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(warning: LONG POST. And it's about hockey.)
So NHL Hockey is back. Who cares?
For me, my love of hockey has been a casual one, though to describe it thusly may be slightly misleading. I didn't really get into following hockey until back around 1992-93, when the hometown Kamloops Blazers' Memorial Cup win was followed by the legendary Vancouver Canucks playoff run the next season. For a few years, this cemented my passion for following both the WHL and NHL leagues.
But near the end of high school, I started to lose interest in attending Blazers games. And my interest in the Canucks had dwindled ever since the Mike Keanan/Mark Messier/Trevor Linden disasters, leaving me a somewhat disinterested fan; one that would follow the playoffs each year, not really watching all the games, but more out of curiosity. I didn't even have a favourite team. Sure, the Canucks always got some approval from me, but I think that was more because they were the closest I had to a mandatory "local" team.
Then, college started, the Blazers started to suck ass big time (BIG TIME), and the Canucks logo turned into some kind of Kodiak whale, or something. My interest in professional hockey pretty much disappeared, leaving me (quite contentedly, I might add) to reserving my hockey passion for the street hockey games I partook in.
But once I was in j-school, I met and got to know Canucks Fanatic Nick, along with not-quite-so-fanatical Al, Mark, Silv, Spigs (who is just as Fanatical about the Red Wings as Nick is about the Canucks, but since it's the Red Wings, gets no hyperlink). I started to get interested again.
Then the playoffs came. And something magical happened.
Nick graduated that year, and had already moved most of his things out of the basement suite in which he lived. There remained, if I remember correctly, the following:
- couch
- TV
- laptop with internet still hooked up
- one small nightstand
Me, Nick and Silv sat in that barren room and watched the entire (albeit short-lived) Canucks playoff run that year. For Nick and Silv, it was just like every other year. But for me, who hadn't seriously watched hockey in years, it was new and yet familar all at once. The game was the same. The rules were the same. But I didn't know the players. I didn't know the history. I didn't know the rivalries.
It was great.
By the end of the series with Minnesota, I was making fun of goalies with Silv, and was spitting epiphets with Nick at Marian Gaborik (who I drafted in the next year's hockey pool, not knowing he was embroiled in a contract dispute and would net me a whopping zero points before I dropped him). I was fully caught up with the wonder and beauty that is the NHL playoffs. I cheered for the Canucks, but more for fun than for any real love. To be honest, I didn't care for most of them. I mocked Cloutier relentlessly and expressed my contempt for Todd Bertuzzi at every chance I got. But I still cheered them on nonetheless. It was nice just to be cheering for a team again.
The next year I followed the regular season haphazardly - partially because I was in an NHL fantasy pool this time, and I always follow stats and results when I'm in a pool. Unless it's football. Or basketball. In fact, I guess it's really just baseball and hockey I follow. Oh well.
Then I moved to Alberta. Come playoff time, the slow roar of the Calgary Flames' increasing momentum started to pick up, but Nick and I still cheered for the miserable Canucks. Nick, because he's a Canuckamaniac at heart, and me, well, partially just to annoy the people I know in Alberta who were going for the Flames. Of course, the Canucks lost, surprising no one. But the Flames embarked on a breathtaking, logic-defying playoff run that took me right back to the Canucks run that first got me interested in hockey.
Even though I wasn't (and still am not) a large Flames fan, there was something undeniably heartwarming about last year's playoffs. I could go into detail, but frankly, if you're still reading this, you already know what I mean. By now, I knew the players. I knew the histories, I knew the rivalries. I was ready to start watching again.
And then the season was cancelled.
Without getting into the nuts and bolts of the ugly negotiations, the endless false hopes and let-downs, I'll just say this: when hockey comes back on...I guess I'll watch it. If I happen to turn the TV on and flip to the station. And nothing else is on.
Or I might not. I dunno. I'm just not that interested anymore.
It took a lot to rekindle my interest once. And I don't know if the NHL has the stuff to do it a second time.
[posted by Rades at 11:10 AM] LINK ||
So NHL Hockey is back. Who cares?
For me, my love of hockey has been a casual one, though to describe it thusly may be slightly misleading. I didn't really get into following hockey until back around 1992-93, when the hometown Kamloops Blazers' Memorial Cup win was followed by the legendary Vancouver Canucks playoff run the next season. For a few years, this cemented my passion for following both the WHL and NHL leagues.
But near the end of high school, I started to lose interest in attending Blazers games. And my interest in the Canucks had dwindled ever since the Mike Keanan/Mark Messier/Trevor Linden disasters, leaving me a somewhat disinterested fan; one that would follow the playoffs each year, not really watching all the games, but more out of curiosity. I didn't even have a favourite team. Sure, the Canucks always got some approval from me, but I think that was more because they were the closest I had to a mandatory "local" team.
Then, college started, the Blazers started to suck ass big time (BIG TIME), and the Canucks logo turned into some kind of Kodiak whale, or something. My interest in professional hockey pretty much disappeared, leaving me (quite contentedly, I might add) to reserving my hockey passion for the street hockey games I partook in.
But once I was in j-school, I met and got to know Canucks Fanatic Nick, along with not-quite-so-fanatical Al, Mark, Silv, Spigs (who is just as Fanatical about the Red Wings as Nick is about the Canucks, but since it's the Red Wings, gets no hyperlink). I started to get interested again.
Then the playoffs came. And something magical happened.
Nick graduated that year, and had already moved most of his things out of the basement suite in which he lived. There remained, if I remember correctly, the following:
- couch
- TV
- laptop with internet still hooked up
- one small nightstand
Me, Nick and Silv sat in that barren room and watched the entire (albeit short-lived) Canucks playoff run that year. For Nick and Silv, it was just like every other year. But for me, who hadn't seriously watched hockey in years, it was new and yet familar all at once. The game was the same. The rules were the same. But I didn't know the players. I didn't know the history. I didn't know the rivalries.
It was great.
By the end of the series with Minnesota, I was making fun of goalies with Silv, and was spitting epiphets with Nick at Marian Gaborik (who I drafted in the next year's hockey pool, not knowing he was embroiled in a contract dispute and would net me a whopping zero points before I dropped him). I was fully caught up with the wonder and beauty that is the NHL playoffs. I cheered for the Canucks, but more for fun than for any real love. To be honest, I didn't care for most of them. I mocked Cloutier relentlessly and expressed my contempt for Todd Bertuzzi at every chance I got. But I still cheered them on nonetheless. It was nice just to be cheering for a team again.
The next year I followed the regular season haphazardly - partially because I was in an NHL fantasy pool this time, and I always follow stats and results when I'm in a pool. Unless it's football. Or basketball. In fact, I guess it's really just baseball and hockey I follow. Oh well.
Then I moved to Alberta. Come playoff time, the slow roar of the Calgary Flames' increasing momentum started to pick up, but Nick and I still cheered for the miserable Canucks. Nick, because he's a Canuckamaniac at heart, and me, well, partially just to annoy the people I know in Alberta who were going for the Flames. Of course, the Canucks lost, surprising no one. But the Flames embarked on a breathtaking, logic-defying playoff run that took me right back to the Canucks run that first got me interested in hockey.
Even though I wasn't (and still am not) a large Flames fan, there was something undeniably heartwarming about last year's playoffs. I could go into detail, but frankly, if you're still reading this, you already know what I mean. By now, I knew the players. I knew the histories, I knew the rivalries. I was ready to start watching again.
And then the season was cancelled.
Without getting into the nuts and bolts of the ugly negotiations, the endless false hopes and let-downs, I'll just say this: when hockey comes back on...I guess I'll watch it. If I happen to turn the TV on and flip to the station. And nothing else is on.
Or I might not. I dunno. I'm just not that interested anymore.
It took a lot to rekindle my interest once. And I don't know if the NHL has the stuff to do it a second time.
[posted by Rades at 11:10 AM] LINK ||