Showing posts with label Chelsea Dagger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chelsea Dagger. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Fandom: blurring the lines

Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews duri...
Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews during a game against the Vancouver Canucks at GM Place on November 22, 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At the Beginning of the Stanley Cup Finals, after the Blackhawks qualified for the Stanley Cup Finals, I told my wife that no one in this house hold wears a Jonathan Toews t-shirt or a Chicago Blackhawks t-shirt during entirety of the Stanley Cup Finals.  My wife looked at me and said, “you can’t be serious.” I told her, “I was dead serious.”  I continued on with my rant, I don’t care if he went to UND or not, I am Boston Bruins fan, blah, blah, blah…. Nonetheless, that wish was honored. The fact that no one ever wore one of the t-shirts in question was probably a pure accident, or a divine intervention, because my wife takes orders from no one.

I even considered deleting the song Chelsea Dagger from my iPod. Before I did anything rash, I regained my senses, when I realized that I was in fact allowed to keep that song on my iPod.

I had an epiphany, and it dawned on me. Of course, I can keep Chelsea Dagger on my iPod, because whenever the UND hockey team scores a goal, the song Chelsea Dagger is played over the Ralph Engelstad Arena’s loud speakers. Disaster was avoided, for at least that moment.

Just for the record, last season, Chelsea Dagger was played 71 times at Ralph Engelstad Arena, s/t to Jayson Hajdu.  So, I had a reprieve.  My daughter is also a big fan of the song as well. Somehow, my five year old daughter also knows who Jonathan Toews is as well and she seemed to be talking about him a lot during the Stanley Cup Finals, I am sure she had some coaching, from someone. I am not sure who is to blame.

Last night, before I went out for a bike ride, before I left, I was looking for a t-shirt to put on and I just couldn’t bring myself to slip any of the aforementioned shirts on at the present time. Not now, maybe later.  I just wasn’t up to it right now. The wounds are still fresh. I know, I know, as a UND alumnus, I am supposed to be happy for Toews winning his second Stanley Cup, but his team just beat my favorite NHL team. I am still in a state of mourning.

Yay, good for him, but he was part of the enemy for two weeks.

While riding my bike last night, I began to percolate for the subject of this blog post, I thought of an article that also inspired me as well that is worth reading.  It’s a good article written by Ian Cameron McLaren, one of my colleagues from the Hockey Writers.

Ian Cameron McLaren, ScoreNation – First, let’s talk about why things are the way they are.
This past week, Jeff Marek made an interesting point on the MvsW podcast that speaks to the divisive nature of sports fandom. His basic premise was that sports marketing and culture is set up to create and us vs them mentality, and that this is expressed most clearly in the use of “(Blank) Nation” or “(Blank) Army” to describe a fan base. What this does is establish a mobilization of the fans wherein we feel as though we are actually part of the battle, so to speak. We follow and support the cause of our favorite teams, and feel intimately linked to the outcomes that befall them. If they win, we take to the streets to celebrate; if they lose, we feel like our home and native land has been invaded and pillaged, leaving us wander aimlessly until the battle picks up again.
The fallacy here, of course, is that what will be, will be, regardless of how we personally feel about the team in question. Our attachments to our teams are mostly peripheral, in the sense that we likely have no personal knowledge of or attachment to the actual people who are playing the game. We pay money for tickets, jerseys and cable packages, investing in war bonds if you will, but we don’t affect the outcomes of the games, Bartman notwithstanding. 
Again, regardless of what happens, it’s not a reflection of who we are personally; if they win, we cheer but the accolades are not ours, and if we lose, it stinks but the failure is also not really ours.
Think about this, we have no “affect” on the outcomes of favorite team’s games. No matter what jersey we wear to the games or what we eat meal we eat in our pre-game meals, we have no “affect” on the outcomes of favorite teams games. None! Zero!

Although, looking back, former UND hockey players from the past will talk about how the amazing the fan following was, while they were in Grand Forks playing for UND. So, that could be up for some debate.

But I digress.

While we might be unhappy that our favorite team lost a game, division, or championship, those losses are not ours. These losses belong to our favorite teams, they own them. We’re just along for the ride, but sometimes that ride can be pretty awesome.

On November 19, 2011, while covering the UND hockey team for Inside Hockey, UND was playing the Bemidji State Beavers at the Sanford Center in Bemidji, Minnesota. While finding my assigned seat in the press box, I came across a beat up practice puck that was sitting where my laptop was going to sit in the BSU press box. There it was, just sitting there in the press box, so I put the puck in my bag.

Coming into the series against the Beavers, UND was mired in a 3-6-1 slump. UND would leave the series and the Sanford Center with a series split and a 4-7-1 season record.

That beat up hockey puck would travel with me in my backpack, to and from the arena for the rest of the season. From that weekend forward, the UND hockey team would go 22-6-2. With puck in toe, UND would win its third Final Five championship in a row, before losing in the NCAA West Regional championship at the Xcel Energy Center the week later.

After the season was over, I contemplated keeping the good luck puck in my bag for the 2012-13 season.  The puck has since been retired; it sits in my dresser at home.  I know the puck played no part in the UND’s success that season, but I didn’t want to upset the apple cart and I am very superstitious. I don’t like to even golf without the correct number of balls and tees in my pocket.

Think a lot of us even though we might just be fans or bloggers, we still get wrapped up in our favorite team’s success and failures and feel it, when they lose their last game of the season.

Since 2000, I have only had one of my favorite team’s win its final game of the year that resulted in a championship once, and that team was the Boston Bruins, who won the 2011 Stanley Cup in seven games over the Vancouver Canucks.

So, since 2000, I have only had one favorite team of mine win it all, and more times than not, these favorite teams of mine (UND hockey, Vikings, Boston Bruins) have had their seasons  ended in defeat, many times in the early rounds of the playoffs, when they were the heavy favorites.

In conclusion, while we might just be fans, our favorite teams play a very big part of our lives, even if the games are only an escape from the reality of our boring lives.  It is what it is. 
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