When baseball ends I truly enter into a sort of
depression mode. I hate it. Even when the Yankees win the World Series I still
feel this gap in my soul. Baseball Tonight is no longer on, stats and scores
don’t scroll across the bottom of ESPN, and even the idea of being able to go
to a D-Backs game is no longer a possibility when the season is done. Certain
things help. Michael Vick and Desean Jackson helped for a while. Winter meetings
and off season moves distracted me from the fact that there are no games. And
in years past I have even depended on Lebron James and Kobe Bryant who fill my
void of competiveness that I like to watch.
Last spring during the winter Olympics (about ¼ as
amusing as summer Olympics) I began to hope and pray for the American Hockey
team. Strictly because I consider myself an amazing American and patriot, I
feel it’s my duty to cheer for America no matter what it is. I even TIVOed the
American Curling team just to hope for an American victory. Watching the American
Hockey team originally felt like a lost cause as it is well known throughout
the hockey world that Russia and Canada are much superior to the rest of the
World. Even countries like Finland, Sweden, and Latvia have fielded better
squads then America. Also considering the fact that the Olympics were held in
CANADA, the possibility of someone upsetting Canada was unthinkable.
Going into the tournament USA was predicted to
finish fourth but once Russia was upset by Latvia the Gold Medal game had
suddenly come down to USA vs Canada, something no one predicted. The
anticipation within my circle of friends was enormous as it should have been in
every American. We were so amped for the game it felt like a game 7 Yankees vs
Red Sox. After falling down 2-0 early it felt like we were going to get blown
out but we held them to 2 and then scored 1 in the beginning of the 3rd
period. With 24 seconds left in the game Scott Parise, plays for NJ Devils,
scored tying the game. It was literally the craziest thing I’ve seen since
Aaron Boone’s walk off. I was watching it with around 20 guys and we erupted. To
make it better, a guy down the hall in our frat house was Canadian and had been
talking smack all week. We ran down to his room screaming and yelling. It felt
like we had won a war or something. The game went into overtime and we were so
pumped that we could win the gold. The communist puke Sidney Crosby scored the
game winning gold for Canada and we were crushed but just to get that close
felt good. Aside from NASCAR races and Yankees games in my basement when I was
a kid, it was the greatest sport comradery I have felt.
This game sparked my love for hockey and so I
started to follow it. I remember watching it as a kid and I know some of its
history, especially Gretzky, but I hadn’t really followed it at all. Just so
happens the Flyers were one of the best teams in the league so that was good. A
week after the gold medal loss, a bunch of my buddies got free tickets to a
Coyotes game from an alumni. We went to the game and they were of course facing
a Canadian team, the Vancouver Canucks. We were cheering hard for PHX. During
the Canada national anthem, the entire stadium booed and the entire stadium
then sang in unison our national anthem. In front of us were some Canuck fans
and we gave it to them all night long, no homo. The game went into overtime,
and then a shootout. PHX one in the 6th round of the shootout to
wrap up one of the most fun sporting events of my life. This now places 2
hockey games in my top 5 sports memories.
Every year the NHL has an outdoor game on New Year’s
Day called the Winter Classic. It usually takes place in a baseball field with
one year happening in Wrigley Field and last years in Fenway Park. This year
was in Pittsburgh in the Steelers stadium between the Penguins and Washington Capitals.
Leading up to the game HBO did a four hour series documenting both teams as
they prepared for their meeting on January 1. The show is called “24/7 Penguins”
and if your even just a sports fan you should watch it because it’s interesting
to see what it’s like for the players to travel and the behind the scenes part
of sports. The show was awesome and really started to get me loving hockey. For
the third year in a row I chose to watch “The Winter Classic” instead of the
bowl games on that day and it didn’t disappoint. Washington upset Pittsburgh
which is always fun watching Crosby lose and he got hammered on a hit knocking
him out of the next three games.
The point is that I have slowly started to love the
game of hockey and as an avid sports video gamer, I purchased for the first
time in my life the EA Sports hockey game. It’s extremely fun to play. It is an
excellent way to fill the time during the offseason of baseball and I guess the
entire reason for this huge post is to try and get you guys to start watching
it and learn to love the game. In my opinion it blows basketball out of the
water and since NFL sucks and the Patriots will win the Super Bowl again, I
urge you to try out hockey and let me know what you think. I think everyone can
appreciate the passion that the players have and the cool traditions and
superstitions which players have. I know most of you (Jeremy) will argue its
hard because of the players names and the fact that so many foreigners are
better than Americans but I think you can also appreciate that Americans are
getting better, especially at Goalie, and the players names aren’t that hard
once you get them down. Like the best player in the league Washington Caps
Center Alex Ovechkin, everyone calls him Ovy. Or Evgeni Malkin from Penguins everyone
calls Geno. It will take time but I think it’s worth it. The toughness is
appealing too. The other day a guy took a puck to the face, left to get stitches,
came back and scored a goal. Pretty tough.
Let me know what you think. I know I’ll hear
American arguments and believe me, I’m still a baseball fan and nothing will
ever come close to baseball but Hockey is a fun substitute. We should try and
go to a Coyotes game, there so fun and beer is cheap. Also, in this argument, I
haven’t even mentioned the Miracle on Ice, arguably the greatest sports achievement
in American history.
