I love hockey!

As I overloaded on hockey, I never once thought about the lack of fans.

It’s the same feeling I’ve had watching empty arena NBA games as well as European soccer or Australian Rules football in empty stadiums. It doesn’t bother me. Most of the time I don’t even notice. In fact…