Is nothing good enough?

Edmonton 6
St. Louis 2
November 16, 2006

Watching Thursday night's game reminded me of what I most like and most hate about cheering for the Oilers.
Win or lose, Oiler games are usually exciting. The team does not make short work of its opponent very often. They either gut it out against really good teams or they show up and are just good enough to beat the bad ones.
Or they let the bad teams beat them. St. Louis has beaten Edmonton 4 out of the last six games (three losses last year out of four; one win and one loss this year) for example.
By the time the game was 3-0 at the end of the first period, the game looked like it would be a rare blowout win for the Oil. While it is nice to sit back and watch the team win, it is certainly not as much fun.
Now, how greedy is that? The Oilers win convincingly and I left feeling a little bit unsatisfied. There was no Ales Hemsky last-minute game-winner or
late game Ales Hemsky game-winner or Ryan Smyth third period hat trick. There was no overtime. There was no shootout (although I'm still on the fence about the shootout). It was so convincing a win it was almost boring.
Considering how badly the Oilers will need to get wins this year and their seemingly awful record against bad teams that should have been good enough. And it was good.

It reminded me of a question I asked myself at some point when I was pulling my hair in the mid-90s cheering for an Oiler team that WASN'T VERY GOOD.
"Dave," I asked myself, "Would you cheer for the Oilers if they always won and you knew before the season started that they would continue to win all the time?"
Truth is, no. I grew up in the high-flying 80s. The reason most of the Canadian hockey world still hate us in Edmonton is we won alot and got pretty used to it. The playoffs weren't even completely interesting until the second or third round. It was just assumed that the Oilers would roll into the playoffs and contend for the Cup. We got pretty complacent about it.

The fun is in not knowing. That's supposed to be the attraction of sports. At least for me it is. The game starts and you don't know who will win. You know who you WANT to win but you're not really sure if they will. So it means something when your team does win a game.

There's little pleasure in a rout except for the fact that it gives a little reassurance that the team isn't that bad after all. They can score. They can kick some ass. But into the third period of Tuesday's game, I started losing interest. The Oilers were going to win.
Oh well. Detroit and Calgary arrive soon. Things will get back to normal and I'll wish I had enjoyed the win a little more.


Now, if Edmonton beats Calgary 6-2........