Mike Babcock leans back in his bathtub. The water is hot, almost to the point of scalding, just like he likes it. His Toronto Maple Leafs have a week off which would bother Mike if it were something he could control. Sadly there are somethings even the coach of the Leafs can’t control.

A small bead of water catches on the lip of the tub spout. Mike watches as a slow trickle syphons into the bead, not yet a droplet. Mike doesn’t like to take anything for granted, a droplet is a specific thing, to call something a droplet when it is not one yet, even though it seems an inevitability, would discount the ability of the Universe to get its own way. Mike has a lot of respect for the universe. For instance just because it seems certain that his Leafs will make the playoffs he’s not about to look past the next game coming, even if it’s days away.

Days, mere days. So much time but gone in a blink. Mike is pondering his roster. His defence specifically, Jake Muzzin. Jake Muzzin is exciting. Mike isn’t thinking about Jake though, he’s thinking about the rest of the group. He has a cut to make, it’s not easy to do but it has to happen. Life can be cruel.

The bead has grown into a droplet and is on the cusp of dropping. Mike watches it cling to the tub spout. Tenacity is a useful quality, refusing to submit to the rules that seek to bind your potential even when the rules are laws like gravity. The droplet becomes a drop and plunks into the tub.

Finality comes to all things in time. Time moving forward, moving on from all the possibilities and becoming what happened. The immutable past, where pride and shame distort any and every thing. Only by learning from the past can we change the future. Applying lessons in the now is the challenge. Before the moments pile up and slip by faster than your heart beats. As long as it keeps beating there’s a chance the moments you need will keep coming like the water slowly forming another bead on the tub spout.

His Leafs need to learn to be like the water. Relentless, tenacious, constant in its ever changing nature. Water fills the space it is in. The Leafs need to do the same. But the lesson isn’t Mikes to learn, it’s his to teach. Luckily his job is his passion. Luckily his players are just as passionate, more even. Maybe.

The universe will get its way perhaps, but Mike knows if he presents his case well the universe will accept his way, or at least not reject it completely. It’s a process that rewards patient dedication. Mike is patient. Mike is dedicated.

The last rush is the hardest. It’s not nearly as frightening to become a droplet as it is to finally drop.

Plunk.