Tonight the Role of Scottie Upshall will be Played by Anonymous

If you were Scottie Upshall you would have played your last game of the season on Saturday. Phoenix is a pretty young team with a lot of guys that are trying to get to know eachother, so I'm assuming everyone went out pretty hard on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. During that time you probably met all the locals and had a pretty good and difficult to remember time. But then Tuesday morning/afternoon a little bit of reality set in when two feelings converged: 1- I can't party like this anymore and 2- I don't live in this hotel. There are a healthy number of guys on the team who are recent transplants and are probably living in some sort of temporary situation as it stands. They'll eventually buy or rent a place this summer, but they and their hockey bags had to get on a flight to Boston back in March and leave everything they own behind in New York, or Calgary, or in your case Philadelphia.

So, after the party had died down, you either hung around in Phoenix with that on your mind because Tuesday was 87 and Monday was 83 and you wanted to golf, headed back to the city from which you were traded, or said fuck it and went home to Canada for a bit. If I'm Scottie Upshall, which I can't be because you are, I think I'd be feeling a bit lost right now. Yeah Phoenix is beautiful and these guys are alright, but all my stuff is in Philadelphia where my friends are not because they're in Pittsburgh, and I'm from Alberta where my family would let me relax and fish...but existentially, where do I belong? That kind of confused.

No matter where you are you're going to watch the Flyers last night, right? I mean, even though you're pissed about the whole trade, well maybe more hurt than pissed, those are your real buddies out there and you know they wish you were in the room with them. So despite your inclination to root against them because the organization hurt your feelings you probably can't help but root for them. And to stand up and verbally chastise Scott Hartnell with a bottle of beer in one hand when he takes a stupid penalty - "Hartsy, what are you doing!"

And then you have mixed feelings when your old team loses because, let's face it, that's what they get. But also, you know you were supposed to be out there with them because you still secretly consider yourself a Flyer.

So in all that rambling I guess I have one question. And I know you're banging chicks so no need to answer with that. If you're Scottie Upshall at 4PM when you get off the links, or at 7 PM when you finish packing up your last box with Lisa Hartnell, or are grilling your fresh caught salmon with your dad, are you going to watch the game? And if you do, are you rooting for the boys?