For one night at least, justice is served
Life isn't fair. It just isn't.
Maybe there is still a chance for fairness in life.
Rich people get richer while poor people get poorer. Workout warriors get sick and die while couch potatoes live forever. Athletes are worshipped while first responders are ignored.
But at least the Blackhawks finally beat the Kings 5-4 on Wednesday night in the second overtime of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.
All it took after just over 82 minutes of play was a nifty pass from Brandon Saad to Michal Handzus, who buried the puck behind Kings' goalie Jonathan Quick.
So the Hawks' season remains alive, though they're still trailing 3-2 with Game 6 on Friday night in Los Angeles.
Seriously, how unfair would it be for a team from Los Angeles to eliminate a team from Chicago in the Stanley Cup playoffs?
L.A. doesn't know anything about hockey, about ice, about the winter game. We wrote the book on all those things and they combined to help make us Chicago tough.
Consider this: A Kings fan filed charges against Corey Crawford, alleging that the Blackhawks' goalie squirted him with a water bottle Monday night.
Fairness would have been if the wimp were sitting next to Dick Butkus - who was at the game wearing Hawks' garb - and Butkus adjudicated the case right then and there.
(By the way, isn't it about time Butkus escaped L.A. and settled back in his hometown?)
Anyway, think back to a few months ago.
Kings' fans were going to the Staples Center in flip-flops and Blackhawks' fans were going to the United Center in galoshes.
So now that spring has arrived and summer looms, the Kings should keep playing and the Hawks shouldn't?
When was the last time L.A. fans had to survive one of our winters just to get to the Stanley Cup playoffs?
When the NHL schedules an outdoor game in Chicago, the danger is that players and fans will suffer frostbite.
When the NHL schedules an outdoor game in Los Angeles, the danger is that players and fans will suffer sunstroke.
These athletes are supposed to be the Boys of Winter rather than the Sons of a Beach, right?
Remember former Kings' owner Jack Kent Cooke's great line when told that 300,000 former Canadians lived within a three-hour drive of Los Angeles?
"Now I know why they left Canada," Cooke said as the Kings struggled at the gate. "They hate hockey!"
Kings' attendance has picked up since then but who knows for sure that those people don't think they're in the stands as extras in a sequel to "Slap Shot"?
Look, the Hawks are an Original Six team in the NHL while the Kings are an afterthought Next Six team. Chicago has been a hockey town longer than Venice beach has featured bikinis.
All you need to know about the injustice of all this during the regular season is Kings' fans go into the Staples Center to cool off and Hawks' fans go into the United Center to warm up.
So, come on, let's face it: L.A. doesn't belong in the same rink as Chicago.
L.A. can have their ocean to surf in, nearby mountains to ski in and beautiful bodies of all races, religions and ethnicities to gaze at.
We should at least be allowed our few nice museums, some great restaurants ... and freaking hockey success!
Chicago should at least be able to toot a hockey horn. All the Hawks have to do is win at L.A. and come back and win here Sunday night.
Anything else would be unfair, although we all know that life isn't fair.
If it were, no city with Donald Sterling ever would have a chance to win anything against anybody.
mimrem@dailyherald.com