A bit of a break here from the politics and stupidity of tech companies. Instead, you all get to hear me yell at clouds.
A couple of days ago the Chicago Blackhawks, my favorite team, and the Colorado Avalanche, played a completely meaningless hockey game. The Avalanche are in the playoffs short of a natural disaster or a plane crash (okay, that was darker than I intended) and the Hawks, short of about 25 plane crashes (and we can always go darker) will not make the playoffs. And I enjoyed the hell out of the game.
The two teams played a fast game, up and down, with players like Nathan MacKinnon showing their skill. The young players on the Blackhawks held their own and arguably outplayed the Avalanche. They hunted pucks, made smart plays, and pressed. If the Avalanche goalie had not made five or six world-class saves, the Hawks might very well have won. And I am not supposed to have enjoyed the game.
Commentators and sportswriters tell me all the time that teams should bail on the season and sell their players for draft picks and prospects. That being stuck in the middle of the standings, getting into one round of the playoffs with minimal chances to advance, is terrible. Winning is everything.
No, actually, I don’t think it is. Sports are fun to watch because of the skill of their players — remarkable athletes doing things that normal people simply cannot — and the tension of the moment. Watching the young Blackhawks players relentlessly chase down pucks, watching Connor Bedard fire off amazing shots, watching Artyom Leshunov get better moment to moment in his debut, watching the star players on the Avalanche dazzle with their speed and skill — all of it was a ton of fun. And the outcome was in doubt until deep into the game. It was, in other words, fun.
And that should be enough. Only one team, after all, can win the championship each year. And don’t get me wrong — I enjoyed the Hawks three championships. But the best hockey game I ever saw came in a playoff series the Hawks lost. I fear that we put too much effort on the outcome and not enough on the journey. I suspect this is another example of how business has corrupted our culture. By pushing greed and accumulation as acceptable, even virtuous, we have created a culture that only values the ends, not the means.
And I think that is a shame. I may be naive, or I may be a loser in the words of our business overlords, but there is more to life than the competition. More to life than the place you finish. I don’t enjoy sports because of the end. I enjoy sports because of the process, the moments. It is fun when my team wins, but watching Ryan Donato have a career year or Frank Nazar throw himself around the ice like a penguin on speed, is fun as well. And if I only cared about winning, I would miss them all and be poorer for it.
As the man says if all you care about is the destination, then take a fucking flight. Life is meant to be enjoyed, not won.
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