It’s not easy to be a fan of professional sports in the Seattle area. Let’s take a quick look as to why that is:
- A couple of years ago, Clay Bennett (with assists by David Stern and Howard Schultz) uprooted our Sonics and took them to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City, for crying out loud. Wonder how long they’ll stay there. Now I was never a hardcore fan of the NBA, but at this point I have no idea who is in the playoffs nor do I care.
- The 2011 Seattle Mariners are a lot like the 1979 Mariners, albeit in ballpark that’s far more fun to go to than the drab Kingdome was. Unfortunately, Kingdome-like attendance figures are being posted these days. 12,000 attendees just ain’t gonna cut it. Reminds me of my college days when we had the dome’s left field bleachers to ourselves as we taunted washed up Mariner outfielder Gorman Thomas relentlessly.
- The Seahawks have “no direction home” as Bob Dylan might put it. QB Matt Hasselbeck will likely move on to another team and his heir apparent Charlie Whitehurst will have to do something other than hold a clipboard. Heck, there may not even BE an NFL season if owners and players can’t figure out how to divide up the billions.
- OK, so maybe the soccer team, the Sounders, have given the city a bit of a pulse. Their games are somewhat entertaining. And there’s even a 30% chance that any given game won’t end in a tie.
But wait! There’s something happening north just of the border in Vancouver B.C. and I’m jumping on the bandwagon: Vancouver Canucks hockey. And not just hockey – playoff hockey! The Canucks finished with the best record in the NHL this season and just completed a nail-biting, high octane series against the Chicago Black Hawks. It was a sudden death overtime win in the seventh and deciding game. It can’t possibly get any closer.
The action is fast and furious. Watching games on high definition television is far superior to the old days when it was literally impossible to spot the puck (and really it still isn’t particularly easy for my 50-year-old set of eyes). And how do those guys do what they do on skates? I can’t even stand up on ice skates, let alone move forward, backward and plow into opponents at the speed of light.
The Canucks recently played their first game of the best of seven Western Conference semi-finals series …..and won 1-0 against the Nashville Predators. BowlingWidow doesn’t understand my new fascination with playoff hockey. I don’t fully understand it either. But I do know that what’s happening one country to the north of us is the best thing that’s happened in Seattle sports for years.
Now drop the puck!!!
2 comments:
BowlingJoe, There is someone to watch that is closer to home -- no, they aren't pros yet, but they want to be -- the Everett Silvertips! Those kids play their hearts out, they play well and win a lot of games, and they are just flat exciting to watch. Bring your cowbell and your earplugs, since Tips fans are known to shake the house.
Hockey is indeed a damned fine sport!
I agree. I try and make several Silvertips games each year and live hockey is a blast. So colorful, too. The kids play hard. My observation, an obvious one, about the NHL is that the players are far more noticeably bigger and faster than their WHL counterparts. And of course with more skills and fewer broken plays. It's kind of like comparing a 737 to a 747. Only they have landing gear instead of blades.
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