Is the preseason cooked?
Welcome to the first edition of The Civ Report, a newsletter and a community for people who love sports and don't suck.
Can you imagine my delight the past few weeks wading through the NHL preseason? I mean, the real season hasn’t even started yet (I’m not sure we can call whatever the Sabres did in Prague “playing hockey” or “real”) and there’s already so many new and exciting things to complain about. As beloved Tw*tter poster ATFulemin once said, "I think a lot of people think the point of sports is that your team will win and then you will be happy. That is not the point of sports. The point of sports is to be sad in a group.”
Today, on sort-of-opening-night-eve, I’m sad about the preseason. Please indulge me in a long-winded, roundabout explanation. (Oh, we are so back).
As a woman with eight years of experience in sports media, somehow the No. 1 question I’m still asked is: “What team do you root for?” This often feels like a reduction of who I think I am and what I think I’ve done, but I know I’m prone to Taking Things Personally, so I try to answer in earnest regardless of the asker’s intentions.
I root for the people, or if you will, the friends we made along the way. I root for Dougie Hamilton, who offered me a cannoli on the flight home from a Bruins vs. Canes playoff game. When I said no, he protested: “Are you sure? It’s Mike’s.” I root for Greg Cronin, who will sit on the phone with me for almost two hours, passionate about the “kids” he coaches and the techniques he uses to better understand them. I root for the Nikita Zadorovs and Anthony Duclairs, who chirp me about my style rankings selections and make the league exponentially more fun.
I root for Patrik Laine, who has gone through unfathomable hardship personally and professionally in his eight-year NHL career. The only thing he hasn’t done yet is give up. Instead, he debuted a mental health initiative called “From Us To You,” to provide discussion, support, and resources for those struggling with mental health.
As he signed with the Canadiens this season, it felt like a fresh start all around for the winger. He’d get an opportunity to help build Montreal’s core back up, a huge role as one of the most prolific scorers on the team, and an amazing coach in Martin St. Louis to instill some bounce back confidence.
Due to a gnarly knee-on-knee collision in a meaningless preseason game last week, we’ll have to wait 2-3 months for the Laine comeback arc to start. He’s out with a knee sprain that never needed to happen, and his injury was just the start of a slew this preseason.