NHL Drops Stat About Weird Michael Jordan-Alex Ovechkin Coincidence: Is It Interesting Or A Waste Of Time?
It'll blow your mind for a fraction of a second, until you really think about it.
One of the things about being a sports fan in this day and age is that you're whacked over the head with stats and facts virtually non-stop.
Some are interesting, some are an absolute waste of everyone's time, and then there are the ones that are in a gray area.
This factoid about an Alexander Ovechkin-Michael Jordan connection is one of those gray areas…
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On Thursday night, the Capitals — who are still in playoff contention, but are going to need a lot of wins and a lot of help — were in Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Mammoth.
It was a high-scoring game with the Capitals coming out on top 7-4, thanks in part to Ovechkin's 34th career hat trick, which came with just 5.2 seconds left on the clock.
Here's where it gets wild (kind of): this took place at the Delta Center, where Michael Jordan made the championship-winning shot in Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz.
What time was on the clock when that shot was counted? 5.2 seconds.
*Twilight Zone music plays*
When I first saw that, my mind was blown… and then I thought about it some more, and my reaction changed from "Whoa!" to "So?!"
Look, I know as humans, we have to find patterns and meaning in everything. It's why you didn't step on sidewalk cracks as a kid, because you were scared that doing so was going to make your mom's spine snap like a twig.
But sometimes things are just meaningless coincidences. I mean, if anyone not named Alex Ovechkin scored that goal, and it wasn't to cap off a hat trick, would anyone have even thought to look this up?
It would be much more insane had the goal in question been a championship winner, which this one wasn't.
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In fact, I purposely left out a detail that might make you say, "Oh, screw this": Ovechkin's goal was an empty-netter.
So, what we've got here is Alex Ovechkin scoring an unnecessary empty-netter, which just so happened to be at the same time on the clock and in the same building as an iconic Michael Jordan moment.
Cool? I guess.
A bit of a stretch? Yeah, you'll pull your groin!