It is nice sometimes to watch high-level games with a certain emotional and/or professional detachment in order to simply appreciate what it means to compete and be great.
When you are invested so heavily in one geographic area and its teams — Minnesota for me and for many of you — watching playoff games becomes a stress test more than anything.
There's baggage and history informing how we watched the Wild or Wolves recently in the playoffs. And when your (admittedly fun) job is to write and talk about those games and teams, the story becomes more important than anything.