Hangover
(hang-o-ver) noun
a severe headache or other side effects caused by drinking
excess of alcohol. A thing that has survived from the past: a hangover from the sixties
Hockey Hangover
(hock-ey hang-o-ver) noun
a severe headache and other side effects caused by the
dismal failure of Canadian teams to win the Stanley Cup: a
hockey hangover since 1993
Now that we’ve all had a little time to digest another
wretched year for Canadian hockey teams, it’s time to get real.
This is the first time in 16 years that no team from “Hockey
Nation” has made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs. Only 2 of 7 teams made the playoffs at
all. It will soon be 20 years since the
Montreal Canadiens won the cup in 1993.
20 years…
Prince changed his name to a symbol 20 years ago. Jennifer Aniston got her “big break” and made
her screen debut in Leprechaun. The dinosaurs
of Jurassic Park were running wild all over our imaginations. Ace Of Base was the most popular group on the
planet and we were all listening to Blind Melon’s “No Rain” and falling in love
with a chubby little girl dressed in a bee costume.
A lot has changed…
There was no reason to suspect the drought was about to hit;
a Canadian team had won 8 of the past 10 Stanley Cups. Canada won gold at the
1994 World Hockey Championships and silver at the Olympics in Lillehammer the
same year, only losing in a nail-biting shoot-out to Sweden. Our national junior team won the World
Championships in 1993 - the start of 5 in a row.
There was reason to be optimistic…
I’m tired of being optimistic. I’m pissed off, depressed and filled with
dark thoughts. I feel like our national
pride has a concussion from one too many cheap shots to the head. We are a nation built on hockey. We attach an unhealthy amount of self-worth
to our “boys” on the ice. When Canadian
teams lose we all feel like losers. When
Canadian teams lose we burn shit and actually become losers.
Teams from Dallas, Anaheim, Tampa Bay and Carolina have won
the Stanley Cup in the past 20 years – THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE ICE IN THOSE
PLACES!
I don’t know what the answer is. I’m an “armchair goalie” like everybody else,
pissing and moaning about the drought without offering anything substantive to
fix it. I will do the “Canadian thing”
and get back on board soon enough. I
will believe again because that’s just what we do.
I guess this year the hangover is just lasting a little
longer…
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