2015 Stanley Cup Final Game 4: Bolts @ Hawks

"Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again." - Homer, The Illiad

Stanley Cup Final schedule:

Are you familiar with the Netflix original series Chef's Table? I've watched four episodes of it now. It's compelling and haunting the way that good biography is always haunting. You get to see a personality, a flawed one, dedicating all of their love and attention to a particular art, to the point of madness.

The food is eternally beautiful -- each show centers around a chef that strives to create great things with food, whether it's pushing the boundaries of fresh-from-the-farm to include creating the perfect, mother's-milk-fed veal, or a guy all alone in the middle of the Hebrides slow-roasting goat in a fire pit.

The filmic quality of each episode is stunning, the music compelling, and the "plot" of the biopic leaves you feeling ... Hm. Like your perception is opened wide, and yet your heart is still aching, because it's tough to see someone love something to the point of pain.

At this moment in the hockey season (I guess you figured out where I was going with this), I feel like each game we watch is this kind of beautiful and painful. This is supposed to be the BEST hockey (all butthurt teams who could undoubtedly do a better job aside).

It's between two teams who are willing to play through injury, pain, everything to win a cup. Every game, I think about how this is less about hockey than it is a gladiatorial match, pitting weary foes against each other -- the one with the most burning desire to win, prevails, even if their bodies can't.

The chances of making it this far have depended on different heroes rising from the ranks every night, so that we've learned the legendary heroics of young Teuvo Teravainen and his eternal rise from the ashes of his scratching, and old Kimmo Timonen and his final descent from the press box, one last time before retiring.

We've seen Cedric Paquette grow from his days of taking on Zdeno Chara to becoming the guy who scored the game winner, and we've seen the Triplets quietly emerge as the Bolts' three-headed dragon that carried them this far.

And now the battle for MVP is getting deeper too. Imagine how happy I am that today's conversation is about whether Hedman or Johnson is more suited for the prize. Without Hedman, Bolts wouldn't have a lead in this series. Without Johnson, they'd be out in the first round against Detroit. Nice problems to have.

Tonight's game will likely right the balance. The Blackhawks are Agamemnon to Lightning's Paris, and they will not go gently into that good night. Plus, the Bolts are due for an epic collapse like the game 6 "oops the whole team just ate bad street gyros in NYC" episode, the one that had me swearing that the Rangers would advance to the cup final.

But who wants it more? Is it the team that already has two cup rings to show for their effort, and know what it takes? Or is it Steven Stamkos, a fierce warrior without even an Olympic gold to show for his career? Is it Q, or is it Cooper?

I don't know, but having followed my team with my whole heart this far, I feel that fine edge between art and pain, hockey and madness, and ... the worst and best part: two to four games remain.

Edit: Oh, and Vasilevskiy is in net. If you'd like to read about him, Raw Charge has a good article over here! JUST USING THE BACKUP IN GAME 4 OF THE SCF NBD.

"Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter." - Homer, The Illiad