Call this "confessions of a non-hockey fan who happens to live in a hockey mad region." A region that had the pure sports bliss of witnessing their local team valiantly battle for the NHL championship. Lord Stanley, are you listening?
During the NHL playoffs, I have found myself in an odd position. I never watched a minute, but as a result of friends who were fans and updates on ESPN radio (I still listen despite Mike Greenberg's increasinlgy fawning and annoying delivery), I managed to keep in tune with what was happening.
I am not a hockey fan, but I am a sports fan. So I get the significance of what the Flyers did. To me, regardless of how many other teams had done it, coming back to win after being down 3 games to none in a playoff series (against the Boston Bruins) is remarkable and worthy of some hype. I actually enjoyed the Flyers' story a lot more because I wasn't immersed in it.
I can contrast this to the endless and meaningless hyperbole associated with Stephen Strasburg's impressive debut. Yes, Strasburg had a fantastic performance. If you based your opinion of that outing solely on ESPN's (and in my case, the Mike & Mike in the Morning's perspective) coverage, you'd assume that no pitcher had ever had a pitching performance as great as that one was. The fact is that there have been a few other great performances, and Greenberg, Tim Kurkjian et. al. seem to conveniently forget all that when it suits them. As for Strasburg - it was an amazing pitching line - 14 strikeouts (Ks) out of 94 pitches. Amazing. But let's see how he's doing after his 7th or 8th start. He may still be pitching fantastically, but I doubt it will be as spectacular as his debut outing. I don't think we'll be seeing 14 Ks out of 94 pitches again anytime soon. I do think he has all the makings of a very good pitcher, though.
Get back to the ice!
Right. Okay, coming back to win the last 4 games of a playoff series is an incredible feat. I remember 2004, when the Red Sox did this to the Yankees, and how against-all-odds that seemed. To see it happen again so soon after that - and to a team that is regionally significant to me is really cool. One could argue that the comeback against the Bruins was the most significant happening of the 2009-2010 NHL season. If one chooses to argue this point - please take it easy on me. I'm a hockey novice...
Something like an incredible and a historic comeback can really make the most hardened, post-season disappointment-expecting Philadelphia fan (and we expect disappointment for good reason) take note and start to believe that, "Yes! a Philly team can win a championship!" Much national and local ink was wasted - before and after the Phillies scintillating run to their awesome 2008 World Series win - about the 25 years of dormancy in Philadelphia championships. (Actually, for me it was 28 years, as I am, in addition to not being a hockey fan, I am also not a basketball (NBA in particular) fan, so the 1982-1983 Sixers title holds little true value for me.)
But I digress...again!
Next up for the Flyers were the Chicago Blackhawks, a team that I later learned was even more snakebit than the Flyers, having last won the Stanley Cup in 1961. Add this to 100+ years of Chicago Cub baseball championship futility, and you can see that Philly and Chicago fans have some common ground.
Of course, with news of tasering, fans premeditated throwing up on fans and kids with beer bottles fresh on the media circuit, it wasn't long before the alleged loutish behavior of the Philly fan started to surface. But I blocked all that out and waited with an unexpected anticipation for the second-hand updates of the Flyers games.
Keep in mind that I didn't watch any of the games, so all I can tell is how I experienced these games. It didn't start out well, as the Flyers dropped the first two games by one goal in each, in what look like close matches when I see them in the box scores.
Then the Flyers got their mojo and won the next two games, including an overtime win in Game 4 that I actually listened to on the radio - the closest I had come to actually personally witnessing any of this series. Looking good, right? Well, it was good while it lasted.
Consigned to the ranks of history is the knowledge that the Flyers lost the last two games of the Stanley Cup Finals and then they and their fans had to endure the Blackhawks celebrating their win on Flyer ice. I have heard over the years (mostly in baseball stories) that when this has happenned to other teams, that they forced themselves to stay and watch every moment of the celebration. To burn that moment into their minds and remember forever how it felt to be that close to their dream and then have to watch someone else walk away with their trophy. In short, to use that experience as motivation for the next year. The idea here being that if they ever get back to the championship round, they'll rememeber last year and things will be different. After all, who'd want to relive such an unpleasant experience?
So what does all this mean? This Flyers playoff run has been really interesting to me, as one who is not a hockey fan. I was not following it day-to-day as I do with football or baseball, so I feel I had a refreshing view of the whole thing. I was still able to feel the excitement of the Flyer wins and the disappointment of the Flyer losses. I was able to hold conversations with die hard hockey fans - as long as the discussion didn't get too involved - and I enjoyed hearing and feeling their passion. Some of my best friends are hockey fans!
Postscript: Again, I am talking strictly from second-hand information here, but I'd have to think that the NHL must be thrilled with this Stanley Cup playoff. It went six games (as opposed to a quick four-game sweep), and held a high position on ESPN's radar in terms of coverage. After decades of pretty much (perhaps this is only in my eyes) being a second-tier sport - this series was just what they needed. And the Flyers and their dedicated and spirited fans were an integral part of that.
So give yourselves a pat on the back, Flyers fans! And who knows? Maybe next year, the Flyers will have earned themselves another crazed fan. If this makes me a bandwagonner, then I can accept that. I only hope that my fellow bloggers MPH and Michael Rappa (rabid hockey/Flyer fans both) can forgive me this indiscretion.
Special thanks to my lovely wife for suggesting the topic of this article.
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2 comments:
On STRASSBERG DEBUT: I certainly agree that Stephen Strassberg got a lot of hype ahead of his debut, and it would be easy to immediately dismiss it had he a mediocre start - or if his team had lost the game. His 14 strikeouts in a debut game, however, should not be so quickly dismissed. According to one source I came across, only two other pitchers struck out more in a major league debut - and these are stats that go back 110 years. 110 YEARS(!) Also, compare that to another statistical rarity - the Perfect Game - which numbers 20 - give or take a Jim Joyce blown call at first base. Strassberg has received a lot of praise – and of course it seems a little premature - but if the rest of his starts for this year remain statistically close to what has already occurred, then I would have to say that the hype is appropriate and relative proportion to actual results and to the "fair market vaule" of the potential and promise of this kid.
I'm not at all dismissing Strasburg's performance. I am merely sounding the bell for a little perspective. If he pitches even one more game as good as this one, then perhaps I'll change my tune. One of the pitchers who had more Ks than Strasburg in his debut was the uber-underrated JR Richard (he had 15 Ks in his 1971 debut). Guess how many Ks he had in his 2nd start? You guessed it - 5. This from the guy who, for a time, held the NL record for Ks in a season for a right handed pitcher (313). All I'm saying is ... let's wait until this Strasburg kid has a couple more games to his credit before we change the name of the Cy Young award...
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