New Thing #276: Watching The Banner Go Up

Here's the rare hockey-related New Thing in 2013. I like a good hockey game, and I love playoff and Olympics hockey.

But it doesn't occupy my mind like football and baseball - and even college basketball - do.

Which is why it was so unusual that on Tuesday night, with the one-game wild card playoff baseball game on TV (between the Pirates and the Reds, so I had a rooting interest in Pittsburgh), when I switched over to see which hockey game was on, that I stayed there for a solid ten minutes.

The Blackhawks, you see, were raising their championship banner.

And I just couldn't take my eyes off of it.

First of all, I know how horrible my TV is. Sometimes the picture gets staticky, and you can see that in the many pictures I've taken this year of my TV screen, including the one above. Sometimes it's clear as day, but that doesn't happen all that often. Never is it in high definition, because it's not a high definition TV. (We were thinking of getting a high definition TV back in 2008, and then we instead decided to have a second child.) What it is is a ten-year-old TV with a picture - and it's good enough for me. So now I'm going to stop defending my TV against your non-existent barbs.

Secondly, I think you need to understand that I love championships. I love the matchups in the championships (especially new match ups!, which I think you know), and I love the spoils of a championship.

I love trophy presentations - especially the Stanley Cup. I like hearing about off-season ring ceremonies or seeing the presentations on the field. And I love the raising of the banner.

Rarely, though, do I watch the raising of the banner. Especially in hockey, because I just rarely watch early-season hockey. But as I said, I stumbled across the one in Chicago.

The players were introduced, there was dramatic music playing, and some little kids skated out with the banner. Then it was hooked up to the ropes, and raised to the rafters. It took a while, but it was gripping TV.

It was exactly the way I would do it. I love the idea of raising banners. I'll watch a game if they're retiring someone's number just to watch that number go into the sky. Maybe it's because of how big those banners are when they're on the ground next to people as opposed to high up in the arena out of context. Maybe I just like the pomp and circumstance surrounding it. I just love it - I like collecting miniature replicas of banners. I would raise a banner if I ever had occasion to.

So that's why I watched the Blackhawks raise their Stanley Cup championship banner to open the 2013-2014 hockey season. I probably won't tune in to the beginning of  another Blackhawks game all season - unless I happen to catch them playing a game against the Rangers.

And maybe next year I'll watch the banner-raising in full...because hopefully it will be happening at Madison Square Garden.

New Thing #135: A Rangers-Bruins Playoff Matchup

There have been a lot of high-profile New York-Boston matchups in my time in the greater Boston area. Of course, Yankees-Red Sox happened in the playoffs for the first time in a long time, I think, in 1999...then happened a lot through 2004.

But I didn't care all that much.

Then the Celtics and Knicks matched up a couple of times in the playoffs.

I cared slightly less.

The Jets and Patriots were high stakes - and there was a big win in there for my team.

But until now there had not been a Rangers-Bruins matchup in the playoffs...and it might end up being the most exciting of them all.

I texted with my friend Justin Monday night about the fact that I didn't think there had been a Rangers-Bruins playoff matchup since our college days...and he dug a little deeper to find it hadn't even happened in our lifetimes. 1973 was the last time the Rangers and Bruins met in the post-season. That kind of seems impossible.

But it makes this year's matchup a definitive New Thing.

And it'll be a good one - the past few years have featured a lot of tight games between the two teams...and they've both played a number of heart-stoppers in the post-season the past few years against other teams.

So I expect a lot of nail-biters in the series. Which is not something I am particularly looking forward to.

There's a whole lot that's troublesome about this matchup, in fact - if the Rangers lose I can expect to hear it from all sides (there is a very passionate Bruins fan base in Boston, which I acknowledge...but let's just say that since they won the Cup that fan base has spread wider and been more vocal), if the Rangers win I will only feel quiet satisfaction, and no matter what, I think the series will cause me some late nights and some more white hair.

I'll look on the bright side - the Rangers won their Game 7 against the Capitals Monday night. That means they have this second round series to play. For me that means that I have another week-plus of hockey that I care about. That helps me inch ever closer to the end of the school year - Rangers playoff hockey helps mark time through the month of May.

And it sure beats those years when they missed the playoffs.

And...who knows? Maybe I'll end up getting a ticket to a game in Boston.