this is a hockey fan:
these are hockey players:
What's the difference? Fundamentally, there's one: hockey players like to watch hockey, but would rather play; hockey fans just watch.
My brother-in-law is Canadian. Grew up in Windsor, but the Leafs and the Wings were so bad, he became a fan of Les Habs. And what self-respecting Canadian isn't? Anyway, he's played shinny a few times in his life, but he knows the NHL. Knows it well. We talk hockey a lot, but the funny thing is we're mostly talking past each other as I know the game, but he knows the league.
Our old goaltender (and frequent sub -- bless him!) is a player. And he proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt this Spring. Our goaltender was going to miss the first two games of the playoffs, so we called our sub. He graciously played game 1, and played brilliantly, as we won 2-1. So on to game two. I give him a call, "hey man, our guy won't be back, can you help us out?"
Problem is, he's a season ticket holder for the Sharks and has playoff tickets to game 2 of their first round series with the Flames. Initially he balks, but he calls me back, "I've talked it over with [his fiance]. If that's the only game we get tickets to, then I probably wouldn't want to see it anyway. I'll skate for you guys." Now that's hard core. He turned down an NHL playoff game on the theory that if that were the only game he got tickets to it was because the Sharks blew their first round series, and who would want to see that, anyway? Turns out he was kind of right. The Sharks lost that game, but won the series. So he got to see another game (a win, I think) before he got to see them tank in round two.
And for all that, we rewarded him . . . by playing no defense in a 6-0 shellacking. "Hey, thanks for helping us out!" [Sigh.]
But he's a hockey player. He didn't mind . . . (I hope).
2 comments:
haha....thanks.
Actually, I got to go to Game 7 against the Flames instead, so it worked out. Way cool! Except for the part where my fiancee lost her engagement ring at the arena :(
But yeah, I would ALWAYS rather play hockey than watch it. It's the same reason I used to hate going to BU hockey games in college. I hated watching other people my own age playing hockey on a rink I frequently skated on. I wanted to be out there instead, not just watching those clowns. I wasn't able to enjoy NCAA hockey until after I'd graduated.
I have a ranking of importance I usually stick to.
my regular season hockey > Sharks hockey
playoff Sharks > my regular season
my playoffs > playoff Sharks
I would consider subbing on par with "my hockey" because I'd always rather be playing....however, I wouldn't have given up my playoff tix (or any tix) for some random team asking for a sub. Only teams/guys I like.
Actually, I did make one exception to my rule....I played an exhibition game last week instead of going to Game 5 vs. Dallas. I had a game last Friday, and as of last Wed. night the Sharks were down 3-0. I had to make a decision one way or the other before the game so that my team could get a replacement if needed. So I just decided to play instead, PLUS save an extra $200.
My wife constantly calls me "stupid" when I'll play on Tuesday nights and then get up 4-6 hours later to play pick-up the following morning. Nah - stupid would be tuning into ESPN to see hockey higlights...they never show those.
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