Tis the Season

It’s here! We are there! The excitement builds each day. Where will it end? Will we get what we so desperately want? Fingers crossed. Prayers sent up. May luck be with us. The season has come. The Stanley Cup is within our reach. Hockey. Excitement, speed, crashes, and minor fights. The thrill of success and the agony of defeat. It’s all there. We watch with angst and desperation. Will it be us? Can it please be us?

This time of year is always exciting. My husband and I like sports. Well, he loves sports. I like them, too. When I say he loves sports, I mean it. By now, you all know I try not to use the word “love" for day-to-day things. I save that word for what’s special. 

If you watch sports and have a favorite team or athlete, you know how great it is when your favorite is within reach of the holy grail. Every win is a celebration. You watch with anxiety, on the edge of your seat. 

Some of us have superstitions. Maybe yours is turning off the phone. Maybe it's not talking to anyone who isn’t on your team’s side. Some of us wear a favorite plain shirt and pants or a favorite team jersey. Some of us practice a sacrificial offering of starvation for good fortune by not eating during the game. Others do the opposite. Maybe they have a favorite go-to food that must be on the coffee table. Whoever it is, we have our routines and rituals to ensure our side wins. Whatever the ritual, it does absolutely nothing to win favor or luck on your side, but we stick to them. No matter what.

If the team wins, we double down on the rituals; after all, that was what did it, what made them win. If your team loses, changes need to be made. We might not have gone far enough. We might have missed a detail in our normal ritual. Maybe we decide we need a new ritual and scrap the old one for something different. The silliness never ends. 

Deep down, I believe most of us know that nothing we do will affect the outcome of a game. We only hope it will, in some cosmic way, tip the advantage in their favor, since we are so loyal and our team has so much love. 

The entire world takes part in this ritualistic action-and-reaction posturing during our favorite sports’ seasons. Soccer, baseball, basketball, football (our kind), cricket, and so on.

In Kansas, during football season, there is no end to the frenzied offerings. The state favorite here is the Chiefs, insert gag here. Most fans deck themselves out in red and yellow-orange for the season. It’s like a debutante coming out every day. They are everywhere. 

In this sea of warm-spectrum colors, there is a lone chink in the armor. A rise of blue and orange, a balance of cool and warm spectra. The Colorado fan is in the house. That is my home. We love our Colorado sports teams. Broncos, Avalanche, Nuggets, and even the ill-fated Rockies are the teams of choice in my part of this world. 

And now it’s our time to relish the sun. Our hockey team, the Avs, is in contention. We have been hoping for this all year. There is no greater excitement. The games are abundant; the level of expertise, skill, and talent is all at its peak. The games are close and not blowouts, which makes for better enjoyment. At the playoff level of the season, the best of the best are on point. They are pretty well matched, and the scoring is excruciatingly close. Sometimes too close for comfort. A lot of nail-biting occurs. A manicurist’s dream or nightmare, depending on how you view it. 

I enjoy the bonding over the wins against the losers. I love the general good mood that permeates the house and the perky conversations when we talk about the Avalanche. For all the merriment and joy, however, there is a calm, quiet distance that occurs at the same time. 

My sister and her family are hockey fans as well. However, they are fans of a team that shall not be named. I will just say it’s an orange-and-black team. They may or may not represent a northeastern state; I will not speak of it. It is taboo. 

We skirt around sports conversations, politely commenting on each of our teams’ successes or failures, but do not get me wrong. We secretly want to beat the pants off the other’s favorite team. We wish for one’s failure and the other’s success. It’s all in good fun. 

Sports are never a true divider of people or families. We all bond over sports on some level. It makes life a bit more fun. Considering the political climate, we sure need something we don’t have to fret over or fight about. 

At this time, the field is narrowing to the two teams that will battle for the Stanley Cup. The Cup, a grail of sorts, is a large and cumbersome trophy. Every year, a new section is added around the band at the cup’s base. The current year’s winner is engraved on the band. The entire team’s names are etched on it. It then travels with the individual players, who get it for 24 hours to enjoy and share with friends and family. 

They are free to take pictures with it and enjoy its glow. Over the years, it has even become a common practice to do silly things with the cup and photograph it for posterity’s sake. 

Mark Messier, a player, took it to a strip club. Guy LaFleur had it in an open convertible during a parade. One hockey player took it fishing and used it as a tackle box, while another used it to baptize their baby. Another player used it as a water dish for his pup, and another used it as a grill for barbecuing. Anything goes for that 24-hour period, as long as the cup is not destroyed. Truly, that is almost as fun to see as a win in a game.

This provides serious amusement for the public and truly endears the players to their fans. I look forward to seeing what unique use of the cup will be showcased in the media each year. I don’t believe any other sport does that, letting the players bask in its amusement for a day. 

As the excitement builds toward the final game, fans across the world are keeping their lucky charms close. It is an activity that makes our world smaller and shows how very similar we are to one another in a world where we are often pitted against each other. From the inception of the Olympiads to today, sports have been a great equalizer and unifier. Long live sports. 

As for us and hockey, we now watch and wait for the victor to be crowned. We will cheer as we go further down this path, and lament if we are knocked out of the running. In that case, we move on and live to fight another day. If we do lose and get eliminated, we will, with lackluster enthusiasm, cheer on another team with indifference. Yes, we are that petty. It’s fun. 

For now, since we are still in contention, we will humbly wish them all the best. May the odds be ever in their favor. Not really. May they be ever in our favor. Long live the Avalanche!

Hockey on!!