5 Things I Know: Playoff hockey is still the best part of any sport

A large brown bag and one trustworthy bottle of bourbon are your wingmen.

For the love of sweet Mary white chocolate, I want the rain to go away. Every spring in St. Louis includes a good chance for showers and thunderstorms. Grass is cut down to a nice height, and then it rises like the damn Phoenix with the next 12-16 hours of rainfall. Living in St. Louis means you handle the harshest of winters (I don’t mind), the need to keep all your seasonal outfits at arm’s length, the brutal humidity of the summer, and the endless spring showers.

Death, taxes, and St. Louis weather beating the shit out of you. It’s why the population stays at an even keel instead of over-expanding, along with the crime rate. While I won’t leave this town again, I do wish some parts of it would change. Now, while coffee is sipped and ruminations run wild, here are five things I know.

Consider this the paid subscriber jump-off point. Hey, some of this has to live behind a paywall. If everything weren’t so expensive, I’d say otherwise. So, to follow me or not, let’s get on with it.

Jeff Curry/USA Today Sports

#5-Playoff hockey is the best section of any sport. It’s a slice of New York style pizza with the huge bread bubble. It’s a piece of apple pie with the thick underlayer of crust. It’s the two scoops of blueberry pie ice cream at Oberweis. It’s the two fingers of Basil Hayden’s after a long day of adulting. Late April, May, and hopefully June feature the idea of sport and pursuit of the ultimate prize at its most primal.