Detroit Penned by NHL diktat..?
I've been a sports widower during the Stanley Cup playoffs in the NHL, so I'm pleased that the bloody thing has ended, one way or another.
While the Detroit Red Wings didn't repeat this season -- they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Detroit last night (Friday, 12 June) in Game 7 -- their suspiciously poor showing against the Pens in the last two games has touched off a bit of conspiracy theorizing.
My wife has no truck with conspiracy theory outside of having watched and enjoyed some episodes of The X-Files; she's apolitical to a degree that's both baffling and somewhat intimidating to those who actually give a toss about some issue or another. However, even she said that the fix was in last night: as she tells it, the Red Wings played as if they didn't care until the third period, when they briefly came alive and scored a goal, as if to make their throwing the game look more plausible.
A guy I work with is a huge sports conspiracy theorist; he's been swearing up and down that the NHL doesn't want Detroit to win the Stanley Cup two years in a row and that Pittsburgh is anxious to win the Cup to justify the amount of hype and moolah that they've spent on three or four of their "star players" (don't ask me their names, as I can't be arsed to follow hockey; haven't even seen Slap Shot yet). According to him, pro sports -- soccer, baseball, basketball, (American) football and hockey -- are all rigged: we're essentially living in the world of Rollerball, except we don't get to see the professional athletes kack each other on the pitch/field/court. (Bet they could fill that new and hilariously overpriced Yankee Stadium if they hosted death matches in it.)
When I ran this by the missus, she didn't say he was a moron, which is about as ringing an endorsement as she'll ever give any male on this earth.
How much you want to bet that there'll be nary a hint of this line of thinking raised in any professional sports writer's column..?
While the Detroit Red Wings didn't repeat this season -- they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Detroit last night (Friday, 12 June) in Game 7 -- their suspiciously poor showing against the Pens in the last two games has touched off a bit of conspiracy theorizing.
My wife has no truck with conspiracy theory outside of having watched and enjoyed some episodes of The X-Files; she's apolitical to a degree that's both baffling and somewhat intimidating to those who actually give a toss about some issue or another. However, even she said that the fix was in last night: as she tells it, the Red Wings played as if they didn't care until the third period, when they briefly came alive and scored a goal, as if to make their throwing the game look more plausible.
A guy I work with is a huge sports conspiracy theorist; he's been swearing up and down that the NHL doesn't want Detroit to win the Stanley Cup two years in a row and that Pittsburgh is anxious to win the Cup to justify the amount of hype and moolah that they've spent on three or four of their "star players" (don't ask me their names, as I can't be arsed to follow hockey; haven't even seen Slap Shot yet). According to him, pro sports -- soccer, baseball, basketball, (American) football and hockey -- are all rigged: we're essentially living in the world of Rollerball, except we don't get to see the professional athletes kack each other on the pitch/field/court. (Bet they could fill that new and hilariously overpriced Yankee Stadium if they hosted death matches in it.)
When I ran this by the missus, she didn't say he was a moron, which is about as ringing an endorsement as she'll ever give any male on this earth.
How much you want to bet that there'll be nary a hint of this line of thinking raised in any professional sports writer's column..?