Fight Night - FEB.17.08
Entry posted by Polar Bear
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<table width=90% align=center><tr><td><img src=http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/09/bear_head.jpg border=0 align=left vspace=1 hspace=4>Fight Night at GM place on Saturday – what a great way for this much maligned team to show the rest of the league we have team toughness. With players like Isbister, Linden, and Weaver, opposition goons beware! The point, of course, is that we don't need nor want a thug like Stortini in this lineup. In this NHL, you cannot afford to waste a roster spot on a goon who can't keep up with the play. I'll take team toughness any day, and the game on Saturday was proof of that successful formula. How about Willie Mitchell dropping the gloves? That guy is a warrior. With so much happening in that game, it made my mind wander…
I was at the game on Saturday and had the opportunity to chat with Shane Foxman in the first intermission. It's pretty easy to be an average MC for something like a wedding, but to be an exceptional MC for a hockey game takes real talent. Shane effortlessly (it seems) keeps the crowd engaged on the many happenings at GM place while at the same time remaining completely calm and cool.
<a href="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2008/02/FEB1608_Canucks-Oilers13_b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2008/02/FEB1608_Canucks-Oilers13_t.jpg" align="right" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="1"></a>There I was, for my interview to be shown in front of thousands, and I was so nervous I was pacing back and forth like I had just been told the only way home after the game was by parachute. Shane was, and is, a real professional, and he did his best to make me feel at ease and cover up my bumbling answers. It reminded me of my first day teaching class. Public speaking is its own kind of stress and, ironically, its own type of exhilaration. It doesn't surprise me much that people fear public speaking more than death, but at the same time, it is such an important skill to have. Clearly I need to continue to work on mine; I'm sure my students would agree!
It was indeed an exciting evening, and another one of those games that will go a long way for this team over the final stretch. I am now 2-0 in games I have attended this year (I was also witness to the Shannon spin-o-rama vs Chicago). If you are serious about the Canucks winning games in an exciting fashion, then feel free to take me to a game. Slam dunk.
Luongo was particularly spectacular on occasion on Saturday, and it reiterated to me just how lucky we are to have a professional like him on our team. However, I feel this way probably not for the same reasons that the average fan might. We all know is a great athlete, but it is ability to focus that has particularly impressed me.
As a new father myself, knowing what I went through and the ups and downs of having a pregnant wife, I cannot believe that Luongo can even show up to the games. Even in a "normal" pregnancy, the stress and worry that you feel can be indescribable, and yet here he is, night after night, thousands of kilometers away from his expecting wife, stopping pucks. When I look back on that time in my life, the uncertainty, the worry, the loss of control, I consider it one of the most stressful periods in my life.
I don't know how he does it. I don't know how he can concentrate. When dealing with the health of two lives, his wife's and his baby's, hockey must come in at a very distant second. He must be able to temporarily push it to the back of his mind as he plays, but I am sure it's never off his mind.
<a href="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2008/02/FEB1608_Canucks-Oilers03_b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2008/02/FEB1608_Canucks-Oilers03_t.jpg" align="left" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="1"></a>Even if he lets in 10 goals a game for the rest of the season, I will do nothing but applaud Roberto Luongo. I know the age-old argument that "we all have our stress", but this is different. Even if we all have our stress, very few of us have a million people waiting to criticize us if we are not performing a 100% at our jobs.
Every time I hear someone talk about how Luongo is off his game and how he needs to play better, I feel like yelling at them. The fact that he is playing at all speaks volumes about his commitment to the team and to the city. The fact that he makes save after save should remind us what a gem we have here. But he needs us. He needs us to lift him up during a stressful time in his life. He needs us to send our positive energy to both him and his wife.
So how do we do that?
As fans, we can cheer as loud as we can, even when he falls. He has proven to us time and time again he wants to win here, and in times when he needs our positive energy, like right now, let's give it to him like true fans.</td></tr></table>
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