Sense

February 27th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

Skate! Skate! Move your feet! Young and middle-aged observers are compelling a defender to move the puck up ice. With his eyes, he surveys the position of his opponents. He has lots of room in his fore-ground to explore. A single stride is all he takes before dipping his shoulder. While keeping his head focused up-ice, he uses the toe of his stick to cradle the puck into into firing position. A labored release that starts from the hips and ends in the wrists sends the puck airborne. I hear a high pitched clap as the puck makes contact with the glass. The sound interrupts the familiar hiss and crunch of steel blades cutting into the surface of fresh ice.

The over-head view from the elevated walkway behind either net at Buff State athletic arena, which doubles as part of an indoor track course, is my favorite spot in Western New York to view hockey as it’s being made. In this arena, spectators may either stand on the track and lean up against a railing or sit on the wooden benches below. Descending the first few stairs from the track to the wooden benches gives the feeling of stepping down into some kind of performance theater. Apart from one team’s atrocious twelve-piece band that honks unidentifiable tunes during the occasional stoppage of play, this game sounds and feels like hockey ought to sound and feel.

I’m watching two rival college teams compete for a sought after mid-season victory and a defender with room to skate in front of him has just carelessly ‘iced’ the puck by dumping it off the glass with too much power. ‘A’ is confused.

“Okay, so — the hockey demigods didn’t want teams to be able to simply shoot the puck up the ice without first carrying or passing the puck half-way. It takes coaching and effort and some skill with a hockey stick to carry or pass the puck up the ice. If a team could just shoot the puck up the ice from their defensive zone, and then chase after it, hockey would have never become anything more than a sport for unathletic strong guys.” She nods. “Hockey is a mix of skill and strength. ‘Icing’ helps to preserve this balance.”

I explain ‘icing’. I explain the conditions in which a linemen will cancel a pending ‘icing’ call. I chose my words carefully. “Does any of this make sense?”

She tells me it does.

* * *

We walk through the doors of Coles at about 9:30. It takes us both a second to adjust to the warmer air. Our cheeks are cold. On this Thursday in February, there is snow on the sidewalks of the Elmwood village. I see that there is about eight seconds remaining in the third period of the Sabres game and remark, “Oh, the Sabres are still playing. Actually, never-mind it’s over. I guess they lost.” Moments later, there’s a commotion in front of the Montreal net. The bar celebrates. Vanek emerges from the pile of bodies with his hands in the air. Tie game.

‘A’ is relatively unresponsive though she lights up briefly at witnessing the delight this goal has caused the people around her. She has just finished watching three periods of hockey played a few feet in front of her face. This version of hockey is being broadcast on liquid crystal display screens and she hasn’t a clue of the events that had taken place in the first 59 minutes and 52 seconds of this game.

We order our drinks and stand alongside the “Wall of Coles” that separates the seating booths from the standings area surrounding the bar. During a stoppage of play in the overtime period, the patron’s watching the broadcast groan almost at once. ‘A’ and I glance up at the television screen to see Vanek grimacing on the player bench. The audio to the broadcast is muted. Music is playing at a modest volume over the bar’s speakers. Most heads are fixed on the nearest television screen with fragile looking smiles on their faces. Others prefer to look away and adjust their posture.

In this moment my instinct is to try and explain to ‘A’ just how remarkable Vanek has been playing. I’m anxious. “In my lifetime I’ve never seen a Sabres forward dominate games like this. He has scored more goals and more points than anyone else in the league and by a pretty wide margin too. It’s honestly been incredible to watch.”

Vanek doesn’t miss a shift. In the shootout, he scores on a rising wrist shot above the goaltender’s glove. The execution of his attempt displays a level of patience and composure that’s only seen from experienced goal scorers. Vanek has helped to restore hope once more.

It will be some time before ‘A’ is able to make complete sense of the extremes fans are capable of oscillating between on the spectrum of hopefulness.

Beginning To Tell The Story

February 7th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been making an effort to save some of the Buffalo News’ sports sections. The NHL Season Preview special, from January 10, is among those I’ve saved. I assume the articles within this section will be accessible to someone who is unfamiliar with the Sabres roster and the basic storylines that surround the franchise.

It’s definitely too early for a discussion on how best to consume sports media – what to avoid and how to prevent being persuaded by the overwhelming cynicism – but the Buffalo News is ideal for the basics. The News’ hockey reporters do a fine job of coalescing most of what’s happening on the surface level.

I want the opinions ‘A’ forms to be made mostly on her own, through her own observations. Which players excite you most when they’re on the ice? Which players impress you most? These types of minor preferences will be more enduring and perhaps satisfying if she arrives at them on her own, rather than if I were to simply feed her some of mine. It’s obviously not essential, and at this point unreasonable, for her preferences to be highly informed. But I hope to put her in a semi-informed position by the time she has made some of them.

So I’ve been eager to get the Buffalo News’ season preview section in her hands and under her eyeballs. It has occurred to me that I might have trouble telling the full story and I’ll certainly have trouble telling it clearly. Particularly in conversation, I’m prone to expressing an opinion relating to the Sabres’ coach, manager, or veteran player by first explaining the perceptions I disagree with and why I disagree with them. Admittedly, this is very confusing. I’m just easily irritated by comments grown out of anger, especially when they carry a deep sense of certainty, and I can’t bare the thought of being aligned with those observers. I don’t think of myself as a contrarian but, as a committed optimist, my perspective is probably aligned with that of a contrarian more often than not.

Ryan Miller, for instance, is a very difficult player for me to describe to ‘A’ with much clarity because his detractors are so vocal. Over the years, my opinion of Miller has become more and more guarded against the predictable threads of criticism. In the Buffalo News’ season preview, Mike Harrington wrote about 1200 words on the correlation between Miller’s performance and the Sabres win-loss record. It’s an easy read, packed with gentle quotes and, thankfully, lacking any ridiculous proclamations involving his contract. Harrington’s reminder of how good the Sabres can be when Miller is playing his best hockey is a good start but how do I properly introduce Miller to someone who is largely unfamiliar with the wide range of expectations the public and media have for him?

“Well, he’s married to one of the lead actress’ on Charlie Sheen’s new show,” I begin by noting.

“What? Seriously? That is insane!”

“Hockey players hook-up with celebrity actresses and musicians all the time. It’s actually pretty remarkable.”

“No, I mean who would give Charlie Sheen a new show?”

“Oh – Hollywood, I guess.”

“How could they! Why would Hollywood do something so irresponsible?”

“I don’t know. So, yeah, anyway…” I realize that little of the analysis I offer will be remembered because, at this point, she has very little context. She has almost no idea what’s ordinary. She’s not even close to ready for me to be technical about hockey goaltenders. So I try and remain as general as possible.

“Goaltenders are all weird,” I say. “Most everyone in hockey accepts this. Collectively, we tend to view goaltenders as having highly eccentric personalities. Miller certainly fits within this stereotype, at least from my perspective as an outsider. He has one really wonky eyebrow that was once cartoonish but seems like it might be getting a little less wonky if recent photographs are any indication. To me, Miller, with his thin black hair and slight frame, has always looked like he could be cast as a corruptible truck driver or janitor in like a Mark Walberg movie in which a gifted, charismatic thief struggles to bury his dark past while trying to perform one last heist. Miller appears to be an extremely unlikely public figure. He doesn’t look like an athlete. He probably drives a Prius. His relationship and recent marriage with a young, working actress seems bizarre. His interest in photography, meanwhile, aligns perfectly with the temperament we’ve observed from Miller on and off the ice.”

“Oh sweet — I have a few photography books I’d like for him to read.”

“I’m sure he’d be happy to read each of your books.”

For The Better

January 26th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

“You are going to become a Sabres fan.” I say this like a parent might when talking to a teenager about the importance of a college education. It’s the responsible thing to do. Also, start a Roth account as soon as you graduate because holy shit with inflation and social security and… just start a fucking Roth account, okay?

I should admit that I do not know if this is at all a positive form of entertainment anymore. I’m surprisingly conflicted. I may have reached the point that every sports fan inevitably reaches when one begins to question themselves. I know it’s way too late for me. I cannot be saved. But what of the innocent? Can I, in good conscious, convince someone to abandon their sports-free evening hours and introduce what is a totally meaningless object of concern? Is it for the better — this hobby, this distraction, this nothing? I am childless and I am not middle-aged. Apparently, I’ve grown skeptical of the sports fan experience ahead of schedule.

For the most part when I talk in detail about the sports I watch and the reasons I watch them, I’m extremely effusive and focus heavily on the visuals. To hear me talk about Pac-12 football, you’d think I was conceived inside one of the tents the Berkeley hippies set up atop Tightwad Hill. I enjoy sports, of course, but probably not as much as I let on. Maybe I thoroughly explain myself to others in hopes that when they learn of the time I commit to watching sports they don’t consider me to be too thoughtless.

“You’ll look forward to watching the games in no time at all.” I say this convincingly, like I believe it, but I don’t. I expect she’ll be easily distracted. I expect she’ll eventually ask questions that reveal her lack of enthusiasm. I think I can tolerate basic questions on matters like how the league configures its standings. How many points for a win, again? And, wait, so how many points for an overtime loss? I do not know how I’ll react when asked how the Sabres are doing. How to I respond?

We’ll start slow. Once, I tried explaining poker and, well, that quickly became overwhelming. It was my fault. I spoke about percentages for ten straight minutes. I didn’t’ even realize I was doing it until I stopped talking. I’ll try and be more patient this time. I’ll wait for feedback. I won’t explain everything there is to explain about Lindy Ruff at once. I’ll repeat myself. I won’t be too technical.

“But honestly, explain to me how someone manages to avoid collecting any professional sports allegiances?”

“To me, it’s so much more exciting to watch sports that I’ve played. This is why I enjoy watching Division-1 or Olympic indoor volleyball. I played it and so I’m able to really appreciate the tactics and the skill. The enjoyment I get from watching that sport has never been tied to observing the success of a team I support. That’s what’s always seemed strange to me. What’s the fun in supporting a group of professionals?”

What is the fun in supporting a group of professionals? This is a perfectly reasonable question. These athletes are all strangers, after all. Were I a more mature adult, I’d probably be more troubled by this aspect of professional sports but I truthfully never think of it. I didn’t have an answer.

I thought about explaining the beauty of seeing a sport played at the highest level and by some of the most athletically gifted individuals in the world. This, however, becomes a less impressive part of the experience eventually. It’s difficult to appreciate the highest level when all one watches is the highest level.

Then I thought about community. People like to associate professional sports franchises with community. Bringing friends together to support something in which success is quantifiable – hoping and celebrating together — is certainly a part of this. I can explain how I’ve felt the positive effects of the community that supports the Sabres but ultimately this is something I know to be largely replaceable. There are lots of communities people belong to that provide these same benefits.

What is the fun in supporting a group of professionals?

“You know what I think it is – the growth and regression of individual players is interesting. There’s a lot of renewed hope. Some young players have a lot of potential. They might be spectacular. You never know. And then once you get to know a player and understand his history, the moments of triumph can even be a little inspiring.”

These words I genuinely believe, I think.

4chan And An Insiderr

August 14th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

4chan is a place that I do not fully understand. I can conceive of the website’s basic appeal. The volume of information is what, specifically, I find most mystifying about 4chan. There’s so much clutter. I don’t know where people find the time to be a consumer of that forum.

For this reason, I find the popularity of 4chan confusing — the website recently passed one-billion posts in its eight-year history — but certainly not irritating. I welcome the diversity of the web and I understand that some of what’s popular can be far outside of my tastes.

Traditional media types like to warn their audiences of the reduced content quality anonymity breads. 4chan, for a period, seemed like the favored example. While 4chan’s popularity has continued to grow, the emergence of social media has captured some of the attention normally reserved for 4chan.

Recently a specific instance of anonymity has preoccupied a few of the voices I pay attention to on a website I routinely read.

* * *

For years, every year, on both the NHL’s trading deadline day and the opening day of the NHL’s free-agency period, something familiar would happen on Twitter. A web-user, most likely teen-aged, would create a Twitter account with a slightly modified username as the one used by a reputable sports media journalist, upload the identical profile photo, and then post false information. And this false information would spread quickly. Eventually, the community would correct the error and identify the source as illegitimate but for a few minutes a lot of information hungry hockey fans were fooled.

A memorable instance of this occurred when the free agency period opened in 2010 and Tim Connolly was thought to have signed a 7-year contract for close to $50-million with the Dallas Stars. No longer than five minutes after that information made its way onto my Twitter feed, other users had recognized the error. The account, which was thought to belong to Darren Dreger of TSN, was a fake. Tim Connolly had not signed a contract with the Dallas Stars for a term of seven years.

These occurrences were at worst totally innocent and at best completely hilarious. There was no lasting harm — impostors were always quickly revealed and for a delightful moment in time a team had a signed a player to an absurd contract. It’s become very difficult to feed false information into the hockey world now by pretending to be an actual media personality. We weren’t expecting this type of fraud two years ago. Now we’re all on guard for it.

The latest technique used by those trying to play this game is to create a unique and anonymous identity. Instead of pretending to be an actual journalist, an anonymous web-user will claim to have sources feeding him/her information and that his/her anonymity is necessary in order to continue providing this information.

HockeyyInsiderr is the Twitter handle of someone who posts announcements of hockey trades and signings, offers general hockey related rumors, and makes specific declarations of the plans, meetings, and conversations involving NHL managers. He (or she) is anonymous although today it looks like the individual behind the HockeyyInsiderr Twitter handle has been revealed as a seventeen-year-old student living in Quebec.

There is only one reason I’m aware of HockeyyInsiderr: journalists and PR associates have been complaining about the inaccuracies and lack of proper sourcing associated with HockeyyInsiderr’s information. Again, just so I’m being totally clear, the only reason I know of its existence and have paid any attention to its feed is because media professionals have been and are still reminding people like me that HockeyyInsiderr is unworthy of attention.

I’ve been made to understand by several hockey journalists and PR associates that they’re constantly being asked questions relating to the information HockeyyInsiderr provides. And since this information is consistently inaccurate, they feel compelled to address the source.

The decision made by a professional media member to publicly express contempt for a Twitter user like HockeyyInsiderr strikes me as incredibly juvenile.

There is a particular sect of sports fans who independently piece together and then publicly speculate on the veracity of rumors every single day.

Some Sabres fans, for instance, routinely ask journalists if the Sabres’ GM is actively pursuing a trade for Patrick Kane. This is happening whether or not someone like HockeyyInsiderr says inquires are being made. Why? Because Kane is from Buffalo and that’s a very apparent connection which can easily become a reason if you’re a Sabres fan trying to find one.

Some readers will always ask silly questions of sports journalists. These silly questions can very well constitute the bulk of the questions journalists are asked and I imagine this can become very frustrating. But the majority of the readers are not interested those answers. The majority of the readers are not even asking questions — they’re just reading and they’re depending on the journalists to examine and address the best questions, not the questions most often asked.

When journalists choose to address the source of misinformation, like HockeyyInsiderr, two things happen: HockeyyInsiderr gets attention, which is all that individual needs to become an authority, and the web community thinks less of the journalist. It’s incredibly annoying it is to read a professional media type sarcastically comment and criticize an individual so far below them without any direct provocation. The combativeness feels foreign and extremely uncomfortable because I’m so totally indifferent to these social media occurrences.

Where does the reaction come from? It’s as if some journalists feel insulted by the presence of these individuals because, I don’t know, maybe they’re frustrated with the idea of someone who has undeserved authority or they consider the line of misinformed questioning to be a reflection of their own inability to cultivate a rational audience. It seems like a lot of aggravation for a very small but apparently vocal part of their audience.

Why should journalists care what the people who are influenced by HockeyyInsiderr think? These people can’t be persuaded by anything a respected sports journalist says anyway. Some people really enjoy the experience of being a sports fan inside of a fantastical universe where rumors have a high likelihood of coming to fruition. It’s why Ecklund is popular. Ecklund has mountains of false information in his rear-view-mirror but, despite his total lack of credibility, some people still treat him as an authority deserving of attention. Maybe the delusion is fun. Is that so far beyond the realm of possibility? In any case, this outlook that supports this content is certainly harmless. I look at the Ecklund and his platforms similar to the way I look at 4chan — I don’t totally understand the popularity but I’m not irritated by it.

I think a lot journalists and PR people have collectively decided to use HockeyyInsiderr as a marker off which they can make statements about themselves, their profession, and their status as authorities. They point to the obvious flaws and the instability associated with HockeyyInsiderr and by doing this they hope to reveal their collective superiority. The mainstream journalists and PR associates are not wrong about their superiority as sources of accurate information. They’re just wrong for assuming most of us don’t already know this. In fact, it’s insulting they apparently assume otherwise.

DR^2

July 5th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

I thought I would feel a lot better than I do.

I think this captures the moment better than anything else I’ve read. He understates the absurdity of the Derek Roy discussion though. At some point we all became totally ungrounded with our thoughts on Roy.

Roy was always perceived as this wild amalgam of disruptive and generally unlikable character traits. I don’t know if his reputation was totally fair or deserved; it may have been but it definitely shouldn’t have been held with such fierce absolutism in the public. Is it possible that inside the locker-room Roy wasn’t such a massive problem? Is it possible he was a positive contributor, overall? Of course. Of course.

Paul Hamilton, Sabres beat reporter for WGR-AM 550, may be what they call “objective” about the Sabres but I can think of more than a few people who, even on their worst days of extreme bias in favor of Buffalo sports, think about matters involving the Sabres with greater reason and measure than he showed in this process. I know social media is not the ideal platform for quoting but gee willikers, man.

He wasn’t alone. Coincidentally, in the hours before Roy’s trade was announced, there was a bizarre debate taking place on Twitter on whether or not Roy had any legitimate value in the current trade market. Never mind, of course, that the market valued Paul Gaustad as a first-round draft pick four months prior. It’s possible the lowest point Roy’s name ever reached in the public conversation was just hours before he was traded from the team. It’s rare for the inaccuracy of cynicism to be exposed in sure a clear and undeniable manner.

I could go on but I can’t pretend to sincerely care about Derek Roy’s reputation or the emotionally informed valuations offered by his most committed haters.

* * *

Darcy Regier had an opportunity immediately after the lockout to build something. The salary cap had leveled the playing field. He did in fact build something special but it was unsustainable under the conditions Regier was forced to operate under and thus temporary. After that castle crumbled, the core became players like Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad, Tim Connolly, and Jochen Hecht. That group, of course, has failed to do any serious winning — one division title and five wins in a total of thirteen post-season games spanning five years. Now, in July 2012, only three of the seven remain. The current core is comprised of players like Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Drew Stafford, Ville Leino, Christian Ehrhoff, and Tyler Myers.

I’m beginning to recognize the closure that comes from removing Roy from the roster. This trade may mark the end of a largely disappointing period in Sabres history. There’s a pretty significant transition taking place. Paul Gaustad and Derek Roy are both playing hockey in red states. Jochen Hecht is likely gone, possibly retired, possibly over-seas. The Sabres, right now, feel fresher and less predictable than they did one week ago.

Personally, I never considered Derek Roy as a force that was holding the team back — it wasn’t as though Roy was taking a spot away from a developing young player — but, especially after Terry Pegula made the Sabres into a more flexible organization to manage, it seemed like Roy became a player that just wasn’t working out. And that’s fine. Some players don’t fit. The Sabres don’t have to force it. Try something new. After hearing Pegula’s message, at a certain point we all felt in our gut that removing Derek Roy from the roster would be an inevitable and vital step in the Sabres progression as an organization trying to contend for what’s most meaningful in this sport.

Now that the Sabres have taken that step, and sent Derek Roy elsewhere, it’s occurred to me how clear that step has always been relative to those in front of the organization now. We all have our preferences of what we’d like to see happen to the roster. Stabilize the center position. Acquire a big winger from one of two western conference teams. Trade Ryan Miller. And then there’s Lindy Ruff.

Derek Roy for Steve Ott and Adam Pardy was an easier choice to make than deciding whether or not to package current players with futures for a single, proven player like Bobby Ryan or Rick Nash. There’s a lot more risk involved in the decisions Regier will make from this point forward.

The Roy trade has put me in a weird place with Darcy Regier. They’re in uncharted territory and my faith in Regier’s judgment is so tenuous. It’s not that I’m skeptical of his specific choices, but rather Regier’s vision and ability to steer the team in the best direction.

Forget whether or not he deserves this opportunity. Deserving is always the way the Regier conversation is framed. He doesn’t deserve to be GM. He ought to be fired. Look at these figures I conveniently picked to support my position.

Better to ask, instead, if he is capable of justifying this type of opportunity. Is it possible? Is it probable? I think he’s certainly capable but I’m more skeptical now, after last season’s failure and after Derek Roy’s departure, than maybe I’ve ever been. He has difficult and important choices ahead. We’ll find out eventually if they are to be made correctly but if I’m being honest I don’t feel good that Regier is the one to be making them.

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