Is it Friday yet?
I don't ask that because it would be the weekend and I'd get to go do stupid wreckless things and all that stuff that makes up a productive weekend.
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| Beer - It's what makes weekends kick ass |
No, I ask because Friday is one of my favorite days of the year. Christmas, Halloween, Free Comic Book Day, my birthday (excluding last year; turning 30 licked balls), trade deadline day and then Friday. Free Agent Day.
It's a day that I sit in my office all day, don't do a damn bit of work and just refresh TSN (because US sports media's coverage of NHL Free Agent Opening Day sucks gigantic donkey cock) every 15 seconds, pare down my twitter feed to only hockey-related posts and do nothing but look at the free agent listing and scratch them off as they get signed. And hope that the Pens pick up someone to fill whatever their most glaring need is that particular year.
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| The minute it hits noon, this is every NHL General Manager |
It's like the Black Friday of the NHL shopping season. The stores all have a huge fucking line outside and everyone has been waiting since the night before to get inside in order to hopefully pick up that new present to their fans and team that they will absolutely love.
In the week leading up to the beginning of free agency, there's always a lot of awesome rumors, activity and all that. There's the NHL Entry Draft, Restricted Free Agent Qualification Day (Yesterday) and then all of the trades and whatnot that set the stage for what is going to happen come July 1st.
I know most Americans freak-out like this over the NFL. They spend days, weeks, even months analyzing the draft class, looking at every aspect of every potential or definite free-agent. They figure out their mock-drafts and read everything that they can. But I don't do that. I mean, I love football. I love the Steelers. But I don't know... It's just not quite the same.
There's something different about hockey. Maybe it's because the players tend to be more relatable to me. Maybe it's because I always played it more than any other sport growing up. Maybe it's because I was significantly better at it than most other sports growing up. I mean, I played football, baseball, basketball (back when I was still tall for my age and before coffee and cigarettes put an end to that whole "growing" thing), I still golf sometimes. But Hockey was always my first love.
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| We were luckey if there were places to hang our clothes when I still played regularly |
Something about sitting in that locker room in some crappy old rink, in the middle of January, 8 fucking degrees outside, we can still see our breath in the locker room while trying to get into gear because the rink owner didn't kick on the heaters in the place until about 20 minutes ago, that nasty hockey-stank (and our cigarette smoke) kinda filling the room from our poorly aired-out equipment, and even more poorly aired out locker rooms, in order to get on the ice for a 5am practice on a saturday or sunday. And then standing at the door to the ice, waiting for that half-awake zamboni driver to finish cutting the ice for that first morning skate. Stepping out there, and taking those first couple easy strides to get your feet under you and start stretching out the muscles before actually pushing off for a lap or 2 to warm up.
I don't know... but I think memories like these are why I love hockey. And why I also love the NHL.
But yeah... Free Agent Day is this friday. It's like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one.
And I can't fucking wait.
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