“A game made in heaven” was the way the TV commentator saw it, and you might guess I’m referring to Super Bowl LII. No doubt this year’s Super Bowl had all the right ingredients: It featured 33 points, 505 yards passing and another 108 rushing – and that was just for the losing team!  

The New England Patriots entered the game as the favorite beyond the odds-maker’s point spread. They had the greatest quarterback in history and the NFL’s dream coach. For weeks they dominated talking-heads’ shows so thoroughly that they stole the stage from the orange-headed president.

But the underdog Philadelphia Eagles had the right coach for this upset. Doug Pederson had done the impossible a decade before while coaching a small Baptist high school team, turning a perennial loser into an unbeatable powerhouse. High school players and NFLers agree that Pederson’s success lies in the calm way he empowers athletes with a trust in their abilities. 

Against the Patriots, he showed no fear of failure, just creative play-calling and courageous decisions on fourth down, one of them a reverse pass to the quarterback – a candidate for trickiest touchdown of all time.  

But that’s not the “game made in heaven” I write about. It’s more like the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, a series that ends in four games, because the latest NHL expansion team, the Portland Seals, has an offense that resembles the Eagles of 2018. Creative, daring, even a little reckless at the offensive blue line, this team creates goal-scoring plays other teams don’t even try. The Seals practice a bold offensive attack like a football team, believing that turnovers are reduced by repetitions in practice, not by endless, paralyzing warnings from coaches in games.

It’s no coincidence they play this way, because the owners hired Doug Pederson out of retirement. He was looking for a new challenge and heard that hockey was crippled by a myth that you win by playing defensively – even when you have the puck.   

“Purposely giving the puck to the opponent? Dumping it to them? That’s like punting on first down,” Pederson said in his interview with the owners. “I can’t believe it’s a winning philosophy to eliminate the skills of your athletes like that. Isn’t it an insult to their creative instincts to keep saying, ‘Keep it simple.Take care of the puck. Don’t try anything fancy?’”

He continued, “When you possess the puck in a fast-moving game on ice – when you have the puck and are flying toward the opponent’s goal – isn’t that the time to try daring, creative offensive plays? Isn’t that the fun of hockey?”

So the billionaire owners – successful in their businesses outside of hockey – met after the interview and came to the only conclusion that made sense. They hired a football coach to get the most out of the athletes they had invested in. They asked, “Can’t we play good defense when the other team has the puck, then turn around and play offense like Eagles turned loose to fly?”

I woke from my dream. I had fallen asleep watching a hockey game, 2018-style. The score after 20 minutes was 0-0, with hardly a shot on either goal and very few passes that might even lead to a shot – just a lot of forechecking, backchecking and the occasional hit. The commentator was ecstatic that there had been no turnovers by either team, so he prattled on, “It’s a hockey game made in heaven.”