So.
One of my favorite sports teams is playing a seventh game in their first round series tonight. They were up 3 games to 1, and were looking like they had the other team on it's heels.
But lo' and behold. Here tonight, the Flyers will be playing the Capitals in a game 7 that should not even be happening. And what's worse is.... I'm not all that upset.
I love the Flyers, I do. I have for years. I remember cheering for them throughout the 90's. And when they got to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1997, only to get swept by the Detroit Red Wings.
Disappointed as I was, I had never been so excited before. A championship series with my favorite team involved? As a Red Sox and Celtics fan that happened to be born in 1987, I had no idea what it was like at that point.
That season is what got me started on watching hockey more often. And for years, I combated my fandom of the Flyers by trying to follow the Boston Bruins, as I'm already a Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics fan thanks to my father.
However, I was able to resist. And I chose the Flyers as my team. I watched as they played great hockey, signed and re-signed great players, but never got around to winning the Stanley Cup.
I remember the 2003-2004 playoffs like yesterday. First the Flyers beat their rivals, the New Jersey Devils in five games. Then they took down the Toronto Maple Leafs in six games. This series ended on a dramatic overtime goal by Jeremy Roenick, which to this day is still one of the best moments I've witnessed in sports.
Then, the Tampa Bay Lightening beat the Flyers in 7 games. Ending the excitement, and I was so furious that I didn't watch any of the Stanley Cup Finals, which Tampa Bay ended up winning.
Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals was the last NHL game I would watch for over a year.
The entire 2004-2005 season was cancelled due to a labor dispute between the League and the Player's Association, it was a bitter dispute that led to controversial comments from both sides. And finally in the summer of 2005, they agreed on a deal, ushering in the "New NHL" which of course is meant to be more fan friendly.
Shootouts, goalie restrictions, wider goals, no more ties. But most noticeable about the changes to hockey is that ESPN no longer covers it. It's like a holiday when NBC actually covers it, and unless you have some sort of NHL package, chances are you're stuck with the Versus Network.
THE VERSUS NETWORK!?!? 8&^%!!!!! All they have on all day before they play hockey is bass fishing, hunting, and other various outdoor games. And this is the channel I have to watch my hockey on?
ESPN pays hardly ANY attention to the NHL anymore, it's pretty much a second rate league. It's slightly above the MLS and AFL, but nowhere close to even the NBA right now.
And what's even worse. Is right now Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are entering their primes. Both are incredibly young and terrifyingly talented, and hardly anybody cares because the League couldn't get a decent television broadcast deal.
Anyway, the point is, it's taken it's toll on me as well.
I have DirecTV, so I don't get the Versus Network... or Comcast Sports Net. I can not watch the Flyers play, unless they happen to trip and fall onto NBC one Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
I listen to the games on the radio, but it just doesn't have the same effect. And the fact is, I'm nervous about tonight. Not just about the Flyers possibly blowing a 3 games to 1 lead, but that I may not actually be that upset about it.
And if ESPN truly does show more of what people are interested in than something else, well then it appears I'm one of many who are at this point.
I hope the NHL can get it together, pick up a TV deal and start advertising, like the NBA did in the nineties with the "I Love This Game" campaign, but I'm not holding my breath on that.
I hope that someday, I can watch a hockey game again and feel the excitement I once did.
I hope that when I'm 50, people will still be talking about the resurgance of the NHL thanks mainly to Crosby and Ovechkin.
But the realist in me sees none of that happening.
I wish they would just prove me wrong.
