HOCKEY POST 2

So I got to go to another hockey game on Thursday and it was awesome as shit. Same great (free) seats and a totally entertaining time.

I think that if I was a rich man, season tickets would be one of the first things I'd buy, a long with someone to drive me there and pick me up because the worst part about going to a game is getting there and getting out, but that's expected when 18,000 people all have the same agenda.

I got myself a cheerleader calendar and fist bumped the girls, but my efforts to lead the cheer were in vain, since the oilers dropped a close game, but damn it was entertaining.

Which leads me nicely into why I actually wanted to make this post. I wanted to rant, and nobody who reads this will care because they don't do hockey, but that's not the point.

The Oilers are the first Canadian team to have a "cheer squad" and the controversy surrounding that when it was first announced was absurd. From the expected "wah wah I'm a woman and I don't like this purely based on that! sluts! grrr!" to the also stupid "Canadian teams don't need cheerleaders because we know the game!" because people somehow think fans are above that.

They stand around and talk to people/sell shit/take photos with fans and be real nice before the puck drop and a few times a game they do a little dance routine (in the stands obviously) that's pretty far removed from what cheerleaders in other sports do, so I don't know how anyone can be offended or put off by that. Man people are dumb.

It's simply another thing to add to the spectacle that is an NHL game.

Personally, I can think of a million things more offensive than this. And not just because I have a penis.

And onto the other part of the rant, which is that I hate when people who seemingly don't follow hockey at all feel the need to tell me the Oilers "suck" when they see me wearing a shirt or whatever.

I get this all the time at work, and while playful smack talk is cool, it's the people who don't know SHIT that piss me off.

Nobody with half a brain expected this team to be contenders this year. To even think that is beyond absurd. This is a team that is REBUILDING the very core of itself and that means choosing youth over experience and BUILDING up from that.

You know what happens when teams do that? they have multiple seasons of lurking near the bottom of the standings, because it takes TIME.

There are NO expectations, it's all about growing.

Seriously, there are eight guys on the team this season who scored their first NHL goals. That's a lot of rookie/young talent floating around, and you can't expect them all to click and light it up everynight. I've never been an NHL player, but I can't imagine it's easy to adapt to the game at that level, and so there are tons of growing pains and people can bitch and complain all they want, but it's expected.

I think the true fans see beyond that. Stop expecting results right now and just enjoy the chemistry.

If you know hockey, there's no way you can watch an Oilers game and deny the absolutely amazing skill this team has/will have in three to four years. It's insane even at this stage.

People also don't understand that the previous season where they finished dead last was the breaking point. they DID suck then and that's why shit has been stripped away and will continue to evolve. People were told back then that the team were contenders and THAT is the difference.

One first round draft pick later and a bunch of prospects inserted into the lineup and the Oilers are playing the most entertaining and exciting hockey I've seem them play in forever.

And now you can all go back to not caring. Sorry.

PS. I might get to go to the game on Sunday! maybe!