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The trumped-up pregame party was signature McDonough on display. Even while maximizing a relatively mundane statistical accomplishment (280 players have done it) for the purposes of mawkish stagecraft, he was still able to use it to keep the NHL title top of mind for anyone caring to pay attention.
Maybe I'm just a sucker for "mawkish stagecraft," but playing 1,000 games
is a fairly big deal worth marking. 280 players still isn't that many in the grand scheme of things. While yes, he's still behind luminaries such as Paul Ranheim, Derek Morris, and Patrice "Breeze-By" Brisebois, he's also Marian freaking Hossa, and worthy of a little pregame schmaltz. And maybe I'm getting conspiratorial here, but I think there was another subtext at hand, one of celebrating Hossa's longevity. In the wake of the Jannik Hansen hit, you've had a lot of murmurs that Hossa is a fragile player who can't take "real hockey hits," even though that was anything but. It seemed like a subtle reminder that hey, this guy has played a lot of games, many of them big, many of the big ones in an Indian Head, so don't think this guy can't hold up. Keep the faith, and all that.
Quote:
Some fans are uncomfortable trying to reconcile this reality with their currently giddy euphoria over the record-setting start. Anybody daring to point out that larger accomplishments loom is derided for trying to spoil the fun, quickly getting the “No Pare La Fiesta” message. It’s a peculiar thing, this apparent emotional fragility, especially considering that the franchise is not far removed from its own parade, and that “One Goal” has been a marketing mantra, with its message obvious.
This is like when wikipedia articles have sentences that begin with "some argue that...". I haven't come across any Hawks fans here, real life (yes, I do encounter them there!), other boards, or elsewhere who don't say something along the lines of "now we just have to win the Cup again." I don't think being reminded that we have a Stanley Cup to win is bothering anybody...
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The last Chicago team with an unprecedented start to the season went out of their way to embrace the higher expectations brought on by their success, not worried for a second that any fleeting happiness could be undermined by confronting the truth.
...OH BUT
THIS MIGHT
Quote:
The 1996 Bulls began the season 41-3, en route to 72 wins. Along the way, and amid the Beatles-in-America kind of attention they attracted, both Scottie Pippen and Ron Harper were fond of saying “It don’t mean a thing without the ring.” They were smart enough to copyright the slogan, even, monetizing it on hats and t-shirts as the playoffs were set to begin. No fear, their excitement over less meaningful games tempered by context, and full awareness of how disappointing anything less than ultimate victory would be after setting a record. Their own version of “One Goal.”
Theeeeeeeeeere it is. Anything Hawks can do, Bulls can do better, Bulls can do anything better than Hawks, yes they can, no they can't, yes they can, no they can't, YES THEY CAAAAAN. That's all it comes down to, as usual, despite saying we should be above the petty hockey-basketball sniping (as long as it's on his terms). He even noted that the '96 Bulls
monetized everything! (I half-believe he's just needling the CSFMB at this point.) That mawkish huckster from the baseball team that isn't the White Sox is
not a Really Smart Person.
Quote:
Blackhawks fans should revel similarly in the higher stakes created by their team’s explosion out of the lockout. There is no reason for any current thrills to be lessened one iota by the focus on the championship, when that singularity of purpose is what validates and galvanizes everything else.
So again,
everyone understands this already. You are not going to find fans of this team who are not, on the heels of 23 games without
actually losing a game, thinking about anything but a championship. And in the event that you do, they're to be dismissed out of hand as idiots, anyway. Everyone
who counts loves Ned Flanders, I mean, winning championships.
But now I fully expect all the comments on the blogumn to be "BERNSTEIN YOUR AN IDIOT DON'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME" and whatever else still misses the point. Sigh.
_________________
Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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