The realization slowly matriculated through the arena and set in on television. One of the most important goals of the season started with a whimper. I can’t remember a goal of that magnitude, a game-clincher in the Stanley Cup, where almost everyone lost the puck. Shots that hit the back bar and come rolling out of the net are common. Pucks that get stuck out of plain sight aren’t.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.