Friday, September 23, 2005
"quelled the passion, blah blah"
You know, I don't expect every sportswriter to come across like Ernest Hemingway or Steve Rushin, but this Steve Simmonsy-sounding piece on NHL rivalries, from FoxSports.com's Shawn P. Roarke, leaves a lot to be desired (ÞOddMan):
Oooooh - can you feel the apparent excitement, folks? I can!!! (Although I wish the Flames' additions weren't so darn serious...)
With both teams making serious additions this summer, the next installment of the Battle of Alberta will apparently be as exciting as past editions.
Oooooh - can you feel the apparent excitement, folks? I can!!! (Although I wish the Flames' additions weren't so darn serious...)
# posted by Matt @ 12:29 pm 
Comments:
We can talk about the Battle of Alberta all we want, but really Edmonton's biggest rivals are in Vancouver and Dallas. I am sure the Battle will resume now that both teams are competitive, but that pre-season game between the Canucks and Oil the other night is a sure indicator of the best rivalry in hockey. Five fights in a pre-season game, between guys who aren't actually fighting for a roster spot? Nasty.
I hate Bertuzzi.
Great. Thanks a tonne Grabia. Cut the heart right out of our entire project.
Sheesh, I think I'm going to go over to Sports Matters and post about how irrelevant sports are.
But, ya, you've got a point. Those Vancouver and Dallas games over the last few years have been terrific.
The difference is that once those two teams advance past the Oil in the playoffs, Oilers fans just ignore them. Whereas when Calgary advances past, a large proportion of Oilers fans actively cheer against them.
My apologies. I was attempting to comment more on the Fox Sports article than the Battle of Alberta project. Indeed, this is a most noble and elightened cause. The world is a much better place for it. Pray, do continue.
I don't think it will take long for things to heat up between the Flames and the Oilers (sometimes my puns just annoy me),but if I had the choice between being at a Oil-Flames game or a Oil-Canucks game, I would take the latter. For now. I don't really hate anyone on the Flames roster. I hate Calgarians, don't get me wrong. But I can't even hate Iggy that much, since he is a) amazing and b) a home-town boy. I wish we could have had Sather back in Edmonton this year IF ONLY, and I mean ONLY, because I know he would have tried to steal Iggy from the Flames. He used to draft players not because he wanted them, but because the Flames did. But anyways, I don't really hate the Flames roster, whereas I hate at least six people on the Canucks roster. Bertuzzi. Naslund. Cooke (although I would love him on our team). Ohlund. Sedin twins. I hate Linden now too, so make that seven. Throw in a coach who sent a guy out to paralyze another player and benched Gretzky during the Olympic shootout against the Czechs in 1998 (who leaves the best player of all time on the bench during a moment like that, even if he historically hasn't been a great breakaway guy?) and you have a rivalry. At least for me. I like two people on the Canucks, Jovo and Richard Park (imagine him on Rexall ice? it's like Marchant with hands.) I can't say that much for the Flames. Yet.
>Fox Sports article
Well, you have to give him credit for not separating all of his sentences with ellipses like some sports writers.
You can practically hear the strain as he tries to fill out his word count.
Let's go Apparent Excitement!!!!!
I didn't see a lot of Oilers fans cheering against the Flames during the playoff run last year. The sad truth is that Edmonton's been invaded by barbarians--corporate skybox-sitters who root for their gambling interests, and neurologically globalized kids who regard hockey as just one course in a yearlong Internet-and-cable buffet of sports. This process is obviously much further along in Calgary, which is just one more good reason to hate the Flames. But it's happening here too, slowly but surely. Makes me feel like a old, blind dinosaur, just waiting for the day I trip over a root and find myself succumbing to the teeth of ten thousand small, shrewlike mammals.
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We can talk about the Battle of Alberta all we want, but really Edmonton's biggest rivals are in Vancouver and Dallas. I am sure the Battle will resume now that both teams are competitive, but that pre-season game between the Canucks and Oil the other night is a sure indicator of the best rivalry in hockey. Five fights in a pre-season game, between guys who aren't actually fighting for a roster spot? Nasty.
I hate Bertuzzi.
Great. Thanks a tonne Grabia. Cut the heart right out of our entire project.
Sheesh, I think I'm going to go over to Sports Matters and post about how irrelevant sports are.
But, ya, you've got a point. Those Vancouver and Dallas games over the last few years have been terrific.
The difference is that once those two teams advance past the Oil in the playoffs, Oilers fans just ignore them. Whereas when Calgary advances past, a large proportion of Oilers fans actively cheer against them.
My apologies. I was attempting to comment more on the Fox Sports article than the Battle of Alberta project. Indeed, this is a most noble and elightened cause. The world is a much better place for it. Pray, do continue.
I don't think it will take long for things to heat up between the Flames and the Oilers (sometimes my puns just annoy me),but if I had the choice between being at a Oil-Flames game or a Oil-Canucks game, I would take the latter. For now. I don't really hate anyone on the Flames roster. I hate Calgarians, don't get me wrong. But I can't even hate Iggy that much, since he is a) amazing and b) a home-town boy. I wish we could have had Sather back in Edmonton this year IF ONLY, and I mean ONLY, because I know he would have tried to steal Iggy from the Flames. He used to draft players not because he wanted them, but because the Flames did. But anyways, I don't really hate the Flames roster, whereas I hate at least six people on the Canucks roster. Bertuzzi. Naslund. Cooke (although I would love him on our team). Ohlund. Sedin twins. I hate Linden now too, so make that seven. Throw in a coach who sent a guy out to paralyze another player and benched Gretzky during the Olympic shootout against the Czechs in 1998 (who leaves the best player of all time on the bench during a moment like that, even if he historically hasn't been a great breakaway guy?) and you have a rivalry. At least for me. I like two people on the Canucks, Jovo and Richard Park (imagine him on Rexall ice? it's like Marchant with hands.) I can't say that much for the Flames. Yet.
>Fox Sports article
Well, you have to give him credit for not separating all of his sentences with ellipses like some sports writers.
You can practically hear the strain as he tries to fill out his word count.
Let's go Apparent Excitement!!!!!
I didn't see a lot of Oilers fans cheering against the Flames during the playoff run last year. The sad truth is that Edmonton's been invaded by barbarians--corporate skybox-sitters who root for their gambling interests, and neurologically globalized kids who regard hockey as just one course in a yearlong Internet-and-cable buffet of sports. This process is obviously much further along in Calgary, which is just one more good reason to hate the Flames. But it's happening here too, slowly but surely. Makes me feel like a old, blind dinosaur, just waiting for the day I trip over a root and find myself succumbing to the teeth of ten thousand small, shrewlike mammals.
# posted by 
: September 24, 2005 9:51 pm
: September 24, 2005 9:51 pm Post a Comment
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