For whatever reason, I've been watching more playoff hockey this year than I have the past couple. I've found this year's playoffs to be quite good, and am already hoping for a long series between Edmonton and Florida, even if it is scheduled to run to, I believe, August 2027. Watching Game 1, one thought kept going through my mind.
Granted, that should be obvious, but watching such good teams made me realize that I have just finished my fifteenth straight season following a team that, when it comes down to it, really has never been very good. The best season since I started following the Sens in 2009-2010, they had a negative goal differential. That's not good!
Rooting for a team that has been, at best, on the upper end of okay has undoubtedly affected my perception of hockey. Seeing the Panthers execute a flawless counterattack capped off by a pinpoint finish from Carter Verhaeghe, I realized I cannot even imagine what it would be like to see the Sens do that on a regular basis. Nor can I imagine seeing them have a powerplay as sharp as the Oilers'. If the Sens had even a single month where they were as defensively sound as Florida has been this season I think it would fundamentally change me as a person. I'd probably get a tattoo commemorating it.
It's not as though the Sens haven't had talent. Each season, it seems like a running joke how many former Sens are on other playoff teams. This year, it included bonafide stars like Mark Stone and Mike Zibanejad, cast-offs like Cody Ceci and Cam Talbot, and even Andreas Englund and Mike Reilly, who, sure, why not. Along with Ceci, Connor Brown and Vladimir Tarasenko are both playing parts on this year's finalists. Should the Sens have surrounded them with more talent, or is this dumb luck?
Maybe this is just the way some teams have to be. With an ever growing league, it's less and less likely any given team will win each season. If we were just drawing lots, the Sens would be about 50/50 to have won a Cup since I started watching, so it's not like they're a uniquely cursed team. Fans of the Canucks, Sabres, and Sharks, just to name a few, would all have a very good case they've been more hard-done by than the Sens, and a trip to the conference final is more than a lot of teams have had in the past decade.
Is there a deeper lesson here? Maybe the acceptance of mediocrity, perhaps best exemplified by our ever changing but never differing cast of coaches, the latest of whom is a real human person named Travis Green, is antithetical to the pursuit of greatness. Maybe sports fandom based on results, rather than feeling, has corrupted the game and a return to our roots would make everyone, even fans of the best teams, happier.
Or maybe this is just a bunch of stuff that's happening that kinda ticks me off. That's probably it.
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