Hockey

The NHL playoffs is starting, and the only reason I know this is because I just saw a preview for it on Deadspin.com. I honestly haven't given a shit about hockey in years. Like most fans, I watched a little bit of the snow game on New Year's Day and it seemed cool, although I probably would've appreciated it more if I had HD. I'm a Devils fan, sort of. I have on tape every single time they've won the Stanley Cup Championship (1995, 2000, and 2003. Plus the 2001 Cup when they lost Game 7 to Colorado), but I can't say that I followed them at all in the past year. Or last year. Or the year before that.

I can rattle off the last ten Super Bowl (Giants, Colts, Steelers, Patriots, Patriots, Bucs, Patriots, Ravens, Rams, Broncos) or NBA (Spurs, Heat, Spurs, Pistons, Spurs, Lakers, Lakers, Lakers, Spurs, Bulls) or MLB (Red Sox, Cardinals, White Sox, Red Sox, Marlins, Angels, Diamondbacks, Yankees) off the top of my head without even putting too much thought into it. I can actually a lot do more than that, but ten is a nice even number. I'm not as good in college basketball, I can do the last six (Kansas, Florida, Florida, North Carolina, UConn, Syracuse) before looking up that Maryland won in 2002 and I can tell you who the last four college football champs were (LSU, Florida, Texas, USC) before referring to the google (LSU won it in 2004).

But I had no idea who won last year's Stanley Cup before I looked it up just now. The Anaheim Ducks won last year, Carolina won before that, and there was no Stanley Cup three years ago because the season was cancelled (which I completely forgot about as well), and Tampa Bay won it in 2004.

And I really don't know why I've just suddenly lost completely interest in hockey without even realizing that I've totally stopped caring. It's not like the Devils have fallen off the map, they still have Martin Brodeur and they're in the playoffs this year against the Rangers. It's not like they don't have any stars (Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are two of the most exciting athletes in sports). I just don't care anymore. I'd like to say it's about the strike, but I stopped paying attention to hockey before that.

Now that I think about it, it's probably because ESPN doesn't really cover hockey that extensively anymore, and I've been completely brainwashed by the Mouse into only following events that they cover (except the World Series of Poker, which is just watching a bunch of ugly guys in sunglasses sitting at a table). I actually sort of feel bad about not watching, because hockey is a fun sport to watch. Only falling off a bridge strapped in dynamite is as heart pounding as a overtime NHL Playoff game, especially now that they have shootouts.

So I'm gonna make an effort to find out at least follow the games, starting by reading the Deadspin preview, followed by what channel Versus is on. Hockey is back!