Tuesdays with Hildy (on Thursday!): The Ultimate Seasonal Affective Disorder

by hildymac on Apr 1, 2010 1:20 PM CDT

(FYI, for the 4 of you who look at it, my site's moved over to the Bloguin network where they've given me the creepiest header ever (I love it) - http://www.thrashingtheblues.com)

It's that time of year again. That sad, sad time when you look at the schedule on the Blues' official website and only see 2 weeks and a teeny smattering of games. You try to scroll forward, and all you see is blank, blank space. You know that it won't be full again until September rolls back around, and you know that the new season's schedule probably won't be released until early August.

You want just one more game there - not just because that extra game means playoff hockey, but because it just means hockey period.

The end of the season is always the most frustrating time for fans, especially for fans of a team that juuuuuust missed the playoffs yet again. You look back at that awful home record and wonder if we would have won a few more... (just to make you more depressed, if you take our 15-18-5 home record and switch it with the BJ's 20-11-8 home record, our record would be 42-23-12, good for 96 points). You stop and ponder that if we fired Andy Murray sooner, just a month sooner... would we be a few more spots higher on that totem pole? What if we had a true #1 goalie? What if Paul Kariya played like he got paid to play?

So many sad, sad things can float through a hockey fan's mind this time of season. If you're not one of the top 16, it's rough. You're just playing the season out. So, how do you manage? What is your coping mechanism to make it through these last 2 weeks and the next five and a half months?

Options abound:

A) Adopt a team: like those cute little puppies David Backes saved, some other team in the East or West deserves to go home with you. There have to be some redeeming aspects of other squads that you like, or at the very least you would like to see another team embarrass Detroit or Chicago. In the West, I'm floating towards Phoenix - mainly just to piss off Canada. My Eastern Conference playoff team is still TBD, because that other team that I like refuses to die.

B) Shut yourself off from hockey: Why the hell anyone would want to do this is beyond me, but the removal of reminders of things you have lost from your life is a legit coping mechanism, kind of like cutting your girlfriend out of all your old vacation photos.

C) World Championships: nothing wrong with some international hockey love, especially since Team USA'll probably have Oshie, Backes, and Johnson on it.

D) Summer rec leagues: a fun and exciting way to participate in the sport you love when every midget in metro StL isn't at a public skate

What have you guys found is the best way to help you cope with the impending doom/mild disappointment that will be the final two weeks of the Blues' season?

Poll

How're you dealing?

Woooooooooooooo, GO 'YOTES.

34 votes

Screw hockey. Don't care about the Cup if we're not getting it - I'll be at Busch.

18 votes

So, um, the World Championships is on some weird Universal Sports channel?

12 votes

I plan to have broken at least 2 bones in my leg by September in my rec league.

19 votes

83 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

My folks live in Phoenix, so IF the Blues don't get in...

… I gotta go with the Doggies.

BTW, I love the header on Thrashing the Blues. Who is that? Blind Peckerwood Louie?

"If we do not prepare for ourselves the role of the hammer, there will be nothing left but that of the anvil."

-- Otto von Bismarck, 1851

http://futurenotes.blogspot.com

by Tomorrows Blues on Apr 1, 2010 2:14 PM CDT reply actions

Ha!

I have absolutely no idea. They sent it to me, and my first reaction was “what the holy hell is THAT?” And then I realized that it was actually kind of awesome that it got that response from everyone. :D

Reporter: There`s a "stamp out the Beatles movement" underway in Detroit. What are you going to do about it?

Paul McCartney: We`re going to start a campaign to stamp out Detroit.

by hildymac on Apr 1, 2010 2:40 PM CDT up reply actions

I like the idea of adopting another team...

Not to be disloyal to the Blues, but it’s more fun to watch if you have some kind of vested interest. Especially if it’s an Eastern Conference team. Don’t know that I can bring myself to cheer for another Western Conference team that in some point directly or indirectly played into the Blues missing the playoffs.

For me, it’s the Sabres. Miller won me over in the Olympics, and they’re not as “flashy” as some of the other playoff teams. And they’re not the Penguins nor the Capitals.

by Washoo on Apr 1, 2010 3:03 PM CDT reply actions

I second that

Going for the Sabres all the way if the Blues don’t pull it out. Miller deserved more than a silver and I’m only three hours outside of Buffalo so it seems like its ok

No one knows why, but second only to eating the brains of the living, the dead love affordable pre-fab furniture.

by Maverides on Apr 1, 2010 3:44 PM CDT up reply actions

Yeah, I'd say the Sabres are my Eastern Conference team...

…but if I boost the Doggies, I stand a chance of actually getting to see a playoff game live this year. Plus a vacation in Phoenix into the bargain. It’s not bad there in the spring; it’s only in July and August, when it’s 120 degrees in the shade, that it sucks down there.

"If we do not prepare for ourselves the role of the hammer, there will be nothing left but that of the anvil."

-- Otto von Bismarck, 1851

http://futurenotes.blogspot.com

by Tomorrows Blues on Apr 1, 2010 4:09 PM CDT up reply actions

I'll go with that.

I am going for the Sabres first off. Them and Jersey. I always liked them both. Besides, the Devils have Broduer. I love that dude.

Barret Jackman is my hero.

Fueled. These new shores burn. Shadow, my sweet shadow, to you I look no more.

Crosby and Malkin. Two girls, one cup.

by BluesTiger on Apr 1, 2010 5:44 PM CDT up reply actions

I usually adopt a team

my usual hierarchy goes:

1) whoever plays Detroit
2) whoever plays Chicago
3) whoever plays San Jose (I’m still a little bitter over 2000 – plus rooting for a team playing the Sharks in the playoffs is a sure fire way to forget that your team can’t win in April or May either)
~~4) Dallas (I was born there)~~
5) New Jersey (they won when I first started to really follow hockey – even if I was rooting against them – and I was rooting for them when they played the Colorado Ray Bourques)
6) Pittsburg (remember that time they beat the Wings in Detroit in Game 7 of the Cup Finals? Yeah, that was awesome!)

I know it's time for hockey because I've started singing "Don't Stop Believing" with the words "...born and raised in FUCK DETRIOT!!!"

by J-Mill on Apr 1, 2010 5:04 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

Right on

Although, I would add the CAPs for myself. My 1st team as a hockey fan.
Yes, I was there during the Pet Detective days. Plus I hated fuck detroit before I even became a Blues fan.

That being said, your hierarchy works for me. Just sub in the CAPs at #4 and we are set.

oh, and Rec’d like we need a #1 goaltender, for like more than one year in a row.

PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean?

by DanGNR on Apr 2, 2010 11:19 AM CDT up reply actions