Or, "An Open Letter to the CBC," that would begin something like this:

Dear CBC.ca:

Look. I *know* it was probably prompted by the laws of the land, but c'mon. Since when does the Internet have borders? You know what I'm talking about. That... ugh... f-word. Dare I even say it? That firewall, magical filter you have detecting IP addresses, that would let your scripts-o-video-player-on-high know when someone outside of Canada would try to be accessing the live video stream of Stanley Cup playoff games on CBC Sports.

And as I try to load the video stream in the player, I can sense your scripts laughing and pointing, saying "Look! Isn't that cute? An ex-pat trying to watch the playoffs. Hahahaha. I don't think so, cos if you're not here suffering through 6 months of winter followed by the equally brutal season of Canadian Idol like the rest of us, then you clearly have not earned the right to watch the final moments of the quest for Lord Stanley's cup on a Crown corporation's video player. Should have thought of that BEFORE you left, chickie!" Bugger.

And so on it would go, but I'm going to stop here, and give you a little bit of back story. Here in the U.S., the Stanley Cup playoffs were being broadcast on NBC, and yes, normally on any given day, I'd have NBC. However, I moved over the weekend, and somehow when I scheduled a satellite re-hook-up for the coming weekend, I didn't factor the playoffs into the equation. While ABC, CBS, and even the CW are all part of California's equivalent to Canadian "farmervision" (don't require cable or satellite), apparently NBC deems itself above all that jazz and does not make an appearance in the free TV lineup. Bugger.

So two nights ago, during the triple overtime game, I found another TV to watch the game on. Tonight though, was a different story. I tried more ways to get access to a broadcast than I should probably admit to in writing. Well, desperate times call for creative search engine queries. And at last, the result I was looking for, courtesy a kind group of folks posting over at Yahoo!Xtra (New Zealand) Answers. Third period, and YES, I could watch the rest of the game! Crisis averted. Where there's a will, and the help of kind folks sharing information across the globe, there is a way to watch the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Let us all bless the Internet.

Time spent researching ways to access the game broadcast online: 2 hours at home, plus another half hour at lunch, plus an hour or so last night. (Um. A lot. What? See my post title.) Getting to watch the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs? Worth every second.