Red Fever & My Stevie Wonder Connection

With the World Junior Hockey Championship over, I'm left with that empty feeling that comes after a stressful, emotional investment.  It’s almost like a mini break up =( Watching Team Canada fall apart in the third period felt a bit like watching the Vancouver Canucks get eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  All you can do is play the "what if?" game and wonder.

For a fan like me, it's not the second place finish that hurts.  It's watching these young players deflate with each goal against after playing such a tremendous tournament.  It's coming so close to taking back the gold in the country they lost it to.  I think there is no point in dissecting the players moves after the fact because that's exactly what the players themselves will be doing until they come back next year. 

Something that was a welcome sight was the sea of red in the stands.  Watching the World Juniors gave me flashbacks of the 2010 Winter Olympics here in Vancouver.  It's amazing to see the lengths fans will go to be a part of events like this.  Buffalo looked like it was in Ontario rather than New York with the amount of Canadians at the games over the past week and a half.  These are the fans that grow playoff beards and have lucky socks that don't get changed when their team is streaking. 

While I'm not THAT extreme with my superstitions, I do fall under the category of "eccentric fan."  Now do you get the Stevie Wonder connection?  Released by Motown Records in 1972, it's pretty much my theme song when it comes to game day rituals.  I know I shouldn't fall into the trap but I can never help myself.  Each hockey season brings its own unique challenges for the superstitious fan.  One year I had to wear the same outfit to work every game day which didn't work out very well as I was in the retail industry at the time.  Another year had me listening to U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" and Sloan's "Money City Maniacs" before puck drop.  Two years ago wearing a jersey to live games = a loss, while wearing it at home = a win. 

This year it's a pretty simple system: don't wear any Canuck paraphernalia or anything with Canuck colours (green and blue) on game days.  The only sad thing about this is that I have a collection of shirts that aren't seeing the light of day this winter out of fear.  We'll see what happens now that I've leaked this current superstition.  Hopefully it doesn't lead me back to the start of this post with all the frowny faces of downtrodden players.

Thankfully, all that earlier angst washed away rather quickly as I tuned into tonight's Canucks game vs. the Calgary Flames.  There's nothing like a good Calgary thumping to make me feel better.  Well that and a little SW on the coolest street of them all to close out the night...