Playing A Turkey Of A Game For Canadian Thanksgiving

The good news is that during the month of October, signed "mystery" pink mini-sticks are being sold before each game with proceeds going to the NHL Hockey Fights Cancer charity program.  Here is my "cancer stick" signed by Joel Ward.  Coincidentally enough, I got a puck signed by "Wardo" in the mail for signing up for FSTs this year.  Perhaps I'll stumble upon a Ward t-shirt sometime this season...only time will tell.  It's questions like these that are just as exciting to the general public as the performance provided by the Nashville Predators this Canadian Thanksgiving evening against the Edmonton Oilers, ending in a dismal 6-1 finale.

What began with a bang, ended with a whimper.  A minute and half into the campaign, our rabblerouser call-up from Milwaukee, Triston Grant threw down with Zack Stortini to get momentum going.  The fight ended in a draw, thus ending momentum for the rest of the evening.  The Oilers apparently didn't appreciate the fact they had lost the previous seven times in Nashville, and their qualms, combined with our own D's severe lack of respect for Pekka, hanging him out to dry on many occasions, ended the first period 4-0 Edmonton.

Sarcastic cries for Vince Young (as well as some rather apparent booing from all sides of the arena) to step in were answered as Dan Ellis, the immediate target for the cameras once the 3rd goal went passed Rinne, stepped in to play...and have 2on1 after 2on1 take place at his feet, 6-0 Edmonton with less than a minute in the 2nd Period.  Then the unthinkable (and thankable) happened:  Arnott chipped one passed the rookie goaltender Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, 6-1!!!  The unthinkable (no, this time it's actually feasible) continued to unfold: verbal civil war in the Cellblock.

Sarcasm (eg. Titan comparisons [c'mon, we don't suck that bad ;D], "There's 1 minute left in the period" - "Thank GOD!") was met with negative responses from fans calling for positive energy (eg. "You call yourself fans? Get the hell out! Leave then!" - and when we scored the goal, "Sit down, you don't get to celebrate!"; the irony wasn't lost on this one as I recall some of these same folks verbalizing their disappointment over the years as well as calling out our own players, Zidlicky mostly, but hey - garbage performance brings the angry hypocrite out in us all).  Sick of having a handful of the louder (see also: shrill) voices around me, on top of the lack of effort shown by our boys in navy, I decided to listen to the rest of the game on the radio in my car.

Here's the skinny folks: there is a difference between self-deprication and disrespect.  If someone exclaims "Thank God!" instead of "Thanks, Paul", that's self-depricating and that style of humor is what I always thought Section 303 was about, that Daily Show-wit and clever sense of humor.  Seeing an obese fella (in 302)  turn to give the team the middle finger before exiting, that's disrespect.  If your comments are clever and warranted, there shouldn't be anything wrong with it.  Did you see our boys celebrate their one goal tonight? Not so much. You know they were thinking "Thank God!" too.

Regardless what camp you might've been in tonight, you shouldn't tell any fan they can't celebrate the team scoring a goal, especially on nights like these when the celebrations are few and far between.

'Til Dallas.

Cheers.