Despite recent big news stories like Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize (too much) or the likelihood of Turkey attending a big war party in Iraq (really?!), I’m tempted to write about my feelings instead. In particular, some new feelings I’ve been feeling. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve experienced a strange wave of sympathy for Maple Leafs fans and I don’t know how to overcome this. I might need help.
True, the season is only two weeks old. Even truer, I’ve always relished in their defeats and made selfish prayers for bad things. But some things just aren’t right. They deserve a better team than this and, more importantly, I deserve a better team to hate. As an avid fan of the Senators of Ottawa City (official team of IWTBYB), this is a natural hatred, but one that is shared by many fans of many other hockey teams. It’s a hate that brings people together. For me, though, much of this sentiment stems from the unceremonious dumping that they have served to the Sens four (4!) times in the playoffs. This happened because the Leafs were a decent team and I can hate a decent team.
The season, of course, is young. A quick look at their five losses (in 7 games, ha!) shows that they’ve given up 7 leads. If they can play a good defence and stop doing that, they can overcome a weak start (and a not terrible record, due to overtime points) and maybe even make the playoffs. I thought they stood a pretty good chance before this season even started due to some decent offseason pickups and Paul Maurice, a coach I believe is a capable leader.
In the spirit of full disclosure, though, I’m not that innocent. I do feel for these sad, sorry people, particularly the ones that are 40 years old, and too young to remember the last time the Leafs won a Cup, yet not young at all. But mostly, I wrote this article to introduce some Bryan McCabe highlights that make me laugh and laugh and laugh. Like the one where he gets checked by his own net and the one where he scores the winning overtime goal for Buffalo (which is shown four times in this clip and gets funnier at each angle.) My hope is that they improve for the next four months and then collapse and miss the playoffs by a point or two. Then I won’t feel sorry anymore. Just smug, as usual.
True, the season is only two weeks old. Even truer, I’ve always relished in their defeats and made selfish prayers for bad things. But some things just aren’t right. They deserve a better team than this and, more importantly, I deserve a better team to hate. As an avid fan of the Senators of Ottawa City (official team of IWTBYB), this is a natural hatred, but one that is shared by many fans of many other hockey teams. It’s a hate that brings people together. For me, though, much of this sentiment stems from the unceremonious dumping that they have served to the Sens four (4!) times in the playoffs. This happened because the Leafs were a decent team and I can hate a decent team.
The season, of course, is young. A quick look at their five losses (in 7 games, ha!) shows that they’ve given up 7 leads. If they can play a good defence and stop doing that, they can overcome a weak start (and a not terrible record, due to overtime points) and maybe even make the playoffs. I thought they stood a pretty good chance before this season even started due to some decent offseason pickups and Paul Maurice, a coach I believe is a capable leader.
In the spirit of full disclosure, though, I’m not that innocent. I do feel for these sad, sorry people, particularly the ones that are 40 years old, and too young to remember the last time the Leafs won a Cup, yet not young at all. But mostly, I wrote this article to introduce some Bryan McCabe highlights that make me laugh and laugh and laugh. Like the one where he gets checked by his own net and the one where he scores the winning overtime goal for Buffalo (which is shown four times in this clip and gets funnier at each angle.) My hope is that they improve for the next four months and then collapse and miss the playoffs by a point or two. Then I won’t feel sorry anymore. Just smug, as usual.
2 comments:
Go to a Sens game in Ottawa -or a Habs game in Montréal- when the leafs are in town, I guarantee that your hate will be renewed and energized, whatever the status of Leafs this season.
p.s.: I linked your blog, finally, to mine.
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