Pre-Game Talk: PRE-ECF Thread (B/C Why not?)

[My Special Purpose]

I like being the underdogs, seriously. And the Canes eat that stuff up. They've been talking about being overlooked etc a lot, so the less respect they get the harder they'll play . #TakeWarning

This is exactly my take and where I'm at....I hate it when I see us favored in anything because I'm so used to being the underdog, over-achieving, and confusing the hell out of the traditional hockey world., As a matter of fact, I prefer it.

What makes me nuts is that the "hockey media" is almost going out of their way to ignore stats in making their picks, instead just going with their gut in most cases (i.e. Washington is better than Carolina, so Caps in 6). It's so freakin' lazy. Then you have a guy who's 2-10 so far picking series in the playoffs (looking at you, Dave Stubbs) taking the Sharks and Bruins for the finals, and probably all proud about it.

If you were willing to actually do any work, you'd know that St. Louis and Carolina are here for a reason. They didn't just drop out of the sky into the conference finals. They just keep winning, and somehow, nobody -- not opposing fans, not the media, nobody -- ever gets smart enough to say, "hey wait, maybe this isn't a lock for the big-market team. Maybe we should dig deeper and figure out *why* St. Louis, Carolina, Colorado and Columbus are winning games in May."

 

[A Star is Burns]

I still struggle to understand why so many people care about experts or other posters. Whatever happens will happen. Underdog, overdog, who gives a ****?

 

[Svechhammer]

I still struggle to understand why so many people care about experts or other posters. Whatever happens will happen. Underdog, overdog, who gives a ****?

See, I care because the media creates their own narrative, and most of the time when it comes to the Canes, that narrative exists to shit all over the team and fanbase.

So when I see these same people completely ignoring the facts to create this narrative, it pisses me off because I know that dumbshit echo chamber is going to create and mold the narrative around this team, which is how you get guys on TSN openly saying "there are good hockey people in Raleigh, but they would be great hockey people in Quebec"

 

[My Special Purpose]

I still struggle to understand why so many people care about experts or other posters. Whatever happens will happen. Underdog, overdog, who gives a ****?

I'll tell you why, for me at least. I used to work in sports media. I no longer work in sports media, despite wanting to get back into it. I care about the things I cover. I can enough to do the work. But none of that matters, because I'm an old white dude, and there are already too many old white dude's covering sports.

Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of old white dudes who are doing this for a living were once young white dudes. And it's possible, that when they were young white dudes, they cared enough to do the work. But not anymore. Now they just recycle the same old crap, change the date, and hit submit. The vast majority of them are fat, lazy, grumpy old men who can't be bothered with anything that makes them think, even for a minute.

But they keep pulling in the paychecks without having to challenge any of their long-held preconceived opinions.

P.S. I thought long and hard about including the "white" adjective to describe myself and most hockey media, because in the end, this has *nothing* to do with race. But in the end, I decided to use it *because* this has nothing to do with race. It's just a fact. I'm old and white. And most hockey media members are old and white. My problem isn't with young women, or African-Americans getting into the business. Hell, I wish there were more of them. My problem is with the old white guys going through the motions, not adding anything to the discussion because they all have the same uninformed opinion on *everything*.

P.P.S. Yes, I'm bitter.

 

[Tryamw]

I think I'm going to like it here...

No... liking is almost mandatory. Don't think about liking embrace liking

 

[tarheelhockey]

I'm perfectly fine with being the underdog. There's really no downside to it.

The upside is quoting people with a "so how'd that work out for ya?".

 

[vorbis]

there's really only about 40-50 people who are truly going to decide how this series goes. and none of them write for a living. I know that's a bit reductivist, but so much of the fanbase's optimism stems from Roddy, Williams, and the other players pushing far beyond whatever expectations have been dreamt up about them from outside of the group.

 

[Roboturner913]

I'll tell you why, for me at least. I used to work in sports media. I no longer work in sports media, despite wanting to get back into it. I care about the things I cover. I can enough to do the work. But none of that matters, because I'm an old white dude, and there are already too many old white dude's covering sports.

Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of old white dudes who are doing this for a living were once young white dudes. And it's possible, that when they were young white dudes, they cared enough to do the work. But not anymore. Now they just recycle the same old crap, change the date, and hit submit. The vast majority of them are fat, lazy, grumpy old men who can't be bothered with anything that makes them think, even for a minute.

But they keep pulling in the paychecks without having to challenge any of their long-held preconceived opinions.

P.S. I thought long and hard about including the "white" adjective to describe myself and most hockey media, because in the end, this has *nothing* to do with race. But in the end, I decided to use it *because* this has nothing to do with race. It's just a fact. I'm old and white. And most hockey media members are old and white. My problem isn't with young women, or African-Americans getting into the business. Hell, I wish there were more of them. My problem is with the old white guys going through the motions, not adding anything to the discussion because they all have the same uninformed opinion on *everything*.

P.P.S. Yes, I'm bitter.

I used to be a sportswriter myself. In my 20s. Not anything big time, mostly high school and small college stuff although I got to a few NFL and NBA games.

I gave it up because the hours sucked and because I didn't want to become one of those old guys you're talking about. I was sitting next to a colleague at a state softball tournament, watching him shovel free chicken nuggets into his mouth, dripping barbecue sauce down his chin and his shirt, and his shirt was way too tight because he was pushing 3 bills and probably hadn't bought new clothes in a decade. He's panting and sweating even though it's only like 75 degrees in the press box, then he starts leering at the 14 year old girl playing shortstop because "she has a really perfect ass."

And I was like, nope, I ain't gonna be this dude in 20 years

 

[tarheelhockey]

 

[vorbis]

oh yeah? well I ragequit my job as a music reviewer for the NCSU Technician after 2 columns because the editor didn't like that I used personal pronouns in my reviews

 

[NotOpie]

I think I'm going to like it here...

Thinking is not a requirement....in fact, not thinking is preferred. Read on and you'll see what I mean.

Underdog, overdog, who gives a ****?

This guy and I do:

Besides, this is the HFCanes board, that logic shit just doesn't fly....moar emotion dammit!

there's really only about 40-50 people who are truly going to decide how this series goes. and none of them write for a living. I know that's a bit reductivist, but so much of the fanbase's optimism stems from Roddy, Williams, and the other players pushing far beyond whatever expectations have been dreamt up about them from outside of the group.

As the board's resident optimist, I'm surprisingly pessimistic during times like these so that a) my heart doesn't get ripped out, and b) so that the underdog thing continues to spark joy.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I hated writing when I was younger and avoided it like the plague. In fact, in college when I had to take a certain number of humanities classes, I went out of my way to take ones that had as little writing as possible. Theatre Appreciation was great. Get together, watch some shows, talk about what you thought and take some tests. I had one more to take and thought I was getting away Scott Free but then I made the mistake of taking Art Appreciation. That damn professor had us keeping a diary where every day we had to view a piece of art and write 2 pages on what we thought about it. I was miserable at first, but couldn't drop it as it was my last semester and needed it to graduate.

2 things game out of that.
1) It lead me to no longer hate writing (if I did, I would have avoided this board all together)
2) I developed a love for Art and still have that today.

Still wouldn't want to do it for a living though.

 

[Roboturner913]

oh yeah? well I ragequit my job as a music reviewer for the NCSU Technician after 2 columns because the editor didn't like that I used personal pronouns in my reviews

My best quitting story was, we had a special project coming out for spring. I was doing graphic design by now, but this job had become a super toxic environment solely because of my boss. Every day he would bring people into his office and yell and scream at them, so loudly that everyone could hear. One day during a staff meeting he came after me, screaming so hard you could see the little bits of spittle coming out of his mouth, and saying stuff about my supposed lack of performance that everybody in the room knew just wasn't objectively true.

I sat there and took it. I knew I was gonna quit but I wanted to stick it to this guy as hard as possible. So I waited it out. The next time he asked me about the spring project I showed him the files. Practically empty. "But we're printing this in 3 days!!!!!" he says, and I'm like "yeah. I know. I quit!" and I walked right out the door.

I never found out what happened with the spring project but I assume they lost a ton of ad money, because there's no way that thing got out on time. About 6 months after that my boss got fired and I heard stories about some of the things they found in his office...would make your skin crawl.

 

[SlavinAway]

I developed a love for Art and still have that today.

Are you guys still together?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Are you guys still together?

No, my wife also developed a love of art.

 

[MinJaBen]

No, my wife also developed a love of art.

Teeing one up for us,eh?

 

[NotOpie]

No, my wife also developed a love of art.

Aaaaaand we're back to the hot wife thing I see....

 

[Stickpucker]

I still struggle to understand why so many people care about experts or other posters. Whatever happens will happen. Underdog, overdog, who gives a ****?

A man needs his Respekt