Reed's Talking Point: What's your most wonderful time of the sports year? taken in Columbus, Ohio (Penguins)

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The Lightning celebrate victory as the Panthers' Patric Hornqvist skates away Sunday night in Sunrise, Fla.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The House of Reed was filled with profanity Sunday afternoon. Startled pets, forgetting what time of year it was, scurried from one room to the next seeking refuge from the chaos. At one point, a flip-flop was hurled down the hallway in anger. 

It was agonizing. It was intense. It was gloriously familiar — something neither my wife nor me has experienced in more than 24 months. 

We all have our favorite times of year on the sports calendar, and this is mine. The NHL playoffs have started. The NBA playoffs are right behind them. NFL rookies are getting their first touches in camps. The European soccer season is reaching its climax. The baseball season is beginning to stretch its legs. 

The cost of the global pandemic has been incalculable. Lives, jobs and careers either lost or altered. So much hurt and bitterness. But slowly the world is starting to spin in greased grooves again, and this past weekend represented a wonderful bit of normalcy in our household.

We began Sunday afternoon in two different rooms. I was in the bedroom watching Liverpool FC fighting to stay in the race for the final Champions League spot in the English Premier League. Denise was upstairs for Game 1 of Penguins’ playoff run. 

As a hockey fan, I was bouncing back and forth between games, secure in the knowledge I wouldn’t miss any big moments from Game 1 because my wife’s cheers, moans and obscenities would alert me to what was happening until my game ended. 

I missed all this absurdity last spring when the sports world was on pause. Soccer, hockey and basketball retuned to finish their seasons, but everything was out of whack with games being played in July, August and September. Given the magnitude of worldwide suffering, it was a small sacrifice, but it all felt so wrong. So meaningless. 

That’s what made Sunday so special even if only half the household ended the day celebrating a victory. Liverpool earned its most bizarre win in my 21 years of fandom — its goalkeeper, Alisson Becker, scoring on a last-second header to keep the Reds’ Champions League qualification hopes alive.

I went from cursing a season filled with ties and losses to division bottom feeders to scaring about three lives out of our cat, Mario, who was on the bed at the time of the winning goal. 

I vaulted upstairs to watch the second half of the Penguins’ game with my wife. It was a rough afternoon for Denise’s goalkeeper, Tristan Jarry, who kept getting beat high-glove side. He also allowed one puck to leak through him. 

Jeff Carter nearly won it in overtime for the Penguins before Kyle Palmieri knocked John Marino to the ice, clearing a path to goal for a gorgeous winner just under the crossbar. It was then the flip-flop went flying. 

“It’s only one game,” my wife said after retrieving her footwear. She’s right. We’ve got so much sports to watch in the coming week — three more Penguins’ playoff games and two more Liverpool matches. Not to mention the rest of the NHL postseason menu. Former Penguins' goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was heroic in defeat during Sunday's second game, and the Lightning's 5-4 win over the Panthers in the nightcap was one of the better playoff games I've seen in years. What a day.  

Sports are back on schedule, and all is right in the House of Reed.

YOUR TURN: What is your favorite time on the sports calendar? Now? Late summer as the Pirates are playing and the Steelers are in training camp? In the fall, when the Steelers are in full swing? College bowl season?

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