If they indeed could imagine something better, then they obviously have very big dreams.
And there's no reason they shouldn't, as they wake up this morning as the hottest team in the National Basketball League of Canada, sitting four games clear atop the league's Atlantic Division with but four to play.
The Storm obliterated the Saint John Mill Rats on Tuesday night at Eastlink Arena 140-95, in a game that would have been stopped in the second period if it had been boxing.
That shellacking capped off a week in which they pulled out a tough road victory against playoff contender Oshawa 118-109, and then stunned the Central Division-champion London Lightning 109-105 on the Lightning's home court.
Those two road victories put the Storm in good shape for playoffs and a first-round bye. Tuesday night's performance at home put them in great shape. The Storm clinched their playoff spot, and is just one win, or one Halifax loss, away from clinching the Atlantic Division crown, a first-round playoff bye and home-court advantage in the semifinals.
Not bad.
Tuesday's win was a rescheduled game from the Islander Day postponement. Last year, there had been a great commotion about renaming Islander Day as Storm Day, an effort that is now filed under, "Be careful what you wish for."
It was a Storm Day indeed this year on Islander Day (Feb. 18), and the Tuesday night rescheduling simply showed why the Storm doesn't ever play on Tuesdays.
Of the 2,042 patrons who bought tickets for the original and rescheduled game, only 1,039 were announced as having made it through the turnstiles on Tuesday. And I think some may have gone through twice.
Those who didn't make it missed a wonderful performance by the hometown heroes. The loudest cheer of the night came when P.E.I.'s Doug McKinney nailed a long three-pointer to give the Storm 100 points (and also giving all patrons a badly-needed free car wash the next day at Wilson's Fuel in Summerside).
This event came midway through the third quarter, which meant that the 50-50 draw was the only real suspense of the night.
How hot were the Storm?
At one point Forward Chris Cayole threw a strange-looking long one-handed effort toward the basket, and it swished through the hoop, to hoots of laughter from the bench and all the Summerside players on the floor, especially Cayole.
"It was supposed to be an alley-oop pass," Cayole chuckled afterward. "I'm no point guard."
Just after that McKinney banked in a three-pointer, to more grins, on his way to a solid 12-point, five rebound effort.
The only casualties of the team-record 140-point night were scoreboard operator Jason Woods, whose fingers were badly swollen after punching in all those points, and statistician Harvey Mazerolle, who was prostrate with exhaustion at the completion of the game.
Both are expected to return on Friday night, when the Storm hosts the Oshawa Power, who are in a tight five-team battle for one of the remaining three playoff spots.
Bob Gray is a freelance journalist with a long history of P.E.I. basketball reporting. He welcomes comments at bgray@pei.sympatico.ca, and can be followed on Twitter @bgray5.
