The Montreal Canadiens eliminated the Ottawa
Senators in NHL first round Stanley Cup playoffs. I rarely watch an
entire game, but of this one I missed only five minutes or so at the
beginning of the third period. Having seen that first and decisive
goal, I could appreciate the sentiment candidly expressed by Carey
Price in an after-game interview. He seemed to attribute a large part
of winning and losing to “the way the puck bounces for you.”
Luck, in other words.
More astute hockey watchers will
protest that you make your luck; you can't score from the penalty box
and you can't get lucky at the opponents' end when the play is always
at your own end. This may or may not be a metaphor for life.
The arena was full, sold out. Fans were
dressed in Senators Jersey's and did the “swinging white towels
over their heads” thing, chanted “Go Sens Go” in unison,
and occasionally did that piece of musical doggerel borrowed from
soccer, I think: “Na na, nanana, Hey, hey, hey, Clog bangh flome!
(Don't know what these last three words are, never figured it out.)
I'm not sure what fans paid to get in, but I know that prices for the
Eastern Final games range from $220.00 – $445.68
I've heard sports called “metaphors
for life,” and although I find it hard to apply any such definition
to professional sports, I can see that in the playing of games
the striving-to-win, learning-to-lose features could be said to
replicate in a nonthreatening way the stuff we're about when we're
active in the world.
No doubt, cheering for a team that's
winning provides a pleasurable feeling as if you yourself had
conquered. Carousing in the streets after a winning game looks a lot
like soldiers celebrating a battle victory. Fans seem to “live”
or “die” vicariously through the success or failure of their
teams.
Of course, the corporate business side
of all this can't be ignored. Professional sports is not dissimilar
from any other production/consumption model; a corporation produces a
product (entertainment) that consumers (fans) will pay good money to
consume. Last night, I consumed an entire hockey game—almost—along
with copious commercials including our federal government touting
it's achievements using my tax money.
Meanwhile, I probably missed a really
great documentary on the mating habits of chimpanzees.
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