This is most likely my final post on any part of the boards that has to do with hockey, at least for a long time. This league has managed to ruin my love of the sport, a love that goes back to when I was an eight year old kid. It isn't just the officiating, with the wild inconsistencies that really make me question what the company line is that these guys in stripes are toeing. It's the way they disregard fans every time a new CBA is needed. It's the way they disregard dangerous plays that could lead to permanent injury as long as it was a star player doing the deed. It's the way the current crop of executives making decisions just seem to take it for granted that they can basically act however they want and fans will continue to dish out money. And they are pretty much right, but enough is enough for this long-time fan. It doesn't help that the average hockey discussion on this forum (not the Preds section, but the forum as a while) is on a similar intellectual plane as a kindergarten argument about whose dad can beat up who. I'm ashamed to say I found reasons to overlook all of that for all of these years, but no more.
The waived off goal last night wasn't necessarily the final straw since, win or lose, I had already basically decided that I was done, but it was at that moment I decided I didn't even care if there was a game 7. I didn't even watch the rest of the game after that I was so disgusted. People can go ahead and say I'm not a real fan if they want, and they wouldn't be wrong. As of that moment I stopped being a real fan entirely. I don't know what it was but I could just feel any passion I had for it leave my body. It was the final nail in the coffin that holds the corpse of my NHL fandom. I was a real fan for nineteen years, going through the thick and the thin with this team, but it's time to call it a show and hang it up. I've got more important things to do.
I was asked last night by a friend of mine who was barely even a casual fan until a month or so ago, as she tried to ignore every reason I was giving her for being done with it so that she could make some futile plea for me to stick it out, what happens if they win next year? It's a good question. If they win next year I'll be happy for them. I'll be happy for you all who are able to put more behind themselves than I am capable of putting behind me. I really do appreciate all of the hockey talk I've been able to have with a lot of you, going back over ten years now.
But I've put in my dues and I feel like I have the right to walk away whenever I please. That's right now. Enjoy your summer everyone, and good luck next year.
Nashville is definitely a hell of a hockey town now. What a fanbase.
