Last Splash

Wednesday, 25 October 2006

I think my friend's blog has me thinking about sports. I wanted to dispel a popular rumor about us 'Canes fans down here in the new Hockeytown (oh, my...Detroit fans are going to hunt me down and shove octopus...octopi?... down my throat). I don't mean this to be a detriment to our great fans, because I've been in a few other sports arenas around the way, and we really do have the loudest, almost electric feeling at the RBC that I've ever experienced. Seriously, when the decibel level is at about jet-engine territory, you know you've got a good thing going. And I'm not one of those who believe that the opposing team is really affected by all of this. They are, after all, professionals and could really give a rip about where they're playing as long as they smash the other team. But I think it does make it a little bit intimidating to come into an arena like that.

On to my point, which was going to be about what a loser our Commisioner is, and how he was so impressed by the fans in Carolina and how we stood for the whole game and he's never seen that anywhere and blah blah. Get off it, Gary. You never wanted to see us succeed here, you're never really going to give us an All-Star game, especially not after you had the misfortune to hold your draft here on the verge of a lockout. That was fun. Any now here you are, dropping in on our broadcasts, not really saying anything except that our fans stood for the whole game. Except we didn't...everyone wanted to, but trust me, we didn't. When you're sitting in the front row of the upper level, and there's an 83 year old sitting two rows behind you with her two rough and tumble sons (that have already started a fight with someone else sitting near you) and further down the row, the 58 year old lady that always wears all red, but not Canes memorabilia, more like knitted red sweaters (and I'll bet she has Christmas sweaters, too) shoves a guy because he came back to his seat too late after the intermission and he's blocking her view of the game (which is so FREAKING rude), well, you don't stand up. Not for the whole game, anyway.

I'm just tired of hearing about how great our fans are because we stood for the whole game and no one's ever done that. Is that what it took to prove that we really love hockey here? We have to go above and beyond what every other Stanley Cup winning fanbase has done in the past, because if we just do what they did, then we must not want it bad enough? Wasn't there any other way to prove we really, truly do like hockey as a sport, because the whole standing up thing seems a little like a cop-out to me. "I don't know, Barry, that girl didn't recognize the hooking call on Williams, but she must be a big hockey fan because she's stood up for the entire game..." I don't get it.