Didn’t Die (or get kicked on the way down)
Had to put this up. After all, he started this madness.
It dawned on me that I feel strangely energized today. Washing, cleaning, getting to all those little paper things I have been ignoring. I think they are called bills. What happened to the period of mourning I predicted? The listlessness, bitterness, the rending of hair?
Then I remembered what happens right after you fall off a horse and don’t die. I may not know much about other people or anything at all but apparently I know exactly how I work. Talk about a giant projection exercise. I may even go write other things not at all about hockey for a while, just because I owe them some time.
Or maybe not. The Flyers are playing today. They are such a nice low-maintenance team for a fan.
Go Tigger team!
Limbo, not Purgatory
I knew I should have made the Sharks female. But guys are funny about that.
Sharks lost, Hawks swept, Myster Name did very well. The Sharks also played hard, as did Nabby. I don’t want to think about changes to come for the team. With all the chatter I know some must be coming. But those draconian decisions will be made by Dracos, not me, not fans, not fates. Negotiations will be handled by agents and owners and managers and people who are unsentimental or at least trained to put sentiments aside. It’s a game, a business, not a thing to be ruled by emotion.
That is pretty much all that rules my approach to hockey, Zen has no place in it for a spectator, unless you feel your heart racing so fast you might be in danger of cardiac arrest. Then a little meditation is in order. I don’t feel nearly so awful as I thought I would. Maybe because the Czechs took the gold, or maybe because another dog ran off but reappeared right before I saw the end of the game. Or maybe I just ran out of adrenaline. (more…)
The City and The Glen
Cruel day. The Czech Republic-Russia game does not start early this morning. It starts just before noon, puck drop time for the Sharks game. That has to mean something but I’m not sure I want to know what, except that the IIHF and the NHL really would rather butt heads than promote the sport properly.
The NHL has more money, apparently, to throw around, so they don’t feel the need to kowtow to Europe. Europe doesn’t like being pushed around by the US. But here’s an oddity. After the Olympics, the NHL was all abuzz with the question “why do so many people watch Olympic hockey but then don’t care about the NHL games?” Here’s my answer: “why ask why? Why not just televise Olympic-type games, you nit wits!” They are going on, they are being taped and broadcast around Europe, you could just pay for the feed. Instead, the two leagues keep fighting like dogs over one manger and audiences do not grow. Probably it is all available via pay per view in the US. Everyone knows that is where you find new viewing audiences. Dopes. (more…)
Howard Jones Fibbed
Fox in the Swedish Coop
“Dollop” is a Norwegian word. Interesting. So is “slump.”
My grandmother has often told me, as her mother told her: NEVER think things can only get better, because they CAN always get worse. I should have remembered that when I heard that stupid song playing on the radio as I drove to a sports bar to watch the Sharks game last night.
The Czechs beat Sweden this morning, again before I woke up. I am very grateful to the hockey fates and also to all the Swedish players in the NHL who did not go to the aid of their national team. Special warm fuzzies to Franzen. Or maybe Sweden did not invite her sons in the NHL to join the team. I don’t care about the why, the what is all that matters. That means the Czechs will compete for the gold medal in the World Championships. I wonder if that game will take place early in the morning PST? I hope not. (more…)
Achilles Weeps
Hector
I named him Hector because I had watched Troy too many times. It was not a great movie but Eric Bana is always watchable. So when we adopted a big brown dog from the pound, rough coated, notorious for fighting with other dogs, yet possessed of a charm that no human could resist, I thought of Hector. So that was his name. I took a strange pleasure in shouting that name over the hills when he wandered off. If you have to shout a dog’s name for all the neighbors to hear, it had might as well be Hector. (more…)
Lamb Chop
1st Intermission, Game 3, Flyers at Habs
I think I was a little angry at the Flyers for winning on Tuesday. Like somehow they took all the winning from the karma tank and left none for the Sharks. Now I feel crummy because the Flyers are down 0-3 in Game 3 and Laviolette does not look happy. He looks very grumpy. I hate it when the coaches get cranky. It makes me feel like I’m going to get yelled at. Which I know is a special kind of crazy. (more…)
The Bathwater
Aside: the most popular search turning up this blog right now is the “origin of the name Byfuglien.” How disappointed those people must have been. Now I don’t feel so stupid for not being able to find more details.
One of the most busy topics of conversation on the Sharks message board right now is next season. I thought I had a problem with A.D.D.! The Short Attention Span Theater is alive and well in Shark territory. The part about these discussions that disturbs me is the focus on trades, contracts ending, and people shuffling about, that is: leaving. People have many opinions about who should leave or be sent packing, mostly based on very recent performance. I feel like the game is being narrated in Czech again and I am not drunk enough to understand it. (more…)
petshark 