With tonight's loss to Minnesota, the Oilers are all but mathematically eliminated. Yeah, I know, I know. There's going to be a whiny HF voice in the crowd crying:
"NO! NO We're NOT DONE! BELIEVE! BELIEVE! ARE YOU AN TRUE OILERS FAN OR WHAT?"
Despite the resounding reassurances, the Oilers are done. Put a period to it.
It's over.
At best they can play a spoiler role and help the Nashville Predators make the playoffs instead of the Vancouver Canucks.
Looking back on the season, on an overall basis, it was definitely disappointing. From an off-season with some terrible moves, injuries to key veterans, followed up with lottery bound status for the first 4 months - well, that's a bundle of disappointment. The final 2 months were encouraging, but next year will tell a story on whether this was just a bad team playing good hockey once the pressure was completely off them [See: Toronto, Florida, and in previous years Phoenix, St. Louis]. Nonetheless, there are legitimate grounds for optimism with the nucleus of good young players - whether that means the playoffs next year, I'm not sure.
On a personal level, the passion/emotional investment into the Oilers faded away. Akin to a struggling couple who couldn't make it work, on the brink of hiring flashy suit men to finalize the divorce.
I've missed between 30-40 games outright this season. All but 1 or 2 PPV games,a bunch of HNIC games (during the time in which I was PLAYING hockey) and a series of other games throughout the year during the time in which I took advantage of the athletic facilities at the University of Alberta, playing basketball, badminton, and soccer. With regards to attending games - just two - and 1 of them included free tickets from David Staples. This contrasting to 5 games in 2003-2004 and 9 games in 2005-2006. It was a year I was more interested in the business side of the sport (Salary cap, statistics, Katz, New Arena saga, etc.) rather than the on-ice play.
Even tonight's critical game - turned it on and once it became 2-0 then there left no motivation to complete the game. Perhaps I expected the outcome and didn't see a reason to waste time. Perhaps it's being disgusted with the annual, "Just watch next year!" mantra. Or perhaps it's just a sign of age and maturity - as a maturing young adult you begin to see sports as merely entertainment, not passion.
Which perhaps may just be a good thing. I love hockey, but no question that I've spent too much time reading/gathering information/watching hockey. Life is too short.
And Stuff like this is exactly why you won't see me posting at HF much anymore. You don't get ahead in the corporate world wasting too much time on nonsense like this.
You just don't.
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7 comments:
Yes,sports are entertainment and yes the chances of the Oil squeeking in are zero. But...the last 2 months has been very entertaining with lots of goals, lots of lead changes, OT, shootouts,surprising rookies,etc. I would love to see another 06 run but I can't be too unhappy with the effort or the entertainment value in the last 20 games
Yes, the Internet is full of great writing, strong commentary, wonderful humour. It also full of strange and irresponsible comment, folks hiding behind made up names, folks blasting away at the coach, the GM, the players, as if these individuals were hate objects, not real people.
The Internet is the Wild West of free speech, but there's no sheriff in town, except, of course our defamation laws, which remain as strict and punitive as ever, and will one day come down hard on the head of some poor jerk flame-thrower on the Internet.
Hope you're not leaving us for good, Punjabi Oil.
That said, there is a whole wide world out there. . . . And you are right to want to have a major place in it.
That BryanBryOil seems to be everything wrong with the North American sportsfan: arrogant, immature, inelegant. Helps me identify with my team sports-hating friends, though. Hope you won't let a bag of douche like him sour you on this whole writing deal, though. I know I've been counting on your blog a lot more these days. I truly identify with your epiphany about sports as entertainment, it's fairly sobering to see it in type.
I've often wondered how guys like you and Lowetide didn't lose your minds posting on HF, and continue to do so. I lasted exactly one post before getting utterly frustrated.
Staples: I really don't mean to be patronizing, but I'm disappointed, man. The IOF types are precise but ineloquent in most cases, and you had the moral high ground, but you kind of blew it. It's a pool of freakdom you've jumped into, between your blog and comments, and a lot of people appreciate your work so far.
Anyway, again, I'm not bent on pontificating, you just seem a little disillusioned. From what
I've seen over the last month or so in the Oilogosphere, everyone's in the same tree, but everyone's got a different name for it.
Punjabioil,
If you're looking for another board free of pushy "fans", and are looking for somewhere you can feel freer to voice your opinion, I have a spot for you. There's a bunch of converts from the oilers.com and HF boards who like you and I became fed up with the ever prevalent flaming by narrow-minded blowhards.
DG:
Is it called the Oilogosphere? :-)
pdo:
Not quite. There's considerably less F-bombs, which can either be a good or bad thing, depending on how the Oilers are doing.
NO PunjabiOil! No white flags! No surrender! We will remember this post in two weeks when the Oilers are in the playoffs. Somehow we will digitally make you eat your words!!
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