We jumped aboard Devils fandom at the start of the 1995-96 season, immediately after the team had shamed itself by failing to make the playoffs immediately after winning the Stanley Cup. In the 14 seasons that followed (spread over 15 years) we were conditioned to believe, the entire time, that our team was a “contender”. Twice we got to actually see them win the Cup, which is truly, truly amazing. But the other 12 seasons involved watching our team come up woefully short; 12 years where we committed massive energy and emotion in a grueling nine-month slog, only to give the experience a final grade of “fail”. There’s nothing wrong with this — being a fan of a contender (even a self-described one) can be a ton of fun. You get to see more wins than losses, for one thing; every game can feel much more intense when you think you’re watching a Team of Destiny; and you can put a little swagger in your step right up until the moment it becomes clear that your team isn’t going to end up champion. But it also means, in the likely event that your team doesn’t win the Cup every single year, that you’re going to have a lot more bitter, angry, or sad hindsight than fans who had no expectations for their teams. Take, for example, the 2000-2001 Devils. That team was a remorseless winning machine, a juggernaut of a defending Cup champion, and got all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Do we look back on that season with fondness in our hearts, or an appreciation for how lucky we were to see our favorite team be that good? Nope, not at all. Because they should have gotten that one last win, at least in our assessment. For better or for worse, our memories of that season are shaded primarily with a belief that the team came up short. Our memories of so many of the seasons during the first 15 years of our fandom are of wasted opportunities and squandered greatness.
Last year was the first time we experienced our Devils falling off a cliff. We expected it to be much harder than it was, but as it turns out, life goes on when your hockey team is decidedly not a contender. And more than that, it gave us a sense of perspective. Thanks to John MacLean, Terrible Head Coach, we suddenly got an understanding of what other kinds of failure a hockey team can have. Sure, losing in the first round when you’re the top seed is something worth being pissed about. But you know what’s worse? Being actually, sustainably, across-an-entire-season shitty. Last year’s experience was an epiphany for us: we don’t ever want to be back in the same place we were after losing in the first round to the Rangers (and all their attendant Avery-ness), where an entire hockey season of fun fandom is wiped out by one week of crap. It’s a polar shift for us, no question, but the thing is that being happy is… well, nice.
This spring’s Devils run has been a fantastic ride. Each step has been a further one out of our old mentality, starting with “we just hope the first-round failure is relatively painless,” then “how can the best regular-season penalty kill in the history of the league be giving up this many power play goals to the Panthers???”, then “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Who knew winning a wholly winnable first-round series could feel this unexpectedly sweet???”, then “hey, just one win against the Flyers will make us happy,” then “HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WE’RE MOPPING THE FLOOR WITH THEM!,” then “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Who knew getting to the Eastern Conference Final could feel this unexpectedly sweet???”, then “hey, just one winning period against the Rangers will make us happy,” then “this playoff thing can actually be fun, even if we don’t win,” and then “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” Because seriously, guys, the Devils won the Eastern Conference Final. The Devils are the Eastern Conference Champions. They beat the Flyers and the Rangers to do that. This is, without question, fabulous.
So who knows what happens now. Maybe they’ll salvage some pride and force a Game 5. Then maybe the ridiculous will happen and they’ll force a Game 6. Then maybe the insane will happen and they’ll force a Game 7. Then maybe the divinely outrageously magnificent will happen and they’ll win the Cup. Most likely, though, the Kings will win comfortably tonight, and the Devils will end up having been swept hard out of the Cup Final. It’s all cool, because you know what? We will not look back on 2011-2012 with even the slightest shred of anger, bitterness, sadness, or “what might have been”. This season was TRULY AWESOME.
I suppose you’re right but I would still like to see at least one win. I can’t believe they have only scored two goals in three games, that makes it really hard for me to blame Brodeur as I always do.
Hank is playing tonight! Put aside all your fears, ladies!
1942.
In discussing my current hockey-related woes, I mentioned to a non-hockey-following friend that the last time a team came back from down 3-0 to win the cup was 1942. In an attempt to console me somewhat, he looked to Wikipedia entry for that year in attempt to find something positive, some connection perhaps, that might rekindle my joy.
It did not work. There is almost nothing good about the year 1942. There are in fact very things about 1942 which are not entirely terrible. Many, if not most of them, are in fact so terrible that they are not even funny.
Some “highlights” from 1942:
“January 2 – WWII: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. All Manila Soldiers are killed and there are no survivors.
January 20 – Holocaust: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the “final solution to the Jewish problem” is relocation, and later extermination.
February 2 – WWII: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Japanese Americans and the seizure of their property.
February 24 – The SS Struma, carrying Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-controlled Palestine, is torpedoed and sunk by the Soviet submarine Shch 213, killing 768 men, women and children, with only one survivor, a 19 year old man, making it the largest exclusively civilian naval disaster of the war.
February 26 – The worst coal dust explosion to date, in Honkeiko, China, claims 1,549 lives.
March 17 – Holocaust: the Nazi German extermination camp Bełżec opens in occupied Poland about 1 km south of the local railroad station of Bełżec in the Lublin district of the General Government. Between March and December 1942, at least 434,508 people are killed there.
April 9 – WWII: The Bataan Peninsula falls and the Bataan Death March begins.
April 29 – WWII: An explosion at a chemical factory in Tessenderlo, Belgium leaves 200 dead and 1,000 injured.
June 12 – Holocaust: On her 13th birthday, Anne Frank makes the first entry in her new diary.
August 9 – Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces.
August 16 – Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak follows a group of Jewish children into the Treblinka death camp.
August 23 – WWII: German troops reach the suburbs of Stalingrad.
October 16 – A hurricane and flood in Bombay kill 40,000.
December 22 – An avalanche in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania kills 26, including Vulcan Crucible Steel Co heir-apparent Samuel A. Stafford Sr., when two 100 ton boulders fall on a bus filled with wartime steel workers on their way home.
Date unknown:
DDT is first used as a pesticide.
Lions become extinct in Iran.”
On top of this, no Nobel Prizes were awarded, John Barrymore and Grant Wood died, and the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup.
I submit to you that 1942 was the worst year ever. And I’m not entirely sure I want the Devils to be overly connected to that particular orbit around the sun.
(As an aside, pretty much the only truly funny thing to happen in 1942 was this: “January 10 – WWII: The last German air-raid on Liverpool destroys the home of William Patrick Hitler, Adolf Hitler’s nephew. William Hitler is at this time in the United States where he later joins the navy to fight against his uncle.”)
I can’t believe they have only scored two goals in three games, that makes it really hard for me to blame Brodeur as I always do.
:^::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Yeah, they’re working very hard to undermine your case here, Mike. Bastards!
Heather, I’ve never felt more confident! :P
And I’m not entirely sure I want the Devils to be overly connected to that particular orbit around the sun.
:^::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Wow. That is a TRULY impressive list of utter misery. Capped by the Leafs winning the Cup. Man. I’m glad I wasn’t alive in 1942. (Although that bit about William Hitler is pretty hilarious.) Although 1942 was a long, long time ago. So long ago there were even, up to a certain point, still lions alive in Iran. I mean, lions? That’s nuts! Maybe we’re due?
1942 truly did suck. In July, my aunt died of encephalitis in Vichy France while my father’s family was fleeing from the Nazis and my father nearly died of typhus later that year. The rest of the war was not easy for them but that was probably the worst.
Wow, Sue, thanks for adding a first-hand confirmation of how shitty 1942 was. Man.
So now that I’ve put us all in the proper mood:
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…
I just wish they would get this over with.
What sucks most about being down 3-0? Even if they win tonight, we can’t really enjoy it. It will, at best, simply be a mild relief to know that they weren’t swept.
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…
:^::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Wait, no — I meant to say “::uncontrolled sobbing::”
(That’s a lie. I stand by this post. I have felt like this SCF has been a weird out-of-time-and-place epilogue to a thrillingly successful season. It’s been strangely disconnected, but at the same time really nice that I haven’t minded one bit that the Devils are being destroyed.)
As for the possibility of a win tonight, hey — not being swept is a moral victory! That’s a good thing, right? :P (I know, you’re all staring at me wondering who I am and what I’ve done with the real Schnookie…)
I’ll be perfectly fine with whatever happens (well, I would rather LA didn’t win 8-0), but I wish they would just get this started.
(I know, you’re all staring at me wondering who I am and what I’ve done with the real Schnookie…)
Actually, I was thinking that maybe we need to do something about your wine intake.
OK, now I’m all depressed about 1942. I did learn a fabulously hilarious fun fact that has nothing to do with 1942 or the Devils, but maybe sharing it will cheer me and everyone else up. The first free lending library in the US was founded by a guy named Dr. Pepper. That’s fun, right? Right? Sigh.
OK, now I’m all depressed about 1942.
On the other hand, at least we’ve found the bottom, right? I mean no matter what happens, at least it’s not 1942.
I mean no matter what happens, at least it’s not 1942.
Was the world supposed to end on December 21st in 1942?
Oh, and Parise’s fired.
Since this is apparently the happy fun group tonight, you realize this could be the last hockey for a very long time if the PA and the owners can’t play nice in the sandbox during CBA negotiations?
On the other hand, at least we’ve found the bottom, right? I mean no matter what happens, at least it’s not 1942.
I was with you until Amy popped up with her CBA talk…
(Just kidding.)
I was with you until Amy popped up with her CBA talk…
:^::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
And pish posh with this “last hockey for a very long time” stuff! I lived through it once, I can live through it again. :P (I can say this because the new Assassin’s Creed is supposed to come out in October, so I’m like, “Hockey, could you guys find a way to be at least a couple of weeks delayed, to give us time to play that?)
Since this is apparently the happy fun group tonight, you realize this could be the last hockey for a very long time if the PA and the owners can’t play nice in the sandbox during CBA negotiations?
… let’s just get this out of the way:
Alzheimer’s
Old Yeller
Dead grandparents
Angela’s Ashes
Strange Fruit
The Kennedy Assassination
Christopher Reeve
Otis Redding
Imagine
Elie Wiesel
Hachikō
The end of the Futurama episode with Fry’s dog
There. That’s it. That’s every depressing thing in the world. Surely, we can start the healing now.
Gunner, you forgot to mention NJ’s PP.
Gunner, you left off the scene of Dumbo visiting his mother, the children’s book “Old Pig” (I’d retell it here, but it literally makes me cry just thinking of it), and coconut.
You’re right.
I also forgot Bambi’s mom being shot, Mark Greene dying on ER, Brian’s Song, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Michael J Fox, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, and “You Are My Sunshine.”
But that’s it, right? Nothing else depressing that could possibly come up, right?
Oh crap — Chernobyl!
And the Children’s Crusade!
And yeah, now that’s it.
Damnit.
And the Trail of Tears.
Waitaminute. Chernobyl’s not depressing! That’s just scary!
the children’s book “Old Pig”
I ‘ve never read “Old Pig,” but “Love You Forever” is just as sad. It was read to us at a Mother/Daughter mass in high school and the entire congregation was in tears by the time the book was over.
There has to be a Devils goal soon just to break this pattern of misery, right?
More depression: Butthead won two Cups.
I had never heard “Strange Fruit” before listening to a Twilight Singers album of covers. My seminal music was U2 so I learned early on to not bother listening to lyrics or caring what they mean. So there I was rocking out to Twilight Singers and was like, “What’s this song called? ‘Strange Fruit’? Hm. Odd title! But it’s awesome! I’m going to listen to it 50 times in a row!” After a few listens I started singing along; you know how you just pick up the lyrics without bothering to really listen to them? That was me, flying down the highway, blasting “Strange Fruit” on my stereo, singing along in my best Greg Dulli impression (that in itself is almost enough to be on the list of most depressing things in the universe). About halfway through belting along to the song I was like, “Heeey, wait a minute, is this about…. ACK! I’m so sorry, Universe! I’m so, so, so sorry for so, so, so many things.” It was years before I brought myself to listen to it again. And that’s my story. My sad, sad story.
Chernobyl’s not depressing! That’s just scary!
:^:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Right. You tell yourself that… :P (It can be both scary and depressing, right?)
And Trail of Tears pretty much maxed me out. I think we’ve got them all.
Amy, I keep thinking if we keep piling on, the Devils will take pity on us, but I think they’re all just skating around the ice crying right now. (I’ll have to look up “Love You Forever.” “Old Pig” was brought to my attention by a school librarian when I was working in their after-school program; she knew I liked pigs, so she was all, “Check out this new book!” It’s all about this young narrator, a pig, goes to spend the day with his elderly friend, Old Pig, who spends the whole day, like, returning her library books, and saying goodbye to friends, and sitting to take in the sunset, and shit like that, then… dies. Oh god, I’m getting watery now. I remember Pookie and I went out to dinner with some friends and we were all one-upping each other with sad stories, and I got to telling that and was sobbing by the end. It’s terrible. Heh.)
More depression: Butthead won two Cups.
That is BY FAR the saddest thing I’ve heard all day. Now I’m really sobbing.
but I think they’re all just skating around the ice crying right now.
Maybe the Staples Center should play the theme from Love Story for them to help it along…
MY GOD, AMY. The Wikipedia summary of “Love You Forever” just made me cry. DAMN YOU.
Maybe the Staples Center should play the theme from Love Story for them to help it along…
:^:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
My sad, sad story.
I laughed. You just made a depressing thing into a funny thing.
I’m reminded of a story my friend Zack told me once. He had a friend who, to help pay for grad school, worked as a tour guide at the National Holocaust Museum. One time, particularly pleased with a group of visitors he had just finished leading through the museum, he assumed his most teacherly voice and said, “You guys did a great job today! You all get gold stars!” before realizing where he was. I’m told he quite literally made this face: http://firethatcannon.com/files/2011/04/shocked-face.jpg?e98d57
Maybe the Staples Center should play the theme from Love Story for them to help it along…
With a viewing of Marley & Me in the locker room during the intermissions.
Salvador’s fired.
Gunner, I can’t even describe to you how hard I’m laughing right now. Seriously, that is one of the funniest (most terrible) things I’ve ever heard.
“You guys did a great job today! You all get gold stars!”
OK, that might be the funniest, horrible-iest thing I’ve ever heard!
Gunnar, that sounds like a tour I took with my Dad in Budapest, of the Great Synagogue which has the Jewish museum attached. The museum and the tour are quite disturbing (Dad decided not to go to Dachau when we got to Germany after that) but they also have some things that are just historically interesting and fun. Our tour guide tried to start the tour off with some stuff that was fun and a few jokes and the group stubbornly refused to go along with it, except for me and Dad.
We thanked him after the tour, told him it wasn’t his fault the group was humorless and told him to try asking why Moses was lost in the desert for 40 years…because he refused to ask for directions.
Our tour guide tried to start the tour off with some stuff that was fun and a few jokes and the group stubbornly refused to go along with it, except for me and Dad.
HAHAHAHAHA! Sue, it sounds like your family would have traveled well with our family back when Dad was still alive. He almost got us kicked off a tour of Graceland when he asked which television Elvis shot at.
He almost got us kicked off a tour of Graceland when he asked which television Elvis shot at.
But that’s the kind of stuff that’s important.
In other horrible-things-that-make-me-laugh news, I never learned about Pol Pot in school. But then in college, my acting professor got ranting about Inside The Actors Studio and concluded with “James Lipton is worse than Pol Pot”. Now that I know what Pol Pot did, I really shouldn’t think of James Lipton when his name is mentioned or vice versa but it’s impossible! And I laugh every time.
But that’s the kind of stuff that’s important.
:^::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Damn straight! And I’m glad I was raised by a man who could instill those values in me. :P
Now that I know what Pol Pot did, I really shouldn’t think of James Lipton when his name is mentioned or vice versa but it’s impossible! And I laugh every time.
I have the same with Helen Keller, entirely because of Apples to Apples. Every time I see her name I giggle a little.
Oh man, Apples to Apples is rife with creating these kind of horrible-awesome situations!
I understand I have missed Pierre & Beeks walking on the beach together during intermission. It’s times like these that I’m thrilled I don’t get NBCSN.
I enjoyed the Beaks but shuddered at the Pierre in that segment. (I knew better than to turn the sound on. At one point Pookie suggested that Pierre was saying to Beaks, “I want to rub my boobs on you,” but I thought she said, “I want to rub my boots on you,” which somehow seems even more perverse and sickly Pierre-ish.)
OK, Pierre is worse than Pol Pot.
Tweet from Ryan Lambert: very disappointed mike richards and pierre mcguire did not conclude the interview by riding off on a horse
Didn’t I fire Salvador last period? What’s he still doing here? Well, he’s still fired!!!!
very disappointed mike richards and pierre mcguire did not conclude the interview by riding off on a horse
:^:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Pierre: “That makes two of us.”
And as for the firing, I’m beginning to think these guys aren’t even listening to us.
??????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damnit, stop trying to make me believe, Patty.
Woo!
Is that what Gametracker says it is? A goal for Patty? Couldn’t be….
BTW, “A Goal for Patty” sounds like a children’s book….
Clarkson’s fired.
Well, that was quick.
That’s much more along the lines of what I expected.
Excellent to know Clarkson’s still a complete idiot.
No matter the size of the stage or the importance of the game, Clarkson’s idiocy will always come through for us.
Awwwwwwwwwwww!!! I’m going to spend all summer performing all manner of woodland rites in celebration of Henrique. I love that kid.
That’s a SPECTACULAR mustache Henrique’s rocking, too. It looks SO fake.
Now all the Henriqueists have to wear goofy mustaches. Even the cymball girls.
Damn you, Adam Henrique, and your cocksure mustache. I don’t want to be suckered into this.
I can’t even feel happy. I’m waiting for the other skate to drop.
I’m waiting for the other skate to drop.
Or for the other boot to rub, as the case may be.
Chuckles????? OK, it may be safe to WOOOOOO!!!!
My travel schedule is going to suck this weekend.
Jet-setting with Leonsis again, Gunner?
Well, Devils, if you think you’re getting another weepy, long blog post out of us for Game 5, think again! Heh.
I’m scheduled for 6-10 Friday, 9-1 Saturday, and then 11-7:30 Sunday.
Holy shit, that is an awe-inspiring mustache.
It does look like Henrique glued that thing on. But it is obviously a powerful fake ‘stache.
Hmmmm…Clarkson is wearing pink. He has a pink checked shirt with a pink satiny tie. The jacket is not pink.
Henrique and Henrik are practically the same thing so you know, when you’re right you’re right. *smug*
Pierre: “That makes two of us.”
:^::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
My DVR is worth its weight in gold for allowing me to miss things like that apparently lovely stroll by the beach. I predict that the Devils will force a game 7 only to lose it, because that is the most painful thing they could do.