The Last Period Is No Place for Predictions
CLEVELAND, January 8.—A gentleman who leaves the ground with one period remaining should carry his opinion home in pencil. Chicago and Seattle have supplied the reason. Washington led the Binge, twelve to nine, after three periods; Chicago put twelve points into the last and won twenty-one to twelve. Dallas held a nine-to-eight advantage over Seattle before the final period; the Droids finished seventeen to nine in front.
Neither result requires a sermon about destiny. It requires the last part of the game to be played. The score at three periods is an interesting piece of news, but an unreliable obituary.
Gulf Coast’s escape was narrower. Atlanta advanced from a five-to-nine interval deficit to a fourteen-to-nine lead. The Splash answered with a touchdown, regained the advantage by a single point, and kept it. A margin of one has precisely the same standing in the victory column as a margin of twenty. It merely provides the correspondent with more work.
The ice offered another sort of arithmetic. Southern California beat Memphis seven to nothing; British Columbia beat Houston four to nothing. New York’s six-to-one account at Quebec contains four Gargoyle goals, two of them worth an extra point. One need not approve every invention to insist that its figures be printed correctly.
Mr. Pembroke may regard this as evidence that the sporting world needs patience. I regard it as evidence that a man ought to remain in his seat. Eighteen XHL finals and fifteen Fury finals now stand in the book. They are a beginning, not a coronation.