The Playoff Hangover

5/22

Boy these playoffs are starting to kick my ass!

I figured when I got a job that started later in the morning and I could get a little more sleep, I would get rid of this tired feeling.

I'm convinced I'm starting to have playoff game hangovers.

Games start at 7ish my time and usually, by the time I get through post game it's after 10. This doesn't seem so bad to the average person, and back in the old days it didn't seem that bad, especially in Eastern time.

But that was nine years ago. It was a completely different time. I was younger. Now 16 games into their run I'm realizing, as a fan I'm exhausted.

As most people who know me know (and if you don't have you been living under a rock?) I get very emotional invested in my teams. I know SHOCKER! It comes with being a sports fan. But what fans around here don't get, it's easiest to survive a championship in football than any other sport. I mean let's be honest, the Packers & Giants runs were both impressive but both teams played four games to win their respective Super Bowls, lasted a month and there was plenty of time to breather in between. Baseball fans (for the Mets, Brewers and Cubs fans, not Yanks and White Sox) don't even know what a real championship run is like. As for basketball, I'm convinced that it is the only sport of the big four that people are more mega fans of the players than the teams themselves. Just my view from the outside, as I am not a basketball fan. But the way the NHL formats the playoffs, it's very non stop. The longest break between games is two days.

Back when the Devils were red between between 94 and 03, it was a wild ride. Games would go late, some nights very little sleep was had. I mean if anyone remembers Game 5 & 6 of the 2000 Finals alone, it was insane. In those days I was emotional invested, but at the time, other than the 2000 Finals that ended up during finals week, it didn't really affect much. At the time sleep was overrated. I mean there times during a couple of those runs I would actually go out AFTER games.

Now jump nine years later. It's the middle of my third Devs/Rangers playoff series. Life has caught up to me. Every game night consits of making sure stuff is ready for work the next day, family dinners and CJ's bedtime. By the time eveything is done, CJ is in bed and even Mandy is asleep, it's the third period and I'm exhausted. The game ends and I head upstairs to watch post game, tweet a bit and update facebook. By the time it's all over, I hit the sack and honestly even if it's not THAT late, mentaly it is. Then I get up and I'm still exhausted and now here I sit at work looking like I haven't slept, trying to be professional. That my friends is the playoff hangover.

When you find yourself saying to yourself, I think bedtime is going to be between 9 & 9:30 because it's a non game night. When a series gets you so emotionally invested that you're just not mentally there the next morning.

This has been me in this series.