This has been an important, and eventually disappointing week for the Steamroller's sport columnist Trevor Martin, a native Bostonian and hardcore hockey fan. After the Bruin's Stanley Cup loss to the Blackhawks earlier this week, Trevor is back with some more of his well-respected stats-driven analysis.
For more from Trevor, you can find him onstage with Oh Theodora and onscreen with PlanetTown. You can like both groups on Facebook and Youtube, and follow him on Twitter .
Tuesday June 25th: The last 24 hours have not been kind.
As a Boston sports fan living in Chicago, I was equally excited and tense when Chicago’s favorite hockey team beat the defending champion L.A. Kings to set up what was sure to be a Stanley Cup Final for the ages: those quick, skillful Blackhawks were going to take on my hard-knock Boston Bruins in a winner-take-all, best of seven series. Of course I wanted my Beantown Boys to win, and of course we know that’s not how it turned out, but before the puck dropped in Game 1 there was one thing the real sports fans could all agree on: as long as this series lived up to the hype, we would be fine.
And I think we were.
It was a hard-fought series, but in the end Boston Strong couldn’t last so long. After a dominant performance by the black and gold in Game 3, the Blackhawks managed to flip a switch and play their relentless, dexterous brand of rapid-fire hockey. Kane found his mojo, the defense forced the Bruins away from Crawford’s glove side, and boy did that goalie regain his focus.
What can I say? They were the better team.
And so, as I walked through the rowdy crowd of twentysomethings on Clark Street (I had to take it in), I started thinking about sports and the role it plays in our lives. What does it mean to be a fan of a team? Aren’t we often born into our fandoms, much like a religion? As such, isn’t it within our right to put our allegiances on hold, or even forego them altogether if we deem them illogical or fickle? I pondered these thoughts as I crawled into bed that night, and they actually influenced my subconscious towards a dream that‘s stuck with me since…
It was nighttime and I was playing hide and seek in a hallway with a friend of mine from back home, Mark Fitzgerald. Now I haven’t heard from Mark in ages, in fact I think I’ve only gotten updates on him from his wife’s Facebook posts. Yes, you read that right: he’s married already. Not only that, but he’s become a doctor. Anyway it was nighttime, but there was this blue hue over everything from the moonlight. It was like when the characters in The Matrix were in the real world, not like when they were in the Matrix and it was all green.
Yeah like that, but hockey.
Anyways, Mark and I are looking for people but there isn’t a whole lot to see. In fact I don’t even remember seeing Mark, I just knew he was there behind me. There was this girl in front of me though, in a nightgown. Now I know what you’re thinking: pretty scary setup here, Trevor! You aint gonna spook me with no dreamy ghost stories, are ya? And that’s just the thing: it wasn’t all that scary. But it did kind of make me think about this trailer for The Conjuring I saw on Friday before World War Z, and BOY was that scary! Here, take a look if you want. But beware: because for real, it’s actually pretty scary.
World War Z was good, by the way! I liked it, it was a fun time.
Yeah sometimes I do this thing where I pay to see a movie, see the movie, and then sneak into another movie and watch that one for free. Sometimes I feel bad about it, but then I remember my brother got killed in a red wagon accident. So take THAT, Radio Flyer! I remember at his funeral my mother said she couldn’t stand the sight of me, but I was wearing a Freddie Krookie Monster mask at the time so who can say?
Man, you guys like hot dogs? Not me, I LOVE ‘EM!
But anyway, I’m not gonna see The Conjuring because it looks like WAY too frickin’ scary and I hate scary movies. They REALLY get in my head, like don’t even ask me about The Ring. I couldn’t sleep for three days! I think it was the editing, you know like that quick cut here and there with the static and shit? I just couldn’t take it. Anyways hockey’s really cool and it’s way past my bedtime. G’bye!
-Trevor Martin