Ya know what frosts my pumpkin? Divine hindsight, that's what.
Last night I watched Game 3 of the Rangers/Devils quarterfinals series. The Rangers led the series 2 games to 0 going into the event. After playing to a tie in the first three periods, they gave up a goal five minutes into overtime, losing the game.
As we saw footage of dejected Rangers walking back to their locker room, a sportscaster said something along the lines of, "Well, I don't think anyone thought it would be a sweep. These two teams are too evenly matched."
This might be true. Probably is -- these guys know a lot more about hockey than I ever will. And I know they gotta fill airtime by saying something. But the Rangers one all but one regular season games against the Devils -- and that one only once their spot in the playoffs was assured. So had they won last night, I could easily imagine that same sportscaster saying, "It looks like we could be in for a sweep -- just like we nearly saw in the regular season." The teams are evenly matched... except the Rangers kept winning and the Devils kept losing. It's not like a sweep would be outta the blue.
This isn't unique to sports (if it was, I'd never have picked up on it). Plenty of talking heads are on hand after an election to talk about how one candidate was obviously going to lose, or how a vote in Congress was doomed to failure from the start. And in comics, fans gleefully jump on the told-you-so bandwagon for whatever title gets canceled.
It doesn't impress.
Rob
(This has been a rare post from the Laughing at the Pieces sports desk. Don't get used to it.)
Monday, April 14, 2008
Predicting the Past
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5 comments:
Devils, Rangers, they are both no damn good.
Black and Orange baby (don't forget your roots)
I know, man, I know. We're at a point in the series where I can still root for both teams.
Holy crap. Sports? I thought I was on the wrong blog. I'm glad we won't see too much of THAT.
-Prof. A.H.B Phardtpounder
I hate when sportscasters do that. But I hate sportscasters in general cuz they never SHUT UP and they say dumb things like "they rly didn't want to give up that goal" >:|
Also what do you think of the Avery thing? Do you think the NHL did the right thing in acting swiftly like they did? I was listening to ppl argue about it on Primetime Sports that's why it's on my mind XD
Wow, I'm just looking that up now. I'd kept my head in the sand after the game. I remember as I watched it, thinking, "That's LEGAL? Even with the stick up?"
From what I'm reading, it sounds like the officials are making the right call -- they can't punish Avery, since what he did wasn't against the rules, but they changed the rule so if anyone does it again they can call a penalty. It's probably best to do it quickly, since they don't want the playoffs to be full of those antics.
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