I’m not sure if “extistential” or “meta” is the correct adjective here

Once again, peer pressure emerges victorious. I’ve been told on more than a few different occasions that I should create one of these so-called “blogs” and pontificate on the subjects of hockey, music, and other randomness. Well, all of you who’ve told me that have now won. Or lost. Only time will tell.

Part of the reason I’ve avoided making my thoughts public domain is that I’ve found that the public, on average, is pretty goddamn dumb. A majority of the public (quite possibly a large portion of said “stupid” set) also seems to have an inherent need to discredit anything he or she disagrees with. This seems extrordinarily prevalent in my journeys into the realm of internet hockey journalism.

From what I’ve found, it’s almost impossible for an American to have an opinion without getting instantly torn down  and getting told “you don’t know the game”.  While the game is obviously not as popular as it is northward, that doesn’t make us Yanks any less passionate or knowledgeable than someone from Red Deer, Alberta who’s had skates on his feet since his first breaths on this Earth.

If anything,  an American hockey writer who has passion and knowledge of the sport can offer a unique perspective, given the continued disenfranchisement of the American hockey fan (particularly those poor souls who are fans of the team in this fair city).

So go ahead and disagree, even vehemently and full of vitriol, but don’t discredit. Just because an opinion differs from your own does not immediately make the the holder of that opinion incompetent, evidence does.

That being said, many the aforementioned talking (typing?)  heads have been expounding today on the merits and magnitude of yesterday afternoon’s Sabres/Rangers tilt, and how it was a milestone and/or tipping point for televised hockey in America, and consequently the sport’s place in the American sporting landscape. Now hold on one garsh darn minute. In my country, this is something we call “future-tense reminiscing”, and it almost invariably ends up under-delivering once pitted up against the reality of the situation.  This also speaks largely about a tendency for reactionism and hyperbole not exclusive to sports journalism, but alas, that’s a discussion for another time.

Yes, it is important that a major market (New York) was involved in an excellent game on a nationally televised stage, but one game will not all of the sudden shed the game of its current niche status Stateside. It was only a month and a half ago that three incidents, two on the ice, one off the ice (Chris Simon, Jordin Tootoo, and Ted Saskin, respectively), further damaged a sport’s already tarnished reputation and made it fodder for even more punchlines. Only prolonged and consistent display of the excellence this sport can offer will ever get the sport close to respectability. Yesterday’s game was a step in the right direction, it’s not worthy of the “breakthrough” label it’s currently getting slapped with.