Well, the diabetic blood-glucose thing has apparently worsened rather severely, and it's gotten to the point now that a half-hour's worth of physio exercises leaves me exhausted and out of action for the better part of a day, and a full hour's worth of exercises forces me to spend over a day recovering. Accordingly, I'm tracking some dietary and medication changes before starting a new pharmaceutical regimen later this week. Hopefully, that will give me enough stamina to get more of these entries committed to an unsuspecting and disinterested public domain.
American Sports
Somewhat uncharacteristically, I've watched a few NHL games recently, and a few things started to become clear to me. Try and follow me as I walk through these.The Edmonton Oilers are snakebitten. This is a team that is penalized, in at least a couple of cases, twice as often as opposing teams. Officials send Oiler players to the penalty box often, in crucial situations, and in questionable circumstances. Edmonton also seems to have an awful lot of bad luck in terms of injuries, disqualified goals, and the lack of rule enforcement on other teams' play. The team's morale is mercilessly crushed two or three times per game, and the psychological toll on the players is obvious.
The Las Vegas Golden Knights are setting records not just for major league hockey, but in terms of all major North American sports franchises in terms of victories, goals for/against, home and road records, etc., etc. In much the same way as the Oilers seem to be handicapped by league officiating, the Knights are basking in the glow of welcoming warmth given by the league that eagerly accepted their $500 million US expansion fee. Half a billion dollars appears to not only have given them some instant all-star players through a generous entry draft structure, but also some tendencies toward generosity in terms of scheduling, television marketing, and game commentary.
Meanwhile, in the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Atlanta Falcons in a game involving two touchdowns. One for each team. And one of those wasn't even converted. Not that people expected much from an Eagles team missing its Pro Bowl superstar talisman quarterback through injury. Oh, and they are also missing four other star players through injury, so their game plan was somewhat conservative.
Contrasted with North American sports, hitherto undefeated and all but statistically proven league-leaders Manchester City lost a thrilling 4-3 game to Liverpool FC in the English Premier League. The Citizens shrugged off the loss, and celebrated a tremendous game played with verve, strength, daring, and a boatload of courage.
The conclusion that I'm starting to draw is something like the Vince Lombardi (and Red Saunders) quotation "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."
In England, Manchester City congratulated themselves broadly on coming back from 4-1 down in the second half of a game, and fighting back to nearly earn a draw when most teams would have run up the white flag and tried to play damage-control to save further embarrassment. They lost, but with honour and dignity, and without sacrificing their team philosophy or strategy.
In Philadelphia, Eagles fans were singing in celebration of a dire, boring, and listless win in which their place-kicker couldn't convert the single touchdown that they scored. It was pragmatic, ugly, but clocked in as more than satisfactory.
In the NHL, no Canadian-based team has won the Stanley Cup in 25 years. In that time, seven different American-based franchises won their first ever championship. The lesson seems to be that Canadians will watch hockey regardless, but American return on sports investment hinges on winning games. When that sort of investment involves hundreds of millions of dollars, franchise owners expect a lot of wins.
The bottom line for Edmonton Oilers or Toronto Maple Leafs or Montréal Canadiéns fans is that they cannot afford success. Literally. The league stands to earn far more revenue from ice hockey cold spots like Raleigh, NC or Columbus, OH than a Canadian location. Las Vegas just paid $500 million to play, and they are getting the run of the table. If a Canadian team folds, as Québec City's did, the League will shuffle the franchise south and collect another franchise fee. If a Canadian team manages to stay afloat, it will be a punching bag for whomever was the last to sluice cash into the league's coffers.
The question, and it's a very Canadian one, is whether Canadian hockey fans will follow the American model or the British one. An American solution is to abandon history, tradition, philosophy, and character and pursue victory at all costs. The British solution would be to maintain one's character and honour in the face of all odds.
When the New Jersey Devils won their first Stanley Cup in 1995, they employed a tactical system involving a "neutral-zone trap" that essentially meant that if they did not have possession of the puck, they would drop into a formation designed to create turnovers. If they had the lead, they would play for as many whistles and stoppages of play as possible, deliberately going offside or icing the puck dozens of times. The games would be boring, lack flow and offence, but gave the Devils loads of wins. Similar tactics were used by the Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, Buffalo Sabres, and the Mighty Ducks with similar results.
The question is this - would an Edmonton or Toronto fan accept a mind-numbingly boring playing style if it meant more wins? Or would they instead prefer to play an open, forechecking, fast-paced game and accept their lot as perpetual also-rans? If the Oilers suddenly decided to ice the puck on every play to avoid ever having to make a line change, I'm fairly certain that attendance would drop off more sharply than if the team missed the playoffs for ten years straight.
I just hope that Canadian NHL teams can hang onto their style and identity until all of the artificially inflated and superficially supported teams south of the Mason-Dixon line collapse under the weight of their own self-imposed financial structure.
Shower Songlist
Here are the songs my iPod selected for me during my last cleansing experience. This time I reckon that there are actually some thematic elements that appear less opaque than usual.- UKRIP, by Dodgy
- Boom Shalacka, by House of Pain
- Second Hand News, by Fleetwood Mac
- Love Me Two Times, by The Doors
- All That She Wants, by Ace of Base
- Don't Look Back in Anger, by Oasis
- Jericho, by Johnny Clegg
In case I'm imaging connections where none exist, it seems to me that there is a theme of repetition and recrimination. Refutations are welcome.
In any event, this enervated pilgrim needs to return to his rest. Until next time, goodnight England and the colonies.
—mARKUS
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