As I write this column, my beloved hockey team is likely to miss the playoffs for a 12th straight season. Nine games remain in the NHL’s 2022-23 season and my team is five points out of a wild card playoff spot. Like many teams, my team has fizzled when it really needed to shine. It’s frustrating to be a Buffalo Sabres fan.
There are many places where blame could be placed. Goaltending remains questionable. Our starting goalie is 41 and is likely to retire after this season. Hats off to anyone who can play a physical, professional sport at this age. Unfortunately my team tends to develop goalies and then shoo them out the door – you’re welcome Boston Bruins fans.
Defence is better this year for my team, but we still have players who should be forwards playing defence first, not as an after-thought. It is not difficult to feel a bit of hope though when you see young players like Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, and Jack Quinn fire the puck in. Jack Eichel who?
There’s a lot of sports metaphors that could be used to describe the situation. The team didn’t give 110 per cent; it wasn’t firing on all cylinders; too many players playing as individuals not as a team; and so on. There is no “I” in team, and often the “team” metaphor is overused outside of sports. But that is no excuse for some of the losses my team has managed.
This long suffering Sabres fan will place his favourite toque away for another season after April 14 – ready for another season months from now. I don’t know what playoff hockey is really like, because I don’t watch if my team is not playing.
Adding insult to injury – thanks to my yearly bet with a Toronto Maple Leafs cheering friend, and my team’s poor season performance against said team, I lost the bet. Sometime in the near future I will have to grudgingly don a vile, misbegotten, hideous Leafs hockey jersey. Worry not readers. No matter how much I’ll try to hide from the cameras, there are a number of Leaf fans who will be out in full force to record the incident for posterity. Looks like I will be wearing a paper bag over my face all day that day.
As I ruminate on my hockey team’s abject failures, I am somewhat consoled by other sports teams I follow, namely football (soccer not egg-ball). Contrary to popular belief, this sport is played most of the year, and I watch a lot of it. I mostly watch European football.
Like being a Sabres fan, the club I support in England is a team that sometimes over performs, but then falls flat. West Ham United achieved a high finish the last two years in the Premier League table, qualifying the team for European competitions. This year, the team is undefeated in the Europa Conference League so far. But in their home league, they are in 18th place – relegation zone.
Part of the appeal of European football is the lack of league playoffs. Where you finish is where you finish. If you are at or near the top of the standings, you get to compete in the Champions League, or the Europa League, or the Conference League. All these mean more games, competing against other professional clubs, and playing internationally. The flip side is relegation – the bottom three teams at the end of the year move down one level in the football pyramid. Relegation means disaster – both financially, and to your fan base. Ever wonder why English football fans riot?
Relegated clubs must fight to win their way back up the pyramid. Teams who work hard and win go higher in the 10-level football pyramid. Those with a run of bad luck, or poor management, and other issues sink.
Imagine if this relegation/promotion concept was adopted for pro-hockey in North America. There could be more regular season games, more chances for other competitions, and teams that play poorly would not squeak into the playoffs. No team with a losing record should get to play a post season – ever.
There is a flaw with imposing this better system on the NHL – both my team and the Leafs would both play in the East Coast Hockey League – ugh!
This column was originally published in the March 29, 2023 print edition of The Morrisburg Leader.