I know we’ve debated tanking to death but I want to give a slightly different take on it. The usual case for tanking boils down to this: 1) you need elite forwards to compete with teams that have elite forwards. 2) the top of the draft is the best place, and in some cases the only place, to get elite forwards.
That’s all well and good, but there’s another reason I wanted the Sabres to tank that has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with winning more games or chasing the Stanley Cup at all, in fact. I just want a great player because great players are more fun to watch.
Look, there are 82 regular season Sabres games every year. That’s a ton. I watch a lot of them. I would like to watch nearly all of them. And when I do, I want to have something exciting to cheer for. I want to be wowed on a nightly basis. An exciting, up-and-down 6-5 win is worth way more to me than a 2-1, barely-hold-on, thank-god-our-goalie-saved-us win.
I went to college in Virginia and moved to the DC area after graduation, so over the past six years I’ve seen a lot of Capitals games. They’ve gone through big ups and downs during that time – I loved Bruce Boudreau’s fast-paced teams, hated how Dale Hunter tried to slow them down, and slowly grew to enjoy them again under Adam Oates and now Barry Trotz – but through it all you could have fun watching the Caps by focusing your eye on one player: Alex Ovechkin. His skating, his strength, his shot. He’s incredible. He’s on another level. It’s a joy to watch him dominate on the ice, except if you’re rooting for the other team – then he’s terrifying.
Opponents of tanking like to point to the Edmonton Oilers and say, “see, it doesn’t always work!” but they could just as well point to the Washington Capitals. For all the attention Ovechkin has brought them, they haven’t even made it to an Eastern Conference Final during his time in the league, let alone played for the Cup.
But would they rather be the Devils or Rangers, franchises that played for the Cup in recent years? I think the answer is a resounding “no,” because Ovechkin is fun to cheer for. He’s fun to watch every night. You get more excited before the game, you get chills during powerplays, and you get to point to the league’s leading goal-scorer and say, “that guy plays for MY team.” A win with Ovechkin is more fun than a win without. Heck, a lot of losses with Ovechkin are more fun than wins without.
“Is tanking acceptable?” “What does it take to be a Stanley Cup contender?” These debates are worn out. In a sport that asks for your attention no fewer than 82 nights a year, shouldn’t we also ask what kind of hockey we want to watch?
If you ask me, the most talented players play the most entertaining hockey. I don’t think that should be controversial and yet there’s a large contingent of Sabres fans – and hockey fans in general – who think there is something sacred about a bunch of goons getting lucky against more talented opponents. Those 1997 Sabres are beloved not because of their one elite player (Hasek) but because of their blue collar, “hardest working team in hockey” bullshit attitude. Vaclav Varada will always get more cheers in Buffalo than Miroslav Satan.
I think that’s a joke. That’s a defense mechanism. That’s the mentality of a city that believes to its core that it’s not good enough to hang with the best. That’s crushing on the girl next door because you think the supermodel is out of your league.
In the Terry Pegula era, the supermodel is NOT out of our league. We can reach for the top, and that doesn’t just mean reaching for the Stanley Cup. That means reaching for the most entertaining, enjoyable hockey on a nightly basis. It’s fine to be endeared towards a hard-working fourth liner, but you’re crazy if you’d rather watch Matt Ellis than Phil Kessel.
I’m tired of playing the underdog. I’m tired of feeling like a second tier franchise. I’m tired of a goalie being our best player. I’m tired of scheming ways to contain the game’s best players.
I want to cheer for the game’s best players. I want to buy their jerseys. I want to see their goals on Sportscenter’s Top 10. I want Winter Classics and All-Star Games and our players in the Olympics. I want other teams in the league to envy and fear our top line. I want to be the most exciting team in hockey again.*
That’s why I want McDavid or Eichel.
* (Pour some out for 2006).
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