I have a solid routine every single day of reading about 2-3 hours worth of sport news, reports and opinion in order to have a good grasp on just about everything. My apologies go out to cricket fans. I know India won the World Cup yesterday, but reading the report on how it happened may does me no good. I have no idea what 6 wickets means and whether or not that’s a big margin of victory.
Normally I can just get through my reading and not be upset about anything that I do read. I’m pretty de-sensitized now to some of the shock value that writers try to add or the inherent and sometimes necessary bias that comes with an opinion piece. I just couldn’t hold my tongue today though. Some of the things I’ve read today made me just shake my head.
First of all, I’m getting sick and tired of reading all the articles about the Leafs having a fighting chance to make the playoffs. In reading over the last 24 hours, you would think that the Leafs have a coin-flip chance of making the playoffs. Even after last night’s win against the Senators, you want to know what their actual chance of making the playoffs are? According to sportsclubstats.com, the Leafs have a 1% chance of making it to the post-season. They moved 0.1 with their win last night.
The problem is that they continue to win, but the teams in front of them continue to do so as well. It seems like such a small gap for them, but there’s just too many things working against them. I think I’m so upset about it too because it’s so clear that Leaf fans have been sucked in by all of this media hype. I’m even getting annoyed by fellow Leafs fan thinking that the chances are better than they really are.
I also got a kick about the coverage on the Oilers/Canucks game last night. It was first vs. worst, David vs. Goliath and all the other big vs. small clichés that you can think of. My god, at this rate, you would have thought the Oilers chances of winning that game would have been 1%. On the surface, it looked like it was going to be a tough night for the Oilers. In actuality, it was always going to be a tough night for the Canucks.
I get that the Oilers had lost 11 in a row, had a shell of a lineup because of their injuries and could be looked down upon based on their ability to lock up the bottom spot in the NHL standings, but everything was lined up for them to win that game because of the emotion involved. Simply put, the Oilers had everything to play for and the Canucks had nothing.
It was the first time all year that the Canucks could truly take a deep breath. They literally have nothing to play for now because they’ve accomplished everything possible. They had a playoff spot sewn up by November, the division title won a couple months later, the Western Conference weeks ago and the regular-season title just two days ago. With no motivation whatsoever, you want them to beat a team full of youngsters that are embarrassed, tired of losing and looking to make a name for themselves by beating the best? Good luck with that.
Like I said, I can usually get through the daily reading without really having a problem with any of it, but I felt like I shouldn’t have this much tension on a Sunday morning. What have we learned today? The Leafs aren’t going to make the playoffs and people need to take emotion much more into account before they decide on how the outcome of a game might unfold.