I, like most Bruins fans glued to their sets in the final minutes of the team’s consecutive 2-1 losses to the Montreal Canadiens, silently (and at times, not so silently) pleaded for the Black and Gold to somehow, in some way, score the tying goal. It happened again Thursday night as I prayed to the heavens for the Celtics to make just one last defensive stop against the Iversons in game four. If the B’s could just get one more goal, it would go to overtime, and the series’ outcome would have been different. If the Answer misses one shot in those final seconds in Philly, then the Green advance to the conference semifinals. Right? Things would be different. The outcomes would be different. We’d be having a different conversation now, about our teams preparing for the second round of the playoffs. Correct? Without a doubt. I would think ...

Back when I was a young man courting the young lass who would ultimately become my wife, I feverishly planned a complicated proposal scenario, but it only would work out if the weather was perfect on that particular Saturday morning. The details are not important here, except to say that I needed a sunny, windless day, and I had no Plan B. Therefore, I made a theoretical deal with the devil: if I got that day with the aforementioned ideal meteorological conditions, I offered Lucifer, he could give me rainy days for any other subsequent "important" dates in my life. As it turned out, I got that perfect day, my girlfriend said "yes," and I live happily ever after. Except for the leftovers of a hurricane on my wedding day, 30 inches of snow on my moving day, and a host of other special occasions postponed or otherwise altered by monsoon-like gales and torrents.

Be careful what you wish for. But it was worth it for me.

Anyway, what I’m getting to in a roundabout way is the concept of offering Boston sports fans the opportunity to go back in time and make similar deals with the powers that be to change the outcome of one particular sports moment, but in the process possibly confound the result of a different game or season. For example, if the prayers for the tying goal put up by Bruins fans in games five and six had been answered, and overtime resulted in either game, would you be willing to exchange that for, say, Kyle McLaren’s being suspended for the entire remainder of the four-round tournament? Or losing Byron Dafoe to a knee injury that would require Boston to rely on John Grahame or Kay Raycroft the rest of the way? Or Celtics fans: would you make a deal to have the Green win Thursday’s game four in Philadelphia outright, if you knew you’d lose the services of guard Kenny Anderson for the rest of the playoffs?

Let’s put forth some even more intriguing scenarios that Satan — laughing with delight — might put on the table for you to ponder.

Would you sacrifice the 1986 Celtics’ world championship — having them instead lose to the Houston Rockets — if you knew that in return, Len Bias would not die of a cocaine overdose, and would instead be a part of the Green for the next five to 10 years (starting in the fall of ’86)?

Would you have rather had Dave Henderson get whiffed by Donnie Moore in the fifth game of the ALCS in Anaheim, thereby sparing you the trauma that was the eventual outcome of the 1986 World Series?

Would you take the Patriots straight up in a $1000 Super Bowl wager if you knew Drew Bledsoe, not Tom Brady, was Bill Belichick’s selection to lead the team against the Rams?

If you could wipe out Desmond Howard’s 99-yard kick return for a touchdown in the 1997 Super Bowl (a 35-21 Patriots loss to the Packers) and instead, know that Troy Brown does not return a punt for a score in the 2002 AFC title game against the Steelers, would you make that trade, and take your chances on two New England Super Bowl wins instead of potentially none?

Would you delete from history Ray Bourque’s Stanley Cup–winning moment with the Avalanche last spring, in exchange for this year’s Bruins team reaching the Cup finals against Detroit?

Would you accept a deal where the Celtics reach the NBA finals this year, but as a result, Ty Law’s interception return for a TD in this past Super Bowl never happened? (Do the Pats still win without that play? Hmmmm ...)

Would you have accepted a Bruins or Celtics championship this year, but in return give up any chance for a Red Sox title for the next dozen years?

B’s fans: would you trade a Bruins’ game-winning overtime goal in the 1990 Cup Final opener against Edmonton (ultimately an excruciating 3-2 loss in three overtimes and a five-game series loss), but in return, never get the chance to have Joe Thornton as part of your team?

Would you have prefer to see Roger Clemens get re-signed by the Sox in 1997 and subsequently pitch as well in Boston as he did in Toronto and New York, or would you rather have seen Pedro Martinez for these last three-plus years? Or a healthy Mo Vaughn stays, but Manny Ramirez never comes?

Would you accept a deal where the Celtics got the number-one pick back in 1997 and took Tim Duncan, but in exchange erase the Mo Lewis hit on Bledsoe and as a result never have Tom Brady play a down for the 2001-’02 season?

Would you wipe out Doug Flutie’s entire 1984 Heisman Trophy season with BC in order to get two more years of Bill Parcells’s coaching the Patriots?

Would you make a deal where the Bruins played anyone but the Canadiens in the first round of this year’s playoffs, but have to play the series without Bill Guerin?

Would you bet a month’s salary on a set of circumstances where the Celtics played the Lakers instead of the Rockets in the 1986 NBA Finals, and the Celtics still win in six?

Ghoulish, but we’ll throw it out there: would you make a deal with the devil to have Len Bias and Reggie Lewis both still in the NBA, but never get the chance to see Nomar Garciaparra as a Red Sox? (To avoid angry letters, let’s agree that human life is sacred and supercedes all sports, and just put this question in terms of imagining the future impact that the two late hoopsters would have had on the Celtics in relation to Nomar’s on the Sox.)

Here’s a deal for you: the Bruins advance and eventually play the San Jose Sharks in the Stanley Cup finals, but that means Adam Vinatieri misses the 47-yard field goal at the end of regulation in Super Bowl XXXVI, and the teams go to the coin flip in OT instead. Take it or leave it?

Would you accept this premise? The Yankees and Mariners will definitely be knocked out in the first round of the AL playoffs this fall, but if, and only if, the Sox play without Manny the rest of the regular season.

The devil will delete all four of the Yankees’ World Series championships in the ’90s, but as a result the FleetCenter and CMGI Field will not be unveiled for sporting events until 2007. Acceptable?

Bobby Orr never develops knee problems, but in exchange, Bourque never plays here.

Would you accept a deal where a new waterfront Fenway Park is open for business in four years, but at the cost of having Dan Duquette still running the Sox?

You want a piece of this? Mookie Wilson strikes out in the bottom of the 10th inning in game six of the ’86 World Series, but in exchange, Larry Bird leaves the Celtics as a free agent at the end of the 1983 season and plays the rest of his career with the New York Knicks.

Boy, we could go on with these deals, and as more glittering trophies and monumental athletic achievements are accumulated in the Boston sports library, perhaps we can address more what-if scenarios when the time is right. Feel free to submit your own, if you like (cyoung[a]phx.com). Until then, have a seat, debate ’em in your mind, and throw them out for discussion among your buddies over your next cold brew.

For all we know, prior deals with the Evil Imp could be responsible for most of local sports fans’ past (and present) heartbreak. That sure as hell would explain a lot of things, like top seeds losing to eights, 26 Pinstriper titles since 1918, and Tom Arnold on TV.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com.