The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

A lot of people have different ways of dealing with an upsetting event. Some need to go for a quiet walk alone, others need to call up a close friend or family member to vent, some need a good cry to get it all out of their system to feel better. But to ease the pain for something that really isn't all that life altering (in retrospect) but still hurts, I eat.

April 2004. Sens vs Leafs, game 7 in Toronto. Ottawa is riding the momentum of winning game 6 in OT just two days before. But it wasn't meant to be, Lalime shockingly let in some weak goals and by the end of the 1st period it was pretty much done.

I was pretty excited about this game, but when Lalime was pulled from goal, I remembered I didn't have dinner. So I hopped in my Jeep, headed to McDonald's (yeah I know, terrible) and placed my order.

"Give me a double quarter pounder with cheese, extra-large fries and large chocolate milkshake". Oh yeah, I was going to eat my sorrows away. The kid taking my order, probably fifteen years old, saw my Sens jersey and was excited. "My boss won't let us turn on the radio! What's the score? What's the score?"

"3-0. Leafs."

"Oh." He slumped his shoulders and slowly made his way to the deep fryer. He was hurting, much like I, but there's not much you can do about it. We had no control over the outcome.

Those ten minutes it took to down all that food provided temporary pain relief like an aspirin, but I still forced myself to watch the rest of the game as the Leafs took it down 4-1.

I felt disgusted after eating that huge McDonald's meal some time later, but hey, for those ten minutes, it made me forget the hurt.