Just got back from checking out the 67's/Gatineau pre-season game at the Civic Centre, followed by a couple of drinks with my great friend Sarah as we talked about the sports stories of the week....since I missed a couple of days of sports news 'cause I was soooo sick, she let me in on what happened while I was out of commission....
Out of all the girls I know, she has by far the most knowledge of sports and can easily hang with my knowledge as well....but it's compltely opposite from Rosalie, who I talked about before....a month ago, we were sitting and going through the channels on a Sunday afternoon and she asked, "What's PGA Tour?" Hmmmm...... :-)
Anyways, I don't know why I feel this way, but I've got a bone to pick with the people in charge of marketing at the 67's, especially with their misuse of the word "pre-season"....To put it bluntly, I feel duped! That game was too fast-paced, exciting and entertaining to be deemed "pre-season"!
I was fully prepared for lots of floating and a lack of hitting....so I brought a copy of the newspaper and a book full of sudoku puzzles to keep me entertained, but instead, I saw tons of hitting, a lot of emotion, some terrible penalty calls that got the crowd fired up and a great performance from Tyler Toffoli that has to make you excited for the regular season if you're a 67's fan....
Quick Hit: I've never been able to figure out crosswords....I just don't get what they're asking for with their clues.....some of them are so vague and some are only one word....so wouldn't there be tons of choices that it could be? For example, the clue is "denigrate" and 5 letters....am I supposed to be a mind-reader?
Anyways, after a pre-season game, I'm supposed to feel jaded and as I walk out, I should be asking myself why I bothered going to the game in the first place.....instead, I feel like taking in the rematch on Sunday night at the Bob....in 60 minutes, both teams found a way to create a lot of hate for each other for Sunday night....
I guess I'm so used to professional pre-season games where players are held out in fear of injury or players going at half speed 'cause they want to save themselves for the season....but it was a complete shock to the system to see players battling after the whistle and for a player like Toffoli to show some emotion after scoring a goal, despite the fact he's guaranteed a spot on the team....
Take NFL Preseason for example.....the starters play a quarter or two at the most and we get some excitement from that as we get to judge how that team is going to do based on that time....but after the starters are gone, the commentators shut down for the night and they start talking about anything but the game, whether it's the upcoming season or the latest movie they saw....
The other troubling thing I see in NFL Preseason is the amount of "homer-ism" I see from the home-team broadcasts.....you'll notice home-team broadcasts when you see things like the "Eagles Television Network"....I challenge you to watch a couple minutes of pre-season NFL games on the NFL Network this weekend (if you have it) and not see how biased the broadcast is....the home team can do no wrong!
Anyways, off to Kingston for the day tomorrow....I'm looking forward to it since I haven't been there in a handful of years.....all you have to know is Princess St. and you're good.......it's time to go to bed and you know that time has come when you're watching Australian Rules Football on TSN2....