Update: Rogers sent along this statement.

Our software update process is designed to avoid interrupting live TV and PVR recording. Unfortunately that didn’t happen in this case. We’re reviewing why it didn’t and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.

It was only a matter of time. I kept saying that to friends.

As both a night owl and a sports addict, I watch a lot of live TV late at night and into the wee hours of the morning. So when I received a new, upgraded digital terminal — a “Nextbox” — from Rogers Cable a couple years ago, I was both frustrated and daunted by the fact the box automatically rebooted in order to install software updates.

At exactly 2 a.m.

Every single night.

This isn’t like when your computer installs updates. There is no warning, no option to cancel or postpone. The updates can’t be installed when you turn off your cable box. And yes, apparently the box requires 365 updates a year. There’s no way out of it, so if you’re hoping to enjoy something — anything — on TV at 2 a.m., you’re SOL.

So I told my friends, “Eventually, a ton of people are going to miss a major moment in sports as a result of one of these updates and the shit is going to hit the fan.”

Late Thursday night/early Friday morning, that is exactly what happened.

At exactly 2 a.m. ET, Rogers cable boxes throughout Canada’s Eastern time zone abruptly rebooted. And as that was happening, at 2:03 a.m. ET, Mike Fisher scored in triple-overtime to give the Nashville Predators a dramatic 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Game 4 of their Western Conference second-round series.

Viewers who had stayed up five hours and had stuck around for more than two real-time hours of overtime were robbed of a chance to see the game-winning goal.

It’s somewhat ironic — and awesome — that the game in question was airing on Rogers Sportsnet 360, which is obviously a Rogers-owned network. But for fans watching on Rogers Cable, there was nothing awesome about it.

How many viewers were affected? Tough to tell right now. It was, after all, 2 a.m. And this was, after all, a game between two far-from-popular American NHL teams. But we’re talking about Canada here, and hockey is hockey, and the playoffs are the playoffs, and overtime is overtime.

What we do know is Rogers has about 2.25 million cable subscribers in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, and that — according to The Hockey News — an average of about 500,000 Canadians watched the first 20 games of the NHL playoffs. Those numbers have probably increased in the second round, but you’d have to imagine the majority of Thursday night/Friday morning triple-overtime viewers were watching from other time zones and on cable/satellite providers like Bell or Shaw, which are predominant west of Ontario.

My best guess? Somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 viewers got screwed at exactly 2 a.m. this morning. A sampling:

@Bell any good deal on tv/internet combos? @Rogers decided to reboot box during 3OT!!! This is the last straw. — Rob (@rccontracting) May 6, 2016

No better feeling than staying up past 2 am to watch triple OT and @Rogers rebooting your box a minute before the winning goal. Wtf. — Mark Millard (@markjmillard) May 6, 2016

What a great time for a @Rogers digital box update. Missed the 3OT goal… Stayed up for nothing. #ClassicRogers #SJSvsNSH — Grixtee (@Grixtee) May 6, 2016

https://twitter.com/djsannen/status/728465602373804032

LMAO @Rogers!

The Classic 2 AM NextBox Reboot strikes again during Triple Overtime, #NHLPlayoffs.

Don't tell me I didn't tell y'all… — J. Roca (@JRoc23) May 6, 2016

Thanks @rogers for rebooting my cable box during triple overtime. You are not Canadian. — Scot Milroy (@milrock71) May 6, 2016

Watching a triple OT game and the stupid @Rogers box automatically resets at 2am & robs you of the GWG. This will help your ratings @NHL — Nicolas (@theselfishsloth) May 6, 2016

So yeah, Rogers, you might want to think about pushing those updates to around 4 a.m., when there’s really no risk of pissing off sports fans. Or just — I dunno — be a little more aware of the live content you’re providing before allowing interruptions like these to take place? Because this was ridiculous, but make the same mistake with a Blue Jays postseason game or an NHL playoff game involving a Canadian team and you’ll never hear the end of it.

UPDATE: Rogers released this statement to Awful Announcing: