Alright my kiddies, i've a story to tell. (Hold your moaning, i know, i allllways have something to say don't i?)
So in an effort to maintain a sense of camaraderie, peace and love in my apartment -and considering it's entirely inadequate size, this is really less an option than a necessity- i've transformed myself into a Caps fan. My roommate/boyfriend and i are both transplants, he from Pennsylvania, i, from the great and glorious state of Massachusetts.
Being a Massachusetts girl, born and bred, i had to shed my unwavering Bruins heritage and become a Caps fan. Mind you, given they are the two best teams in the Eastern conference, it was no great sacrifice. Plus i get my long awaited Fedorov jersey - a legendary player i've known since writing the numbers of all the Bruins round the rubber trim of my Converse All Stars.
Anyway, the agreement was that i would adopt the Caps. James would learn to love my incredible Red Sox, forgoing his Pirates (our arrangement maintains its win/win status) and on football, we must agree to disagree. I am a Pats fan (hi, Tedy Bruschi anyone?) and he a Steelers fan. With regards to football, our little agreement includes a caveat that while i may love the Patriots, i may not, under any circumstances, love Tom Brady. No problem.
All this being said, i find myself following the Caps rather closely through this post season rally. Through the Rangers series, and now the Penguins. And i have to be honest here -because lets face it, why would you read if i lied? anyone can do that- penguins fans seem fairly immature. I'm going to run with this generalization so bear with me if you're a normal person who enjoys the penguins. On the whole, they whine about every play in which their beloved (and wholly unattractive) Sidney "Face of Hockey" Crosby gets bumped. They b*tch about any episode of Ovechkins spectacular stickwork outshining Sid the Kid or Evegeni Malkin. (Mind you, i fully recognize that both Malkin and Crosby are great players. But i will argue with anyone who says they are the only great players.) Worst of all, they gripe about Ovie because he's not Canadian (and thank goodness for that). Is there a more irritating accent, i ask you? I much prefer his caveman English to the "ays" and "aboots" of the Canadian tongue. Give me Varlamovs almost complete lack of English over the Canadian "sorry" any day. Yech.
But i digress.
Alright, listen up you sissy-babies. Hockey is a cold weather sport. I don't care if hockey was invented in Nova Scotia instead of eastern Europe. You all have sh*tty weather, and now you have a better way to enjoy it than standing on wooden slats skidding down a near vertical slope at break neck speeds. Just be grateful for Christs sake. Why must you curse an extraordinary player just because he's not Canadian? Half the Caps squad isn't Canadian and we couldn't be happier with them (Backstrom, Varlamov and Semin to name just a few).
We as Americans get diversity thrust up our backsides year round, from every direction. While I personally disagree with this policy, there is substance to the basic idea. I believe in promotion based solely on merit - not because your great grandmother on your fathers side was Inuit or you're 1/16th Native American. The American Past Time, baseball, is dominated by Cubans and Dominican Republicans. Do we complain? No. We love our Big Papi, and the game is richer for it. You can't tell me you would enjoy hockey just as much without Pavel Bure, Teemu Selanne or my boy, Sergei Fedorov. Hockey is a great sport, i'm not asking you to say you're sorry for years of obnoxious behavior (in fact, please don't, we all know how pitiful your 'sorry' sounds), just grow up, and move on.
So please, for the sake of hockey fans everywhere, embrace players of every creed. Or at the very least find a more attractive, less whiny bum to be your new Face of the Game.
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