Jack Defends Marc-Andre Fleury, Again

 

As I write this, the Penguins have just lost a somewhat-shocking Game 2 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs to the New York Islanders. Most pundits dismissed the Isles as a minor-league club following the Pens’ 5-0 drubbing of the Isles in Game 1. However, these same “analysts” have suddenly reversed-course after the Isles outplayed, and dare I say out-competed, the Penguins for most of Game 2.

As usual, the Great Unwashed Masses want to heap all the blame onto one player. Very few outside observers can just say, “the Penguins underestimated the Islanders, and got out-played,” or anything similarly rational. It’s much easier to just single-out one player, and it’s worth noting that this tendency extends even to “insightful” television analysts like Jeremy Roenick and Mike Milbury. Nothing as respectable as a guy ripping the prohibitive Hart Trophy Winner to shreds 12 games into the season. But I digress…

I had to write an article back in Summer 2011 defending future Hart Trophy/Art Ross Winner Evgeni Malkin because he had completed two back-to-back, injury-riddled seasons in 2009-10 and 2010-11. I had to remind everyone that Geno basically destroyed his own body helping to carry the Pens to consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, but the average middle-aged sports writer or circle-jerking bandwagoner wanted to blame his “underwhelming” stats on laziness and his Russian heritage and upbringing. Obviously, they were right, and Geno is a major disappointment.

Following this, I made a somewhat-uninspired defense of Paul Martin after the unintelligent population of Penguins’ fans started piling on him. Following two seasons of underwhelming play, Paul, AKA Snake, has since become a critical member of the Penguins’ Defensive Corps, logging huge minutes and providing competent, heady all-around play in 2013. Snake has become integral, and it’s worth repeating that people (including myself) were playing Xbox GM throughout the Lockout trying to expedite his departure from the team.

This year, homegrown Penguin and 2009 Cup Champion Tyler Kennedy has drawn much of the team’s ire, and become the de facto Whipping- Boy, mostly thanks to poor statistics and his on-going problems with shot-selection. Whipping-Boy TK has recently been sent to the Press Box in lieu of Golden Boy Beau Bennett, so the bandwagon crowd has decided to circle back to a long-time target: Penguins’ Starting Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, AKA Flower.

This nonsense started last year after the Pens were bounced by the Flyers in the 1st Round of the 2012 Playoffs. Very few people wanted to blame the horrifically-undisciplined play of the team in front of Flower, just as no one wanted to acknowledge that Flower was fried from playing an absurd 23 consecutive games down the stretch due to a lack of alternatives. Everyone just wants to be the drunken, uneducated uncle at the pee-wee hockey game, blaming the goaltender for each and every one of the team’s shortcomings. It’s childish and moronic.

I am not a sophisticated NHL Analyst. But I have played Hockey for 20 years, and I love and respect the game. To me, it does not take a genius to point out that one player rarely makes or breaks a game, let alone a Season or a Playoff Series.

I am going to do my best not to make this an argument based on statistics, because I have done that before. Statistics bear out that Flower is not one of the League’s Top 5 Goaltenders, but he falls right in the middle of the second group of Goalies behind the League’s Elite. The statistics I’m referring to are mainly Save Percentage and Advanced Metrics in a similar vein, because if we were talking about Wins or Goals Against Average, I would have no need to write an article such as this defending Flower.

Flower finished within Tenth among all Goaltenders who played at least 30 games in the Advanced Statistic “Goals Against On Ice Per 60 Minutes“. If you look at the other names on the list, the GAOI/60 statistic is a pretty accurate gauge of how well an NHL Starting Goaltender played in 2013. Columbus Blue Jackets Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky led all Goaltenders in this stat, and is the presumptive Vezina Trophy Winner.

Flower finished below Bobrovsky and the consistently Elite Goaltenders of the League (Hank Lundqvist, Pekka Rinne), as well as up-and-comers on Defensively-Strong or Puck-Possession teams like Tuuka Rask, Antti Niemi, and Jimmy Howard.

(UPDATE: 5/4/13 – 10:05 PM – As I write this, the Ducks are up on the Red Wings 4-0 with about four minutes to play in the game. No one would think about replacing Jimmy Howard with Backup Goaltender Jonas Gustafsson for Game 4, because this game would be 8-0 without Howard in net. My point is that sometimes the breaks do not go a certain team’s way, and Top-10 Goaltenders like Flower and Jimmy Howard are rarely the source of the problem.)

However, Flower was very comparable statistically to the #8-#14 Goaltenders on the list, including Islanders Goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who finished at Number 13 on this list. In my mind, when combined with his Win totals and somewhat-inconsistent and occasionally-lax Defensive Support, this firmly entrenches Flower as a Top-10 Goaltender statistically. At his absolute worst, he’s still among the top half of the League’s Starting Goalies.

It’s amazing how a Goaltender’s Stats go up when he plays on a more defensively-responsible team. When Michel Therrien was forcing the Pens to sit-back and run a half-Trap, Flower was a statistical Top-5 Goaltender. Ditto in 2010-11, when Coach Disco was forced to move to a defensive shell to offset the losses of Sid and Geno to injury.

This “phenomenon” is obviously not solely tied to Flower. Witness Philadelphia Flyers’ Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov’s mostly-unsuccessful move from Tight, Trap-Happy Phoenix to fast-and-loose Philly, or Mike Smith’s reversal from Sieve to Star upon moving to the Coyotes’ Defensively-Responsible system from Defensively-Clueless Tampa Bay. Witness the Boston Bruins’ seamless transition from All-World Goaltender Tim Thomas to Tuukka Rask, and note that both Goaltenders played behind the defensively-stout Bruins and Slovakian Giant Zdeno Chara.

It’s really simple: when the team makes a commitment to Defense – a real commitment, not a “responsible for an Offensive Juggernaut” commitment – the Goaltender’s stats jump up.

I cite Hank Lundqvist of the New York Rangers as Exhibit A. This is not to take anything away from Hank, but if the Penguins huddled around Flower and dove in front of shots like the Rangers do, Flower’s Save Percentage might jump a few points. Instead, Flower sees a ton of Odd-Man Breaks and High-Quality Scoring Chances because most of the Penguins are up-ice or otherwise not in ideal Defensive position.

The Penguins, and by “The Penguins” I mostly mean Sid and Geno and Deal and Tanger, want to turn every game into an Offensive Carnival and a Track Meet. I think that’s just great, but the reality is that playing Goaltender for the Pittsburgh Penguins is a unique and very difficult challenge. It has been this way for as long as I can remember, dating back to Club Mario and extending to this very day, excusing a few brief forays into Defensive Responsibility in Constantine-Ville and Therrien-Land.

Again, I am not speaking to the Stat-Heads, because they know exactly where Flower stands: somewhere between the Goaltenders of the League who are Elite Year-In and Year-Out (Hank Lundqvist, Pekka Rinne, etc.) and the Average NHL Starting Goaltender. Flower is plenty good enough to Win with, as he has proven.

With Goaltenders, the Grass is always Greener. People look at the Super-Heroics of someone like Sergei Bobrovsky in 2013, Jonathan Quick in 2012, or Tim Thomas in 2011, and wonder why their team cannot easily find Goaltending at that level. The common fan looks at the League’s best Goaltender every year, and assumes almost anyone can achieve and sustain that level of play. The same people who want to pile on Flower should take a look at what the very-comparable Quick has been up to lately.

I remind you that Roberto Luongo was the toast of the Goaltending world as recently as 2011, until he lost a seven-game Stanley Cup Final to a historically-great Tim Thomas, at which point the common perception became that Luongo was mentally-fragile. People started to selectively ignore Luongo’s history of gaudy performances in lieu (no pun) of the more even-keeled performances of battery-mate Cory Schneider, to the point where the Canucks could not trade Luongo for 40-cents-on-the-dollar this past off-season.

Luongo will be absolutely unbeatable some nights, and other nights he will get smoked. Flower is cut from a similar cloth, although it should be noted that both Goaltenders are much-more consistent than they are given credit for being. Their athleticism, flash, and knack for the spectacular is actually held against both of them.

Some people want a low-maintenance, lower-ceiling car, and some people want a low-maintenance, lower-ceiling NHL Goaltender. Flower has come a long, long way in terms of his positioning, rebound control, and recovery, but he will always be an athletic, reflex Goaltender. Some people, due to their own biases in perception, cannot handle this type of Goaltending on the team they support.

The Penguins have Won a Stanley Cup with Flower, participated in another, and will participate in future Stanley Cup Finals with Flower in net. Laying the blame for a mostly-uninspired Team Performance in Game 2 solely on Flower is the sort of self-castigating, delusional paranoia I would generally associate with a beaten-down fan base like Vancouver or Philly.

As I wrote at this time last year, there are going to be Highs and Lows in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Take a Breath, and stop overreacting over one bad-bounce goal when your team got out-shot 42-33, failed to convert a four-minute Power Play, and generally did not battle at the same level as their opposition.

Marc-Andre Fleury is an excellent NHL Goaltender, by measure of Advanced Metrics, Eyeball Test, or Resume. Stop blaming him for poor Team Performances, and start appreciating him.

Jack

So Sick of the “We Will Endure” Speech

I had both a funny article and a controversial article ready for today, both of which you will have to wait to read because a handful of cowards decided to bomb the Boston Marathon on Patriots’ Day.

I am furious. Selfishly, I am furious that I cannot just come home and watch uninterrupted NHL Highlights because a group of godless fucks decided to spend the day dismembering innocent people for some unknowable reason. Less selfishly, I am furious because these poor people who just wanted to come out and support an American tradition lost limbs, or worse, because some craven sack of shit had an axe to grind.

I strongly suspect that the Patriots’ Day attack is the latest in a line of crimes committed by foreign terrorists. There is obviously nothing available to substantiate this, but this latest attack is not the work of a deranged gunman isolating a small group of people. This attack happened at a National event on a revered American holiday. This was more than calculated, and reeks of those who blindly hate Our Great Country.

Every American with an IQ over 70 and a fraction of a social conscience cannot help but be consumed by the latest senseless tragedy in a matter of months. Most of us are still reeling from the fallout of Sandy Hook and the Colorado Movie Shootings, and now there is this Boston Marathon bombing further wrenching our already-full hearts and minds.

If you have not seen them, the photos and videos taken from Boston are harrowing. All of these innocent people can do nothing but weep in disbelief as fellow runners and race-goers are carted off to makeshift infirmaries, wailing in agony. Cable channels such as ESPN and NBC Sports had to do cutaways on certain angles because they could not show the graphic footage of children and elderly missing ankles and legs.

Read this. It will sicken you:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/boston-marathon-explosions/index.html

As the President said, “Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups, will feel the full weight of justice.” As I write this, there are no leads. But this is the latest sorrowful day in which we Americans cannot just have a normal Monday, drinking coffee and catching sports highlights, because these outlandish acts of terror keep happening around our homes.

Terrorism is so frustrating because it’s like trying to fight a gust of wind. There is no one to immediately punish, and no retribution to immediately seek. As Americans, we must sit here and swallow this latest horrid indignation because there is no apparent enemy to wail against.

So, as we always say in Our Great Country, We Will Endure, and We Will Overcome. It is the most foundational of all American principles. But fuck, am I getting sick of having to find solace in that tenet.

Jack

A Tribute to Alex Kovalev, My Favorite Player (Non-Mario Division)

As you probably know, NHL forward and YouTube Sensation Alex Kovalev formally announced his retirement on Thursday, ending a very brief run with the Florida Panthers.

As I have stated before, Kovy has been the NHL player who has most-influenced my development as a Hockey Player, and one of the last players I grew up idolizing remaining in the League. I wanted there to be at least one article on the internet that gave him his deserved due and maybe made younger fans realize what a wonderful player he was in his prime.

What Made Kovy So Special?

Obviously his once-in-a-lifetime talent. Being objective, I have to look at Kovy’s resume and honestly question why he did not get more out of his natural ability, but there was absolutely no doubt that he was one of the most pure talents the League has ever seen:

This is not ground-breaking information. I remind you, Kovy is capable of causing such man-crushing that he inspired the citizens of Montreal to riot upon learning that Management was not going to re-sign him. Kovy single-handily perpetuated the stereotype of the enigmatic Russian, because one night he would look like the Best Hockey Player Ever, and another he would be invisible.

Some people viewed Kovy as an under-achiever, but that’s going to happen when you have Talent on loan from God and fail to fully utilize it. My view is that Kovy gave Hockey Fans a veritable bevy of breathtaking moments, and should not have his character accosted because he was not pathologically competitive.

What Mario Said About Kovy

On who was the better player, MARIO LEMIEUX or Kovy:

“I’d say Kovy,” Lemieux admitted. “He’s the best stickhandler I’ve ever seen. Quickness. Hands. A much better stickhandler than me. He’s got the talent to be the best player in the world.”

Again, that came from Mario Lemieux, who has his own statue outside of his own arena that sits along a street named after him. The Best Ever. Mario thought, “I’m OK, but Kovy’s really the talent of the operation.”

That’s how good Kovy was in his prime: he had Mario Lemieux, one of the most composed and dignified people you could ever hope to meet, gushing.

My Personal Thanks to Kovy

Hockey has always been the most important thing to me, and Kovy is the NHL player who most strongly-shaped me.

I am not an exceptional talent. I am a good athlete and a hard worker. The only thing I have in common with Kovy is that we have similar builds and both shoot left-handed.

Whether I unconsciously copied his shot mechanics or whether our similar builds led me to develop in a similar fashion as him, I look quite a bit like Kovy when I shoot. I am extremely proud of it. Like Kovy, I almost shoot one-handed, pulling my 110-flex mini-stick hard with my top hand (TWSS). With the right stick, I can really fire a Wrister. I’ve scored some goals. I have Kovy to thank for both the creativity and ingenuity he displayed, and also for setting a template for me to model myself after.

Aside from how he helped shape me as a Hockey Player, Kovy also made it really enjoyable to be a Penguins fan during his five-year run with the team. Mario was obviously not around for much of that late-1990s/early-2000s period, and I was getting increasingly fed up with the petulent diva-ism of Jaromir Jagr. Before my own games or before my scheduled under-age drinking, I could watch the Pens any given night and always have at least one player to really appreciate.

I realize he had a memorable career with both the Canadiens and the Rangers, but for me he will always be a Pittsburgh Penguin. He was at his best in a Pens’ sweater, where he was allowed to be himself and really began to shine as a player. He had some great moments for the franchise. He had some even better goals as a Penguin.

I kid you not, I almost put my fist through the screen of a Duquesne University campus computer upon reading that Kovy had been dealt to the New York Rangers for 30 Pieces of Silver and the Pu Pu Platter. It remains one of the most-miserable 20 days of my life. Watching the Penguins have to auction off Kovy, a magnificent talent who wanted to stay in Pittsburgh, to a rival team that embodied everything I detested in the pre-Lockout NHL, was harrowing. It was not quite as bad as watching Mario get booed by 4,000 invading Maple Leafs fans in Mellon Arena, but it was freaking brutal.

(Mostly unrelated, but I also want to again take former Penguins’ GM Craig Patrick to the wood-shed for not neither getting out of bed before noon nor working his archaic fax machine properly in Summer 2005, allowing Kovy to re-sign with the Habs and then giving Kovy’s salary to low-integrity quitter Ziggy Palffy. I understand that he had to sell-off Kovy for laundry money in 2003, but that should have been immediately rectified in Summer 2005 after the economic playing field in the NHL was leveled. Regrettably, CP did not have as much “internet” as he had Robitussin in his dingy office at Mellon Arena as recently as 2005, so the Habs got the jump and signed Kovy while CP went after noted NHL difference-makers Andre Roy and Jocelyn Thibault. It would have been Awesome to have seen Kovy back in a Pens’ jersey during his prime, a Wrong that took until Spring 2011 to Right. Not that I am still holding this against Craig Patrick or anything.)

Kovy’s return the Penguins in 2011 was obviously-diminished, as he was still recovering from the effects of an ACL tear the prior season. As Kovy himself said, he could not keep up in Coach Disco’s uptempo system. While I insist that Kovy would have been a much more effective player had he had access to either Sid (out with concussion/fractured vertebrae) or Geno (out with ACL/MCL surgery) – you know, one of the Penguins’ two All-World Centers who had been looking for elite help on the wing since 2006 or so.

Still, it was really great to see Kovy back in a Pens’ uniform, even if it had to be that ridiculous-looking #72. He managed to make a couple of memorable moments during his second tour with the Pens:

In short, I just want to say thanks to Alex Kovalev for putting his remarkable skills on display for all NHL Hockey fans, but in particular for his time spent in Pittsburgh. One can debate his Hall-of-Fame credentials, but in my view he’s a Generational Player, at the very least. People of a certain age are going to vividly remember Kovy as one of the true game-breakers. Anyone who saw him up-close knows that he is one the best players the League has seen.

Here’s to the Russian Rifle. Best of luck in the future.

Jack

On Doing the Right Thing

“The more I live I see, this life’s not about me.”

- Anberlin, Burn Out Brighter

I have learned some lessons on Doing the Right Thing, some of which I have loosely organized below. I hope you can learn something from them.

Arrogance as a Barrier to Truth

There is a saying in sports: “There are those who are humble, and those who are about to be humbled.” I alternately have read that this is Pride versus Humility. The point remains the same, being that the line between Confidence and Arrogance is perilously thin, and must be toed with absolute caution.

I am and always will be a little cocky. I am confident and optimistic, and that is always going to rub certain types of people the wrong way. In my view, the difference between healthy self-confidence and Arrogance gets crossed when one ceases to be appreciate of what one has.

Five years ago, I thought I deserved everything the world had to offer. Not warranted – deserved. I was a snapshot of entitlement. Since then, a number of circumstances have beaten a healthy dose of humility into me, and I think this has helped me to become a better person.

Appreciation for the gifts I have been given has overtaken the delusional narcissism that used to envelop me. I have a desire to Do the Right Thing not because I am afraid of Karmic retribution, but because I am thankful. I would rather start a Positive Feedback Loop rather than a Negative one. This is the well-covered idea of “Paying it Forward“, but personally I like the take-away message from Yes Man better.

I am not trying to sound like a motivational speaker, but the Truth is that if you Create and do Positive Things, more Positive Things will come back your way. This is something that I took a very long time to learn, because my own arrogance prevented me from trying it.

Writing has certainly been a cathartic and helpful part of the process, but my own Arrogance has been the biggest Barrier to Truth, as I interpret it.

This is a lesson I have a sudden urgency to impart onto others. I see people who remind me of my younger self – caustic, cynical, ruthless, and most of all, excessively-confident – and I want to save them the trouble my own personality shortcomings have caused me as a young adult. I have found my message goes over about as well as trying to bathe a cat, but out of appreciation for the intellectual and physical gifts I have been given, I won’t stop trying. In my view, getting the other Arrogant Bastards in line is simply Doing the Right Thing.

Letting Go of Negative Emotions

This is going to double as closing commentary on my now-former roommate, so bear with me for a bit while I make a point:

The analogy that comes to mind when I describe my experience with the ex-roommate is that we were like two people walking toward each other from opposite directions: I was coming from a darkened road, while she was heading that way. My view is that we are frightening similar on a number of levels, so it’s obvious that we would stop and talk to each other for a few moments during our respective treks. This moment of “talking” was the 21 months we lived together.

I like the traveling analogy because she and I hit right in the middle of a Morality cross-road. I did not realize the entirety of it at the time, but I used to be constantly angry and miserable and negative; like a deep sickness, it had gotten so bad that I almost did not feel the symptoms anymore. Feeling irate and vindictive all the time was “normal” to me, but thankfully this cloud of negativity was a function of the company I kept and the people I worked with. As I have gotten away from hateful and pessimistic people, I have gradually started to lighten up.

Meanwhile, when I met my ex-roommate, she was in a pretty good place, from what I can tell. She remains sharp and worldly, but she had not had an endless parade of bad experiences in the same way that I recently did. When we first met, the good still outweighed the bad in her life by a decent margin. She was hopeful, optimistic, and for the most part a pleasure to be around.

However, she has been in a kind of gradual descent since I met her. She has been somewhat victimized, but she has also been the cause of some of the problems that have led to this free-fall.

In my view, a main problem is that she got away from her 9-to-5 job and went back to bartending. Working at a bar is fine, except that you are constantly exhausted and surrounded by irresponsible, selfish people. Bartending works as a limited-time-only way to make extra money, but the people who make it their long-term or primary business get pulled through an emotional meat-grinder on a regular basis.

Again, I am not criticizing her line of work. I was a bartender for many years. I just know from experience that it leads to this negative cycle in which people become disposable and the uncertainty over your future becomes suffocating. Most bar jobs do not offer 401K plans and insurance benefits, and this eventually becomes a millstone around the neck of a person once they start moving through their 20s.

Going back to the analogy, a series of poor choices and circumstances compelled her to start heading down the dark road I had just come from. Meanwhile, I was desperate to get away from the darkness and negativity, and I spent most of our time together trying to drag her with me away from it. But like me just a short time prior, she was insistent on surrounding herself with noxious, two-faced people and living a septic lifestyle.

True Story: the consequence of being constantly surrounded by service-industry vampires is that you start treating the quality people in your life badly. You pass along the me-first selfishness and vitriol of the after-hours crowd like a plague. Don’t get me wrong, you can have a blast working as a bartender, but it comes with a toll. You become calloused and sometimes vicious, because you are frequently degraded, marginalized, and lied to.

I am not writing this to make my ex-roommate out to be the Devil. I do not think she is an evil person. Again, I think she’s largely a victim of some bad luck and a few regrettable decisions. I know this because I was just like her, not very long ago at all. But she kept dragging me back into her lifestyle of lunacy and turmoil, and eventually I got so sick of the endless drama and negativity that I basically cut her out of my life.

Our personal relationship came to an end because I had worked almost all of the bitterness and resentment toward the world out of my system, like a poison being expelled. Writing has certainly helped me, but for the first time in a long time I have a loyal and supportive group of friends. My ex-roommate had become what I would call a “tough cut“, in that I did not really want to remove her from my life, but the baggage that came with her was affecting everything else to too great of a degree.

We met recently to settle some debts between us and effectively end communication. It’s kind of a sad story, because we used to be close friends, but this happens in Life.

We fought for months over what are relatively small sums of money and personal property. I was so tired of wasting energy battling with her that I basically surrendered, handing her a wad of cash and opening myself up the risk that she might never reimburse me. I just did not want to hold onto the bitterness needed to keep fighting her over what amounts to ash in the grand scheme of things.

Meanwhile, she continued to lash out at me over things that no longer mattered. It was mostly nonsense – just pure rage spewing out of her mouth. I sat there patiently and let her vent for 30 minutes over a matter that could have been settled with a handshake. In the end, all I could do was sigh, because she was using so much of her energy and focus on hating me and trying to make me out to be the Bad Guy.

Once more, I am not trying to throw rocks at my ex-roommate after the fact. Maybe two or three people reading this would have any idea who she is or what she looks like. I am trying to paint a picture and make this point:

Letting Go of Bitterness and Rage is a way in which I am attempting to Do the Right Thing, or at least do the Wrong Thing less often.

Do not let me convince you otherwise: I am no saint. I used to be berserk and had an insatiable lust for atonement in the form of corrective punishment, alternatively referred to as Wrath:

Certain people want to devote the time in their lives to fighting every trivial battle that might potentially lead to personal gain. They claw and gnash at each other like animals over things that, again, amount to ash in the end. I am not judging these people, because I was one of them for a long time. But I no longer want to be one of them. The big step for me personally has been to become less of a bastard, which meant putting an end to grudges, petty feuds, and spitefulness.

The Real Truth is that if you work to help other people, you get it back tenfold. You just have to be a little selective about the people you help, and sometimes let go of people who are more trouble than they are worth.

Doing The Nice Thing versus Doing The Right Thing

This is the simplest lesson in principle to learn about Doing the Right Thing, but the most difficult in execution.

There are some people, like me, who have a relentless need to help other people. This is not like Nightingale Syndrome, but more of a survival instinct. Some of us just know in our bones that protecting other people is what we have to do, and people like me often end up becoming Doctors, Police Officers, or Firefighters.

You may be confused by the picture at the top of this section, which is plays the cast of the hit television show The Walking Dead. The overriding theme of both the show and its source-material is a realization by the main character, Rick Grimes: while Rick is initially hardened and views others as disposable cogs who only serve to provide protection for his wife and young son, he eventually comes to realize that by being so dismissive of others, that he is indirectly making Life more dangerous for his wife and son. Rick comes to learn that Cooperation, rather than self-absorption, is the Key to thriving in Life.

Regardless of which anecdote is more relevant to you, Cooperation is a conclusion that most intelligent people come to. We are nothing without other people. Helping and Protecting those who cannot protect themselves is the most basic form of Cooperation, and this is often a great thing. However, many people have learned to manipulate others by feigning weakness as a way of dodging responsibility, forcing more accountable sorts to take Life’s lumps for them.

Let me describe it another way: picture a loving parent with her or his child. Let’s say the child starts begging the parent for a gallon of gasoline and a lighter, or for a gun.

Would it be responsible of the parent to give the child anything this dangerous? Of course not. No matter how much the parent loves her or his child, giving the child a weapon would not be the Right Thing to Do, in normal circumstances.

Unfortunately, this is what many of us do every day in Life. We do not arm children, but we do acquiesce to the demands and wishes of those we dote upon, even if we know we are not Doing the Right Thing. Many people would rather be Liked than Right.

You Do the Right Thing when you use a measure of temperance in your decision-making. Remember what I said above about nurturing positivity? You seek to do that, but you should not arm children, which is what we often do when we opt to do the Nice Thing rather than the Right Thing. Sometimes, you have to be a prick, lest the children of the world burn everything down in search of their fun.

Carefree versus Careless

Speaking of which…

Moving to North Carolina, and in particular a beach town like Wilmington, is a drastic departure from a place like Pittsburgh. The Steel City is conservative and resistant to change, but the typical Type-A, East Coast mentality that dominates the Metropolitan Northeast is still very present. A lot of people in Greater Pittsburgh are businesslike or brusque, and many are just flat-out rude.

By contrast, the common demeanor in a beach town such as Wilmington is comparatively very lax. Most of the people you meet in Wilmington are happy and pleasant to be around. I have touched upon the differences between Pittsburgh and Wilmington frequently, but in this case let me point out the difference in attitude in the interest of explaining Carefree versus Careless:

It’s great to be Carefree and breezy, as most of the people I have met in Wilmington tend to be. However, as prevalent as the easy-going, Southern-mixed-with-beach-town attitude tends to be down here is the equal tendency to be Careless. 

As I have written before, I get into an auto accident almost daily (knock on wood) because the drivers of Wilmington cannot be bothered to use their turn-signal, or wait to change lanes, or wait to pull out into flowing traffic. I don’t believe these wayward drivers are malicious or intent on causing an accident; they are simply being Careless, otherwise known as Irresponsible. I think you know how I feel about Responsibility and how it ties into Doing the Right Thing.

I don’t expect everyone to feel the Burden of Responsibility on the pathological level that I do, but I also expect people to have a measure of respect for others. The problem is that people who tend to be Carefree and easy-going also tend to cause problems with their Carelessness.

Moving to a laid-back beach town like Wilmington has been very instructive, because it allowed me to see the flaws in my character magnified. For example, while I was bartending, I was once angrily sent home from work by management because I did not check I.D.s on a group of 20-somethings that walked in. Granted, we ordinarily had a bouncer who did that, but that does not mean that I had no responsibility to double-check. At the time, I did not really understand why such a big deal was made of the issue by management, but I now see how my Carelessness could have been equally as destructive as purposefully serving under-agers.

It may come as a surprise, but by nature I am much more laid-back than the standard Type-A East Coaster. It turns out I fit in fairly well down here. But I am also Responsible enough that by comparison, I am frequently correcting the Carelessness of others and trying to teach them how their happy-go-lucky attitude can lead to disharmony if a measure of discretion isn’t used.

Carefree become Careless when the consequences of choices become potentially-destructive.

Conclusion

The conclusion is summarized in this quote:

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw

The takeaway lesson is that you can choose to Do the Right Thing, or to Pay it Forward, if you will. I now wholeheartedly believe in Karma, and as they say, What Goes Around Comes Around.

If you Choose to be bitter and vindictive, you will find yourself mired in this swamp of never-ending negativity. You may be able to get away with burning through other people for your own selfish reasons for a length of time, but eventually your inconsiderate and self-serving actions will bury you.

Alternatively, you can choose to let go of negativity, and choose to Do the Right Thing on a regular basis. You have a Choice, which most people understand but do not internalize. You do not have to be malicious and underhanded just because other people in your orbit happen to be that way.

You can opt to look out for the interests and well-being of other people, as well as (and occasionally at the expense of ) yourself. For sure, there will be times when your choice to pick up other people, rather than step over them, will be costly to you. But you will want to weigh the costs of looking out for the other people in your life against the spiritual toll it takes on you to feud with and spite them.

More on this later,

Jack

Dreams Do Come True – Pens Add Jarome Iginla, Terrify Rest of NHL

(UPDATE: 3/28/13 03:34 AM – the Penguins have acquired Jarome Iginla for forwards Ken Agostino, Ben Hanowski, and the Penguins’ 2013 1st Round Draft Pick. The Rest of this article is dated hogwash. I am naming all of my illegitimate children Ray or Rae Shero, because Showtime has turned the National Hockey League into an Xbox.)

Jarome Iginla is my favorite active non-Penguin in the NHL, assuming we now consider Alex Kovalev “in-active.” The thought of Iginla, who I call “Sugar“, wearing a Penguins’ jersey has me riled-up enough to skip work mid-week and write an article addressing the Penguins’ prospects of adding him at the NHL Trade Deadline.

As much as I would like to play Xbox GM and tell you that the Pens adding Sugar before the Trade Deadline is all but a done deal, the reality is that it does not appear to be in the cards. Even before this recent Elliotte Friedman column in which Elliotte outlines Calgary’s probable strategy for dealing with Iginla’s expiring contract, the actual likelihood of Sugar changing addresses at the Deadline would appear to be low.

Mr. Friedman is about as clued-in as anyone writing on the subject (unlike catty gossips Damien Cox and Bruce “Malkin to the Kings!” Garrioch, who irresponsibly make up wild Trade Scenarios to sell papers to the sexually-frustrated denizens of Ontario), and his insight should be taken as accurate. The quotes from Flames GM Jay Feaster about an organizational decision not to do a full rebuild has a decided ring of truth to it, given the unsightly collection of overpaid veterans on the roster. Feaster may have a mandate from Ownership to keep the group “competitive”, and no team gets more competitive by trading their Franchise Player and Captain.

(As an aside: this alleged mandate from Ownership rings true to anyone who followed the proceedings of the Lockout, in which Flames Majority Owner Murray Edwards could have been described as a key lieutenant to the Commissioner as well as a “shark”. My view is that Edwards is fine with the Flames being mired in mediocrity as long as the organization continues to churn out a profit.

He would presumably like to win the Cup and see the Flames as an annual Playoff entrant, but he also would not seemingly want to endure a full rebuild, which could mean drastically-lower attendance and Gate Revenues. Just a thought, but I covered this extensively, and the Flames have seen their annual Franchise Worth accrue value under the current plan. As I write this, the value of the Calgary Flames has gone up from $135 Million in 2006 to $245 Million last year, according to Forbes.)

Still, there is a powerful logic to the idea of Sugar joining the Penguins. Aside from his obvious chemistry with Sid Crosby, Sugar is tailor-made for Coach Disco’s aggressive forecheck. The Wingers who succeed as contemporary Pittsburgh Penguins are “Power Wingers” along the likes of Bill Guerin, James Neal, Matt Cooke, and especially Chris Kunitz. Both Disco and Penguins’ GM/Executive VP Ray “Showtime” Shero crave North-South types with blue-collar work ethics installed on the wings of Sid and Geno. Sugar is the mold from which the contemporary Power Forward is cast:

Now that I’ve sold you on how fantastic Sugar would be in Pittsburgh, don’t get overly excited. The prospects of Iginla suiting up for Pittsburgh are rather slim glorious, and here is an outline of why:

1) The Man is Calgary’s Franchise Icon

If you have been a Penguins’ fan long enough, you might remember those silly rumors out of Toronto back in 2004 or so about the Penguins trading Mario to Montreal or some such place so that he could “finish his career on a winner.” If you were at all like me, you likely laughed obnoxiously to yourself at how ridiculous such drivel was, promptly slammed your laptop closed on the back of the hot sophomore from Towers you were reading said trash on, then went back to your life of drunken promiscuity.

The Canadiens could have sent their best 10 players, along with a swimming pool full of Grand Marnier and low-class Red-Light District strippers, and the Penguins still would not have even considered dealing Mario. Even with known Grand Marnier aficionado and Reactionary Craig Patrick at the phone and annual Gross Revenue losses in the tens of millions, dealing Mario would have meant shuttering Civic Arena and moving the club to Kansas City or wherever.

Excuse my absurdity for comparing anyone to Mario, but Sugar is Calgary’s Franchise Icon. He is the most-important player in the team’s history. He may not have been part of the ’89 Cup Team, but he has since eclipsed the likes of Theo Fleury, Lanny McDonald, Mike Vernon, Al MacInnis, and Joe Nieuwendyk as the Flames’ seminal player.

The Flames would not leave Calgary if Iginla was dealt, but you might see something resembling a public boycott. Older NHL fans may remember the Flames low period during the 1990s, when the franchise was doing things like trading Fleury and Nieuwendyk for financial considerations and Waiving Future Hall of Famers. The Nieuwendyk trade obviously worked for both parties, but you understand the point I am making: the Flames underwent a complete rebuild not so long ago, and the pain-period was pretty brutal for the franchise.

If you think anyone, including Pittsburgh, is acquiring Sugar for a few spare parts and a low-1st Round Draft Pick, you are tripping balls. Any potential deal for Sugar would have to be a menagerie of elite prospects and NHL-ready young players, preferably at Calgary’s position of need (Center). We are not talking about a deal for Alex Ponikarovsky here.

(UPDATE: Showtime acquired Jarome Freaking Iginla for a few spare parts and a low-1st Round Draft Pick. I may be tripping balls. I am positive Sugar leveraged his way to Pittsburgh with his No-Trade Clause, but Flames’ GM Jay Feaster still got taken to the cleaners here, unless Seth Jones falls to #30 overall.)

2) Iginla has a full No Trade Clause (UPDATE: which he will use to ensure he lands on Sid Crosby’s wing and not in Boston)

…which he presumably would refuse to Waive for any team that was not a legitimate Stanley Cup Contender.

I can thankfully stop having Night Terrors about Sugar wearing a Flyers’ jersey, because that mismanaged sideshow has gleefully played and traded their way out of the NHL’s elite. The Flyers are not a Cup Contender on par with Pittsburgh or Boston or Manhattan that happens to be playing poorly; they have come by their mediocre record the old-fashioned way, which for them means losing out on the nihilistic purchase of Shea Weber and plugging their gaping holes on defense with parking pylons.

As of today, this is my field of “Legitimate” Stanley Cup Contenders for 2013: Pittsburgh, Manhattan, Boston, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Chicago. There are teams such as San Jose, Montreal, and Carolina lurking, but it would be surprising to see the Cup Finals not played by two of the six teams listed above.

Of those teams, only the Rangers would have to perform any type of major roster surgery to graft Sugar into the lineup under the 2013 Salary Cap. The Rangers already have $16 million in Cap Money committed to the Wing position in just Rick Nash and Marian Gaborik, so Penguins fans can be cautiously-optimistic that the Rangers would look for help on Defense before trying to shoe-horn Sugar onto their squad.

(UPDATE: 3/16/13 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day. A few hours ago, the Pens blanked the Rangers 3-0. The Rangers did not look like an imposing Cup-Contender ala Boston or Pittsburgh. The Rangers have a few players performing at an exceptional level – namely Hank Lundqvist and Rick Nash – but my take is that they lost too much depth from the lower-half of their roster.

It doesn’t help when the likes of Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards fail to produce statistically, but losing the likes of Brandon Prust, Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, Ruslan Fedotenko, and Mike Rupp from the bottom-six causes an impact. The loss of top defenseman Marc Staal to injury does not make things any easier for the defense-first squad. The Rangers are a playoff team, but my view is that they would get soundly beaten in a seven-game series against Pittsburgh or Boston, barring always-possible heroics from Lundqvist.)

Speaking of which: the Penguins would seemingly look to add a seasoned veteran to their defensive corps before pursuing upgrades to the League’s Best Offense. The Penguins have absolutely no problem scoring goals. While adding a future Hall-of-Famer who happens to have plenty left in the tank is never a bad option, the Penguins would seemingly look to address their holes in Defensive Coverage before going after Sugar…if he was available and if he was willing to Waive his NTC for Pittsburgh.

(UPDATE: 3/28/13 – The Pens add Doug Murray, AKA Crankshaft, from San Jose. To my credit, Showtime did address a hole in the defensive corps before acquiring Sugar, but I did not realize Showtime would be spending his week pillaging the Western Conference.)

A more-realistic and terrifying prospect is the idea of the Boston Bruins fortifying their Top-6 with Sugar. They have an attractive roster player for trade in David Krejci and a deep prospect pool. I would presume that Sugar might be inclined to waive his NTC to play on a smash-mouth Bruins squad, centered by either phenom Tyler Seguin or Team Canada teammate Patrice Bergeron. As a Penguins’ fan, I have no desire to face a Bruins squad bolstered by Jarome Freaking Iginla. 

(UPDATE: ROFL)

In a similar vein, you obviously do not want to see one of the Western Conference juggernauts add Sugar, but regrettably there a few teams aside from the Penguins that could offer him a comfortable landing spot as well as a strong chance at competing for the Cup.

3) The Penguins do not have what Calgary wants, i.e. Top-6 Centermen (at least none to trade)

Here is Calgary’s roster. It is not pretty. It is a bunch of guys who were considered very good or even elite players five or six years ago, buttressed by a bunch of grossly-overpaid NHL role players. To put it aptly, as far as reconstructing this team goes, there is no such thing as a Luke-warm Hell.

If the Flames were to wave the white flag and go for a full rebuild, they would want a groundswell in exchange for their signature piece. They would seemingly want some mobility on Defense (which the Pens have in spades) and someone who could be considered a potential Top-6 Centerman (which the Pens have but are obviously not parting ways with).

Let’s play Devil’s Advocate and say Calgary wants to move Sugar and that Sugar would prefer to come to Pittsburgh. Do you know what I would ask for if I was Jay Feaster? Simon Despres and/or Joe Morrow, Beau Bennett, the Penguins’ 2013 1st-Round Pick, and maybe an inexpensive roster player or RFA like Dustin Jeffrey.

(UPDATE: Feaster settled for two mid-level prospects and the Penguins’ 2013 1st-Round Pick. As I type this, it continues to amaze me that Showtime acquired Sugar, Brenden Morrow, Doug Murray, and a 3rd Round Pick for three picks and three prospects while retaining Despres, Bennett, and the rest of the Penguins’ collection of defense prospects. Amazing.)

Ludicrous? Probably, but again, if I am Feaster, I am trading the Best Player in Franchise History. Feaster will potentially get skewered for trading Iginla at all, and probably be publicly-executed at the Saddledome if he moved Iginla for a substandard package. It is imperative that Feaster land a veritable gift-basket of prospects, if Calgary opts to go for a complete rebuild.

Showtime likes to deal, but he also likes to horde mobile, puck-moving Defensemen like canned goods in the Zombie Apocalypse. I do not see him giving up the requisite package needed to secure Sugar’s release from Calgary, especially if Feaster were to insist upon Bennett or Morrow.

The Pens could offer a competitive prospect package for Iggy, but the team is not prying him loose for a conditional 3rd-rounder ala Billy Guerin. If you want to really lock in on a potential trade partner for the Flames, look at teams that have a blue-chip Centerman coming up the pipeline or an excess Top-6 Center at the NHL level.

4) Why Mess with Success?

The potential addition of Sugar would create a quality problem for Coach Disco, in that he would be forced to break-up the most productive line in Hockey and reconfigure his forward units. Again, it’s a quality problem, but Showtime may be reluctant to alter a Pittsburgh attack that has been scoring at will as of late.

If I am making an Iginla trade on Xbox, it involves me putting him with Sid (obviously) and keeping Jimmy with Geno (duh). I personally think Geno and Jimmy benefit more from the presence of Chris Kunitz than Sid does, so for argument’s sake I will put Kuni with Geno and Jimmy and give Beau Bennett a shot with Sid and Iggy. That’s a fierce Top-6.

(UPDATE: the Pens added Brenden Morrow, who will be given every opportunity to play with Geno and Jimmy once Geno comes off Injured Reserve. Coach Disco must feel like a kid given 40 new GI Joes.)

This scenario drops Pascal Dupuis to the 3rd line with Brandon Sutter and Matt Cooke, and assumes that Tyler Kennedy is likely moved as part of a package for Iginla.

On paper, it looks like an obvious improvement. As you know however, Chemistry is a very delicate thing in Hockey, and Showtime may not want to rock the boat by re-doing a team that is already at the top of the Conference.

5) Calgary will remain competitive until the Bitter End

Here are the UPDATED Western Conference Standings, as of 3/16/2013. As you can see, eight points separate 3rd Place from Last Place, with Calgary manning their traditional spot somewhere between 9th and 12th Place, only 2-4 points out of a Playoff Spot.

With 20 or so games remaining in the season, it would be difficult to envision Feaster cutting the balls off his team by moving out Iggy is the team is nipping at the heels of a Playoff team on Deadline Day. Sugar is a classy and proud Captain, and if Calgary has any chance whatsoever of competing for the Cup, he will not abandon ship for the cozier confines of Pittsburgh or Boston or L.A.

(UPDATE: Calgary is brutal, and Iginla finally decided enough was enough. Feaster did indeed cut the balls off his team, although he was not negotiating from a position of strength. The Calgary Flames are now officially the Western Conference version of the Florida Panthers, complete with playoff virgin Jay Bouwmeester.)

Calgary would have to go into a complete tail-spin, which given the lack of dominant teams in the Western Conference does not appear to be in the cards. Surprisingly, there is a greater divide between the Haves and the Have Nots in the Eastern Conference, in which teams like Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto (gasp) have distinguished themselves as “In” while teams such Florida, Buffalo, and Washington can almost be considered “Out”, barring miracle runs.

Given that only Chicago and Anaheim have separated themselves from the pack to this point, the smart money is that the Flames might even look to add pieces in attempt to get some of that juicy Playoff Gate Revenue rather than deal off their Captain for 40-cents on the dollar.

Having Said All of That…

You never say never. There are a few facts that would seem to validate the masturbatory Ontarian rumors coming out of Malkin to the Kings! and his pals.  Consider:

1) The Penguins have a Manager who almost always aggressively upgrades his team at the Trade Deadline

2) Again, Sid and Sugar have Chemistry and Familiarity. Do not discount this.

3) Adding Iggy keeps him away from Boston, Manhattan, et al. Do you want to play a Chicago team that can ice a Toews-Hossa-Iginla line, and then puts Patricks Kane and Sharp on the ice? Or a Bruins team featuring Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton and Jarome Iginla banging along the boards? Rhetorical.

4) Sugar has never won a Cup, and that is obviously a powerful motivator for veteran NHL players. Hell, it has been two Lockouts since Sugar has been in the Playoffs; the Man is probably dying to get onto a powerhouse roster such as Pittsburgh, even if he is too classy and proud to admit such a thing.

5) While the Penguins do not have Centermen to offer, they do have a plethora of puck-moving, smooth-skating Defensemen and a few interesting roster players. Showtime might decide that the 2013 Penguins’ Defense is simply beyond repair, and might in fact decide that winning every game by a roller-hockey score is the Penguins’ best chance to capture the 2013 Cup. Doubling-down on the Offense and adding a battering ram like Sugar might be worth the cost of an elite Defense prospect or two.

In Closing

As recently as two years ago, I would have considered the idea of adding Sugar to the Pittsburgh Penguins to be a wildly-unrealistic scenario. However, in March 2011, Showtime went out and made the two trades I had been making on Xbox for years: James Neal for Alex Goligoski, and Alex Kovalev for a handful of scratch-off lottery tickets. The day I learned the Penguins had reacquired Kovy remains one of the Best 20 Days of My Life, righting an eight-year old wrong and reinforcing to me that delusional fantasies about your NHL team can in fact come true.

So yes, Pittsburgh could acquire Jarome Iginla, if the stars align just right. The Flames would have to plummet to the Western Conference basement, Flames Ownership would have to sign-off on a complete tear-down, Sugar would have to waive his NTC, and Showtime would have to put up an incredible offer. None of those stipulations are out of reason.

(UPDATE 3/28/13 – What do you know, all of that happened, except Showtime just played the market like a minstrel, handing over a few C+ prospects and the last pick in the 1st Round for Jarome Freaking Iginla. What a human.)

Despite all my rationale for why a trade for Sugar is doable, Don’t Be a Mark and expect Showtime to add Iginla because Showtime is the Greatest Manager in the History of Hockey. It’s really fun to picture him in a Penguins’ jersey, taking a feed from Sid and ripping a bullet over the glove of Hank Lundqvist, which I will do continuously for the next three years or so.

This is too Awesome for words.

JF

On Quitting

As you may or may not know, my primary goal as an adult has been to become a Firefighter. I recently received some disappointing news when I was disqualified from candidacy as a Wilmington Firefighter because I did not submit a copy of my Driver’s License along with my application.

This news was so disheartening because it will be another calendar year before I am able to re-apply with the city of Wilmington. It would have been discouraging if I was not hired because of a shortcoming I had throughout the interview process, but being disqualified before I could even have my application reviewed was a real blow to me. Ironically, this has been the longest stretch since getting my license as a 16-year old that I am licensed and in good standing in the Department of Transportation.

When I initially got the news, I was absolutely crushed for about four hours. Again, if hiring representatives from the city had met with me and determined that I did not have what it takes to be a Firefighter, that’s one thing. But to not even have the chance to present myself over a technicality that most people would consider completely obtuse really cut deep. The idea that I could possibly fulfill my personal responsibility of becoming a Fireman in a city I enjoyed really got my hopes up. When that opportunity was taken away, or at least delayed greatly, I was really disappointed. For four hours.

I then raced through the DABBA model: I was shaking with anger for a bit, outraged that the city was turning away someone that will assuredly be an excellent Firefighter over a very petty detail. I then e-mail bombed the city, asking anyone who might be peripherally involved if there was anything I could possibly do to be re-considered. When that proved to be fruitless, I had to dwell with the knowledge that I had blown a great opportunity for myself.

It took me about 24 hours to get my head straight, with this article being the final piece that got me back into the right state of mind. If I have a single defining trait, it is that I do not quit. I have stayed in toxic relationships and worked for unethical employers because I am a person who finishes what he starts. If I decide I want to be a Firefighter while living in Wilmington, North Carolina, I will find a way to make it happen, because that’s the kind of person I am…even if, as usual, I insist on doing it the Hard Way.

This article is a personal Post-It note to keep me focused. If it benefits you, all the better.

On Calming Down

I almost titled this article “On Calming Down”, which is a reference to an inside joke I have with a few people. The themes covered below had been kicking around in my head for quite some time, and I was debating how to organize them most-cohesively. For a moment, it seemed as though the best way to present my views was to write about Calming Down as a vehicle for discussing the continual transition into full-time Adulthood, how we all have to make different decisions as we mature, etc.

Here’s the deal: I used to be an absolute maniac. People do not believe me because my demeanor seems so even-keeled, but I used to be the guy who would jump out of a third-story window if prodded the right way. Like Marty McFly, if anyone questioned my fearlessness I would spitefully take a lighter to my forearm or brand myself. You may not believe that a person would do such things, but I have the scars to prove it.

The point is, I can write an article on Calming Down, but coming from me it would be inorganic and insincere, since I would be talking myself into Calming Down. It’s simply not what I believe. I believe in Rising and I believe in Living Free, but I do not believe in being untrue to oneself, good intentions noted. Coming from me, an article on refusing to quit rings much more true (and thus will be much more relevant) than an article advocating something I do not entirely agree with.

On Quitting

The wind died
The whole world ceased to move
Now so quiet
Her beating heart became a boom
We locked eyes
For just a moment or two
She asked why
I said ‘I don’t know why,
I just know…’

- Rise Against, This is Letting Go

This is my “real” essay on why I believe I will be a quality Firefighter, as opposed to the one I would submit to my Battalion Chief:

I am not going to pretend I know much about what it takes to be a Firefighter. To my knowledge, no one on either side of my family has ever been a Firefighter, and frankly, my family has discouraged me from pursuing Firefighting. I have a high IQ and I have always done well with standardized testing, so I was told only half-kidding that I could choose to be a doctor or a lawyer.

I have never had a strong desire to pursue law or medicine, or anything comparable. My mind allows me to grasp the mechanics of both, but I have never had any interest or passion for those professions.

Maybe I am just obstinate, and I just insist on cutting my own path. To cite an example, my father is a sports writer and a lifelong athlete. He excelled in Baseball, Football, and Basketball, and has a deep, proficient understanding of all three sports. With his enthusiastic support, I learned and loved Baseball until the time I was eight or so. Around that time, I lost all interest in Baseball, because after briefly playing a video game, I knew - knew - I was meant to be a Hockey Player. At the time, my exasperated father did not even know why I insisted that I was a left-shot. But I always just knew. It turns out that by trusting my instincts, or my heart, if you will, that I was right.

I am a Hockey Player. It is the truest thing I have ever known. My soul looks like a frozen pond on a clear winter day. I have burning contempt for those who do not respect the traditions of the game, and I embody many of the traits traditionally assigned to Hockey Players, such as Competitiveness, Cooperation, Courage, Integrity, Pride, Valor, and Work Ethic.

I am far from alone in this regard. Hockey Players are a breed, not unlike Artists, Healers, Musicians, or Teachers. There are certain traits that commonly unify true Hockey Players, and the traits list above are among the most prevalent I see in myself and those like me.

In my view, the most-defining trait of a true Hockey Player is Will . I touch upon Willpower and its various themes pretty much every time I write, but in short Willpower is about having control over your emotions for the purpose of overcoming fear. Hockey Players must Will themselves through fear and pain on a regular basis, and this ability is my most-powerful asset.

In keeping with this, I despise quitters. There is nothing quite like the disgust I experience when I see someone roll over because a given situation has grown bleak. I admit, while I never judge people on their monetary or social worth, I constantly judge people on their Character, and nothing screams “low character” in the same, shrill pitch that quitting does. Quitting is an infantile cry immediately indicating that a person is cowardly, selfish, weak-willed, and lacking in personal pride.

First, examine this clip from Mystery, Alaska, which demonstrates the defiance in a Hockey Player’s heart at the prospect of quitting:

This second clip is the well-known Herb Brooks speech from Miracle, which reinforces the idea that Hockey Players almost thrive on adversity and odds that seem daunting:

Thank you for bearing with me. Let me explain how all of that ties into Firefighting:

Willpower, like many of the same traits integral to a true Hockey Player, is the essential trait of a true Firefighter, in my view. It is my belief that I can transfer this refined and unique ability, this Will, to Firefighting, where I believe I can be of greatest use to the community.

By my count, I have played in over 3,000 Hockey games and countless practices, and I want that experience to count for something. In my heart, I am certain that the time I have spent playing Hockey and the lessons I have learned have been building toward something. I think the Character I have derived from being a Hockey Player, in particular Poise and the refusal to quit when the odds become overwhelming, has given me the foundation to be more than serviceable as a Fireman.

While the traits of a Hockey Player can make me something of a Bane on civilized society, I cannot or will not apologize for being gruff and insensitive at the cost of being courageous and selfless. At some point it became clear to me that if I could not make a career out of playing Hockey, then the only acceptable  alternative was to become a Firefighter. I am writing this article mainly as a personal reminder that giving up on this idea is simply not an option, no matter how much resistance I experience.

As I wrote above, when I found Hockey, I just knew. Whether I was destined to be a Hockey Player or whether I Willed my way into becoming one does not matter. My modest ability aside, I have represented the values of those who have come before me with Honor and Respect. I feel very similarly to Firefighting as I did about Hockey. Logic aside, Firefighting just feels true.

Aside from the reasons listed above, there is this. Fair warning, it is ugly:

I have a recurring nightmare in which children are trapped in a burning building, several stories up. I can see their silhouettes, and a number of small hands desperately pressed against a window. I can hear them banging on the walls and coughing and pleading. They are crying for help, four or five of them. But I am not there. I am watching this ghastly scene unfold like I am watching it on a television. I can feel the heat and almost taste the smoke, but I cannot interact. The nightmare for me is not that I try to save them and fail, but that I am not there at all. Children die in a fire because I am not there to protect and save them.

This nightmare comes and goes, but even typing this I can see it clear as day. It almost doubles me over sometimes, thinking that children might die in a fire because I did not complete my training in time, or because I chose to be anything but a Firefighter.

These brutal thoughts are often what get me out of bed in the morning, and what keep me coming when I am discouraged by situations like the Driver’s License thing. I am haunted by the idea that I have to become a Firefighter, or the consequences will be horrible.

That is a very personal thing for me to share, but I had to put it out there, in case something else happens and I consider giving up again. I have to publicly hold myself accountable.

Conclusion

You don’t quit, or at least, I don’t.

It would have been great if I had been hired by the city of Wilmington, and I still might. But if that is not possible, I am going to find another way in, because as you now understand, quitting is not an option for me. It stands against everything I believe in.

I know most of you enjoy my articles more when I make you laugh, but like I said above, I wrote this one for myself. I gave myself a day to mope and smolder over a missed opportunity, got my head right, and in part by writing this, got over it. I needed to remind myself of what my beliefs are and why all of this is so important to me, and I accomplished that.

Next time I will be funnier. Maybe not Family Guy funny, but I will try to get in the ballpark.

J

My New Skates Love Me Obsessively, Because They Are the Black-Suit Symbiote

Hockey Players have a special bond with their equipment, pieces of which can last years and years. While a Hockey Player might have extra affection for a particular stick or a certain pair of Gloves, a Hockey Player bonds with his or her skates to such a degree that the skates become an extension of the body.

I was racking my brain for a similar situation in sports, in which a player must bond with a piece of her or his equipment on an almost-cellular level, but I came up empty-handed. A player may prefer a certain pair of sneakers or a certain racket or mitt, and there might be a great deal of affection and history between a player and a piece of equipment, but I just did not see soccer shin-guards or football cleats in the same way I see a pair of skates attaching themselves to a Hockey Player.

CCM has basically been making the same skate since I started wearing them in 1990, so going from a 2010 U+Pro to a 2012 Midnight U+ is in no way a stretch. I like my boots extremely-soft, and my new Midnights were extremely-stiff. I probably baked the Midnights ten times, and still they were almost too stiff to wear.

Still, they taunted me, almost beckoning me, from the foot of my bed, seemingly whispering to me to continue softening them up in the oven and to create my new favorite semi-holiday, “Bonding with My Skates Monday”, which involves me wearing my skates around the house like a lunatic while I cook dinner, watch The Dark Knight Rises for the 40th time, and hide from people.

I purchased my last pair of skates in January 2010 (a New Year’s Eve Special), and believe me, I got my money’s worth out of them. I blew out a few rivets on the front of the right boot on my 2010 models, finally forcing me to start breaking in my new CCM Midnights:

After ten bakes, I finally got them soft enough to wear to a Stick and Puck session, and since then, we have been bonding like Thelma and Louise, if Louise threatened to kill Thelma if she ever left her side.

Do you ever walk into your house and notice that something is not where you left it? Maybe you run out for some Fruity Pebbles or whatever, and then come back and all the lights are on?

I always hang-dry my equipment on a coat-rack I stole from a woman I used to philander with. I always hang my skates on the same spot, except now that I have two pairs of skates, I hang both of them on rungs in middle of this purloined coat-rack.

I came home from work one day, and my old U+Pros were lying on the ground, like they had been shoved off the coat-rack by my evil, possessive Midnights. The funny thing? I distinctly remember hanging the U+Pros inside the Midnights, because the Midnights were damp and the U+Pros had just come back from being repaired.

Did my Midnights somehow throw my U+Pros off the coat-rack, and then re-rack themselves???

Everyone already knows my favorite color is Black, so it’s not like I bought the Midnights and then changed my entire demeanor and wardrobe (I was already an Awesome dancer). But I saw myself in the mirror at Hockey the other day, and I looked like Black Spy.

Then during Hockey, I started getting annoyed because one of the guys was playing a little too aggressively (it was co-ed pick-up, which means you tone it down a notch), then all of the sudden it was like the Midnights…took over.  versus speed, and I prefer to be nimble rather than strapped to rocket skates. But it was like the Midnights didn’t care how I liked to skate, and instead forced me to skate how they wanted to skate. The Midnights basically made me run the kid over a few times until he Calmed Down.

Power of the Dark Side

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p8nZNGjaCw

There would be enough on my plate if the Midnights were just jealously throwing my old U+Pros aside and forcing me to skate they way they wanted, but then I started dreaming about the Midnights.

I keep the Midnights inside my room at the foot of my bed because they do not stink yet and because a thief might see a $300 pair of skates and decide to run off with them (which, unrelated, is called Rationalization). They are one of the last things I look at before I go to sleep. Maybe I saw them and somehow the image of the Midnights was planted into my sub-conscious. But for whatever reason, I had a dream about my skates last night (nothing perverted, just maybe like the skates and I were hanging out or frolicking in a sunny field or something; I never remember my dreams, really). This has me concerned enough to write about the situation on a Saturday night.

What’s next? Are the Midnights going to start whispering commands to me? Are they going to compel me to hit on figure-skaters and beer-league girlfriends with even greater frequency because they are so outrageously sexy? Are they going to force me to skate rings around my opponents as a display of sexy, ebony power? I have no idea, because suddenly I am not calling all of the shots.

Are my skates alive and obsessed with me? I think that’s fair to assume so, at this point. Are my skates an evil, jealous symbiote? Most definitely, and my concern is that they are going to do something vindictive like try to get me to drop-kick Ron if he bumps my hand after a goal tomorrow.

I am not worried about me, because My New Skates Love Me (Obsessively), likely due to the fact they are the Black-Suit Symbiote. But everyone else should me appropriately concerned.

Jack, Co-Written by the Midnights