After being riled up by Noah Love earlier in the week I have decided to take an unconventional approach to tonight’s NHL Entry Draft. As a collective fan base we have been eying this date since Zach Smith put the stomps to Nathan Horton and ended the regular season in grand fashion. With all the mock drafts, draft week scuttlebutt and personal assumptions that have already played out to no end, I thought some Zen wisdom could be useful to Senators fans. So here we have 10 things to remember on Draft Day from a Buddhist lens. Let there be selections.
1. Where you are drafted is only the beginning. What you do after you’re selected is what really counts. As Senators fans are all too aware, selecting first overall isn’t a guarantee of success. Good players get selected at 15, 18 and 133. Talent isn’t always a number. Ask Colin Greening or Erik Condra what opportunity means. Ask Bobby Butler and Zach Smith what being passed over in the draft means to them today. Today, they all wear the same jersey.
2. The universe is constantly changing and the only constant is change. The only certainty is nothing last forever. The shimmer of a new face can deteriorate over time while the ugly face can become beautiful as it ages (Meg Ryan anyone?). We are all different people than we were at 18 years of age. Many people are motivated to be better by their guidance counsellors who scoffed at their potential, employers who fired them or ex-girlfriends who said they were too abrasive the same way these kids are motivated to prove scouts wrong. Motivation can be found in being told you’ll play in the NHL one day the same way it can be found by those who were told they will never play. Everyone has flaws and the strongest will work to correct them. What you are does not define who you’ll be (look no further than university dropout Jim Balsillie and high school dropout Rick Mercer).
3. This is the first step in a retooling that will not be completed going 1000 miles a year. Exercise patience with the process and we will be rewarded down the line. If we don’t draft a forward with our highest pick we just add more muscle to our already toned back-end and can work on some of the flabby and offensive areas next year.
4. It’s hard to look cool in those draft hats, keep your cool no matter who’s wearing it. The Senators scouts are in fact smarter than you and I and will make a more informed decision based on their research than any fan on any message board or any blog. If you can wrap your head around this concept and put your ego and brash statements aside you’ll have an easier time enjoying the fun of all the promise draft day brings.
5. Prospects, like Buddhists, have many lives. Look at Jim O’Brien who has lived several lives since his inception into the professional ranks. He has been dead to the world and on top of the world. One year does not make a man but one year can make a man an NHLer.
6. Our draft board is like any other human’s perception of the world. It is unique, present and fallible. Other team’s draft boards will be as well. We can only hope our anti-tanking karma pays dividends much like it did when the New Jersey Devils won the lottery.
7. Armchair GM’s who know everything have nothing left to learn. Do yourselves a favour and save some insight for next year’s class.
8. To be Zen you don’t have to know where we are. You just have to know where we are not. Where we are not is two years ago and in denial that this team needed to be re-evaluated.
9. A draft party in peace is better than a game 7 in Vancouver.
10. Most importantly, to be Zen you must be in the now. The now is the lowest of low (well, 5th worst) before we ascend to great heights. We ride the wave of hockey ebbs and flows before the wave crashes and we return to do it all over again. To get to 2007 you must remember 1992. The draft is just one weekend and the Stanley Cup is not found in just one draft.
And folks, when in doubt repeat this mantra to attain draft day peace:
“At least we have a first round pick this year.
In fact we have two.
it could be worse, the Bruins could have ours too.
We are the Zen Sen Army.”
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