One Last Kick Below the Belt: And the Vital Gasp
So it’s over. And I, Cass, am working on letting it go. The Carolina Hurricanes won, perplexing hundreds of thousands of Carolinans and cheerleaders who wondered why hulking men were drinking out of a silver barrel-like object. See the Onion for more on this.
The end of a season is a time for reflection. Personally, I laughed, I cried, I paced, I cheered, I swore, and I chewed my fingernails. Apparently, Scott Burnside, NHL contributor to ESPN.com, was also feeling reflective because he recently graced us all with his top 10 list. This list consists of what Burnside determines to be the IT moments of the playoffs. He starts off with what you would expect; sappy numbers one and one A, describe the beauty of a seven game series and the sight of a thieved hockey franchise celebrating a Cup win. He talks about how these moments gave him chills.
He makes no real mention of the Sabres' season, mind you, despite the fact that the Sabres and their “lack of marquee talent” were slated to finish last in the East and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals (and would have advanced had they not been decimated by injuries). He eschews such sentimental Cinderella stories. Nor does Burnside find the Sabres’ victory over the number one Senators list-worthy; he prefers to list Ottawa’s loss to the Sabres as a choke and tangentially linked to Hasek’s perpetual injury. However, Burnside deems Sabres head coach, Lindy Ruff, list-worthy. In numbers eight and eight A, he portrays Ruff as a whiner, who takes on coaches Hitchcock and LaViolette (individually) for the behavior of their players, but Burnside makes Ruff sound more like a paranoid schizophrenic than a professional hockey coach.
In reality, Ruff was justified in attacking Flyers’ coach Hitchcock, because upon realizing they were getting their lethargic, overpaid asses kicked, the Flyers regressed into the goons they are and spent 80% of the series taking the kind of cheap shots Hatcher has made a career out of. Ruff also took on Hurricanes coach LaViolette when he accused Carolina of prematurely celebrating an Adams Cup Division Championship. Burnside mocks Ruff for misidentifying a bottle on the Carolina bench as celebratory rather than a gift from a local girl suffering from leukemia. You can hear the sneer in Burnside’s fire engine red throat as he annunciates leukemia.
Perhaps in the latter instance, Ruff was wrong. But the question in this disbelieved prophetess’s mind is: what do you think caused Ruff to lash out on more than one occasion? Could it be jackass sportswriters who refuse to acknowledge the depth, talent, or skill of his team, or the bang-up season they played? Could it be the implication from a sportswriter that he is insensitive and oblivious to the plight of a young girl fighting for her life? Or could it be that late in the regular season, his own daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and perhaps he was fighting two battles, one on the ice and one off?
FYI, Scott, last week Lindy Ruff won the Adams Trophy. You know, the one they give for COACH of the YEAR.
The end of a season is a time for reflection. Personally, I laughed, I cried, I paced, I cheered, I swore, and I chewed my fingernails. Apparently, Scott Burnside, NHL contributor to ESPN.com, was also feeling reflective because he recently graced us all with his top 10 list. This list consists of what Burnside determines to be the IT moments of the playoffs. He starts off with what you would expect; sappy numbers one and one A, describe the beauty of a seven game series and the sight of a thieved hockey franchise celebrating a Cup win. He talks about how these moments gave him chills.
He makes no real mention of the Sabres' season, mind you, despite the fact that the Sabres and their “lack of marquee talent” were slated to finish last in the East and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals (and would have advanced had they not been decimated by injuries). He eschews such sentimental Cinderella stories. Nor does Burnside find the Sabres’ victory over the number one Senators list-worthy; he prefers to list Ottawa’s loss to the Sabres as a choke and tangentially linked to Hasek’s perpetual injury. However, Burnside deems Sabres head coach, Lindy Ruff, list-worthy. In numbers eight and eight A, he portrays Ruff as a whiner, who takes on coaches Hitchcock and LaViolette (individually) for the behavior of their players, but Burnside makes Ruff sound more like a paranoid schizophrenic than a professional hockey coach.
In reality, Ruff was justified in attacking Flyers’ coach Hitchcock, because upon realizing they were getting their lethargic, overpaid asses kicked, the Flyers regressed into the goons they are and spent 80% of the series taking the kind of cheap shots Hatcher has made a career out of. Ruff also took on Hurricanes coach LaViolette when he accused Carolina of prematurely celebrating an Adams Cup Division Championship. Burnside mocks Ruff for misidentifying a bottle on the Carolina bench as celebratory rather than a gift from a local girl suffering from leukemia. You can hear the sneer in Burnside’s fire engine red throat as he annunciates leukemia.
Perhaps in the latter instance, Ruff was wrong. But the question in this disbelieved prophetess’s mind is: what do you think caused Ruff to lash out on more than one occasion? Could it be jackass sportswriters who refuse to acknowledge the depth, talent, or skill of his team, or the bang-up season they played? Could it be the implication from a sportswriter that he is insensitive and oblivious to the plight of a young girl fighting for her life? Or could it be that late in the regular season, his own daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and perhaps he was fighting two battles, one on the ice and one off?
FYI, Scott, last week Lindy Ruff won the Adams Trophy. You know, the one they give for COACH of the YEAR.
posted by hobos in space @ 5:24 PM
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