Guest post: Rocket's Red Glare -- The Winter Classic and the Super Bowl

In case you missed the big announcement, Rocket's Red Glare is a new weekly post on the NHL by commenter Rocket. Since we don't write much about hockey, we figured someone should. Rocket? ---------------------

For reasons that are undoubtedly reasonable to the rational and well-adjusted, RandBall did not publish last week's guest post announcing that I would begin writing a "hocku" of the week. Although it should be fairly self-explanatory, if you want a precise definition of what a "hocku" is then direct your questions to RandBall or (noted scholar of ancient Japanese poetry and fellow commenter/nemesis) Stu.

Stu's diligent research led to the rediscovery of a long-forgotten but once vibrant modification of the traditional haiku. As the erudite RandBall reader already knows, the haiku is a poem with three lines – the first line consisting of five syllables, the second line seven syllables, and the third line five syllables again – that attempts to capture or evoke a single moment or feeling or thought. However, Stu discovered that when the subject matter of the poem is hockey the 5/7/5 syllable structure can be inverted to a
7/5/7 structure and the resulting product is known as a "hocku."

Ovechkin and Sid the Kid
The Winter Classic
Eric Fehr seized the moment

A classic Classic

Everybody watches the Super Bowl. You do, I do, everybody does. It doesn't matter how much you love or hate football, You could be only interested in the commercials, or a die hard fan, or have the mortgage payment riding on the game, or anything in between. You watch it, just like everybody else on the planet.

For most folks, even most sports fans, the Super Bowl is the only "can't miss" sporting event of the year. There are lots of games that one does watch, and many more that are intriguing, and there are plenty more that are important or worth watching. But generally there is only one that you know, each and every year, that you will not miss.

It occurred to me as I was watching the Winter Classic – an absolutely thrilling game that had a little bit of everything – that it was the only other sporting event, besides the Super Bowl, with which I have an annual, unbreakable appointment. I am not one of those "niche sport" bobos who is constantly trying to baptize the unwashed masses in the healing waters of my chosen pastime (unlike, say, American soccer fans).

But the NHL, a league that often seems perpetually intent in asphyxiating itself, really has a winner in the Winter Classic. Obviously Game 7s of playoff series are important and worth watching but those are unpredictable and unreliable. An entire playoff season can go without a Game 7. Maybe one could argue that the BCS National Championship Game provides a similar can't-miss-it aesthetic, but then you have to acknowledge the validity of the BCS on some level to make this argument. Perhaps there is another single sporting event that I am missing, but I don't think so. The Winter Classic has turned into an annual tradition and an increasingly important one at that. Considering all of the various factors and variables, is there any other single sporting event – and a regular season game, at that – that can reliably and annually generate as much buzz and excitement and can't-miss-it-ness as the Winter Classic?

Not to mention the fact that this year's game was illustrative of all of the best that hockey has to offer. Although relatively low scoring, the game hardly lacked shots or excitement. There were ferocious hits and even a very good scrap. Some of the best (Gino Malkin) and the most unlikely (Eric Fehr) produced in the spotlight. In the end, two highly skilled and highly antagonistic teams put on a real show in the elements and even left one salivating for what was to come, particularly when the Penguins left the ice without shaking the hands of the Capitals. If you couldn't love this game then you are never going to be a hockey fan and nobody wants to hear from you anyway.