Despite my frustrations with the NHL, it has been difficult to abandon the sport. This has nothing to do with what the sport is today. It's all about what the sport was like when I fell in love with it. Deep down, I hope that the serious excitement that I have seen in the league in the past proves that it is possible for the sport to be exciting in the future. I keep hoping that the league can regain its magic.
You can argue that I developed a love-hate relationship with the league. I love showing support for the Canucks, and I love the excitement the game can potentially produce if the rules allow that excitement to show. I hate the corrupt league and the intolerable hockey media. Because of how bored I started to become with the sport, I cut back to only showing support for the Canucks.
While the Canucks have one of the most entertaining teams in the league, they are still not as fun to watch as they used to be. A lot of this has to do with how the game is played under the current rule set. As I have stated before, the Canucks have proven vulnerable to an ultra-bland style of play embraced by teams like the Blackhawks. I can't just watch Canucks games. I have to have something else to do so that I don't get bored.
The bottom line here is that hockey games these days are depressing. It's very difficult to watch what the sport has become. Despite all of that, I have continued watching one of the few teams that can produce some entertainment.
In addition to all of this, I encountered a serious problem when looking at my life. Part of the reason that I was getting into Canucks games was as a distraction for my lack of control over my own life. As I have already written, this has taken a serious toll on my mental health.
In the past, I set up guideline to force myself to give up on 29 teams. With how unhappy watching games now makes me, I started looking at other conditions to force myself to end watching Canucks games.
The first possible condition for ending my Canucks obsession is related to another reason that I hadn't been able to give up the game. This is something that can leave a serious void in my life. All sports have deteriorated significantly over the years. Without the Canucks, I would no longer be able to enjoy watching any sports. Combined with other entertainment options that have also deteriorated, it would be difficult for me to make up for the loss of the Canucks. What if I actually found a way to fill that void? I don't think there would be any question that I would be able to justify finally moving on.
Another condition relates to my mental health. What if I no longer needed any kind of distractions? What if I somehow managed to find a way to survive while controlling my own life here in America, the land of the mentally enslaved? That's another way out for me.
Let's face it, that last point is unrealistic, and the first point is unreliable. I decided to put a time limit of sorts. If my best connection to good hockey is severed, I would be done with the sport. What is that best connection right now? The Sedin twins. I made the decision over a year ago that I will no longer watch when I no longer have the Sedins (unless I can get tickets when their numbers are retired).
I'm going to throw in one final possibility that came out of nowhere. I'm talking about the Rogers deal that I have already explained. If Rogers cuts ties with CBC, I would lose the only watchable hockey coverage in the United States. I would have no choice other than to stop watching the sport.
More recently, I discovered a variant of that last possibility. Due to rent going up by $300 per month, I was forced to move. Comcast is the only cable provider to my new hometown, and satellite providers don't carry CBC. Additionally, the rising costs of cable versus the diminishing value provided by the mediocre programming that litters every channel made this an expendable service when I was looking at way to cover new expenses elsewhere. I didn't have to wait for Rogers to lose tolerable hockey coverage. I can no longer watch.
I'm sure the NHL is happy. They are all about the northeast. They just lost a fan from the Northwest. This should help them defend their arguments that they have to support the northeast because that's where the money is. I feel dirty. I just rewarded the corrupt NHL.
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