The Blackhawks, Hockey, and Being Generally Spoiled

I was never the biggest hockey fan. Sure, when I was much younger I would pull for the Blackhawks, and for whatever reason, the Avalanche, but the sport never quite pulled me in. I always much preferred the gridiron or the diamond to the rink.

That all changed when I got to college in the fall of 2009. I found out about ESPN text alerts and would get score updates to my phone. Combine that with my roommate's possession of NHL2011 on his PS3 and the fact that the Blackhawks were quite good, and I was on my way to getting hooked. That said, I still didn't actually know anything.

It's probably also not a coincidence that 2009-2010 was the year I finally got into it. The Blackhawks were terrible when I was growing into my fandom, and very few people are going to pick up and stick with a crummy team. It was easy to hate the Red Wings because they were the same as the Packers¹ in my mind, but I had not thought for one second about the Canucks before that season.² It also helped that a Sharks fan lived right down the hall in our dorm, so we maintained that healthy rivalry throughout the season.

I watched every minute of US hockey in the Olympics that February, and was obviously pleased when the Blackhawks won the Cup that spring, but I admit that I only kind of knew what was going on. I also didn't understand the specifics of the cap dump that ensued, but I could at least appreciate why it happened.

I've since learned much more about the sport, but I'm still a relative novice. I know the basics, and I can generally follow the action, but I'm still living in a bubble brought on by the fact that I haven't experienced anything other than excellence.

When St. Louis beat Chicago a couple weeks ago, I found myself thinking, "wait, other teams are allowed to have really good players too?" Meanwhile, I'll be tuned in to a random game from around league and think "that miscue/turnover/bad result just doesn't happen to the Blackhawks." Clearly I'm delusional because every team makes those mistakes, but it demonstrates how spoiled I've become watching this team.

I know how lucky I've been, and I feel more than a little guilty that I haven't had to suffer before experiencing such success. I know Islanders fans who probably secretly hate me to pieces, and there are probably Blackhawks fans who will just lump me in with other bandwagon fans who are just along for the ride. I don't feel like I deserve what Chicago hockey has produced the past few years, but I know I'm definitely not complaining.

^{1. I have since learned that the players actually feel more animosity towards the Canucks than the Red Wings, so that's where my divisional cross-sport metaphor kind of falls apart, but whatever.↩}

^{2. I now spend more time thinking about them and have determined determined that not only do I not like them, literally (actually) no one likes them. Not even their own fans.↩}