drugs

If there is a broad consensus still left in America today, it is that drugs are bad. Nancy Regan told me this, but so has Darren Aronofsky. Richard Nixon. TLC. Kermit the Frog. An egg cooking in a pan. Breaking Bad. All vehemently anti-drugs. The Wire—surely the last American institution to command broad trust—was about how many things were bad, and drugs were certainly one of them. Drugs: nope. They're bad.

But the first period of Saturday's hockey game asks a provocative question. What if… what if drugs are good? Because that game was on drugs. And it was good.

By the end of one period of hockey folks in Yost Ice Arena had seen 34 shots, seven goals, eight penalties, two majors, and one game misconduct in a pear tree. Last week I wrote about how Old Yost felt, and Wisconsin came in like Northern Michigan or Lake State of old, leading with the jaw and throwing haymakers. They got blitzed on Friday, got pissed Friday night, and came into the Saturday game looking for any excuse to get out some frustrations.

They did not come into that game with any plan to prevent Michigan from scoring buckets of goals. God bless Tony Granato, who recruits a boatload of talent and then declines to put it in any sort of "system" that could "prevent scoring chances." That's my kind of opposing coach. Vague threat from the legion of skilled guys on the opposition, no ability to turn that into winning hockey. Has a guy who sounds like a Pokemon scoring bunches of goals. A+, it is deeply unfortunate he's getting fired into the earth's mantle the instant the season ends.

[After THE JUMP: did you know the 2007 film Bucket List popularized the term "bucket list"?]