I’m Thankful for the Incongruous Nature of Sports

Every tried to predict the stock market? Well sports can be just as much fun. In either way, no matter how much information you collect, analyze, formulate and compute there is are so many variables that any piece can change on a given moment.

Let’s take the NHL - when I started this season I was convinced that the bottom three teams would be Vancouver Canucks, Colorado Avalanche and the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The aforementioned teams are 10th, 13th and 26th. The season is long but that is hardly the bottom feeding teams by and large. Meanwhile, the Oilers who I (and others to be fair) predicted to be elite, are currently 8-12-2 sitting in 27th place one spot past the Colorado Avalanche. That’s sports! Just when you think you have it all figured out it throws a massive curve ball (or hail mary, or knuckle puck or ‘diving penalty’ or knock on or false start or whatever sports analogy you want to throw into the ring). If this season played out exactly how I predicted I would (in order) contact Vegas with proof and demand I be part of some exclusive back room dealings that they inevitably have on sports betting and then, once my clearance had passed, I would be a bit dismayed that there was no mystery or unknown x-factor that ended up happening. Predictability is boring, bring on the underdog Cinderella stories that make sports the beautiful unpredictable roller coaster that it is.

I want a healthy mix of predictable and unpredictable. I want to see an underdog come in big and a Cinderella story come true. I want to see an undrafted rookie rise to a top 50 player and a oft injured redeemed story come to fruition (cough cough Adrian Peterson). I want to see a middle of the pack team rise to elite status during the playoffs and a “they can’t” .... can. Most of all I want to be uncertain of what many trolls to be certain about.

Happy Thanksgiving All.