How Do You Deal With a Missed Game?
I missed the Kings game last night. Apparently, I should be thanking my lucky stars. Some people avoid the score when they miss a game until they get home, so they can watch the whole thing with fresh eyes and experience the highs and lows of the game. I can't do that. One, I have an impulsive need to know the score; it consumes me and it's all I can think about. Two, avoiding the game means I can't watch SportsCenter, or go here or Inside the Kings, and I can't really avoid doing that for any length of time without losing my mind. So I usually find out the score from my brother or online. Then I'll watch the Yahoo! highlights when they come up, check out the boxscore and the shift charts, and wait for the game to come available on NHL Gamecenter. I still watch the game; it's actually kind of a unique experience because you already know the score so your mind is relaxed and you can focus on the little parts of the game. Then I get pissed because the Kings get outplayed by the opposing goaltender and Drew Doughty slips and misses his coverage, leaving Daymond Langkow wide open in front of the net.
So how do you guys deal when you miss a game? Avoid it and watch it live? Find out the score and move on? Share in the comments.
17 comments:
I found this particularly challenging last year when I lived in Europe. We set up a SlingBox and TiVo that meant I could record games that aired in the early morning hours and watch them at a more reasonable hour, but in reality that meant a game on Thursday night would get recorded in the middle of Friday night where I was, then I'd go to work most of the day and it'd almost be Friday night before I could watch it. I didn't have to duck SportsCenter or TV sports news, but it meant I had to avoid ESPN.com's NHL page, this site, LetsGoKings, Inside the Kings, etc., for close to 24-hour cycles.
As the season wore on, it got harder to do this, mostly because I knew the team was such a train wreck that I'd be disappointed when I finally got around to watching. Often my wife would check the score and if it was a particular clunker she'd tell me not to bother watching.
Even this season, where I'm at least in the Pacific time zone again, I often miss games because it sucks to have to watch on my laptop and I'm too poor to afford Center Ice this year, unlike two years ago. If I forget to turn it on at the start, I'll usually get reminded when I check my RSS feed and see the updated score from Inside the Kings. This happened the other night against Vancouver, and since the game didn't look good, I only kind of watched part of it.
My attitude would be a lot different, I'm sure, if the team were better. But mostly I think it's brought on by not being able to watch the games live on TV. We get the CBC here, so I made a special point of watching last night's game since it was on HNiC, and it was great except for the unfortunate result. But at least in the After Hours show they had Kopitar on and the host Scott Oake kept ribbing Marc Crawford about getting fired in L.A.
It's really difficult to overstate the convenience of a DVR/Tivo. A lot of times I'll find myself watching sports games on a delay even when I'm there the whole time - especially NFL games with their merciless wave of commercials.
It's a great feeling transforming a three hour game to a neat, tidy two hour commitment. Highly recommended (and you won't be too far behind the action to feel the need to cheat, at least most of the time).
Oh I feel you! I always Tivo the game, no matter what. For the most part I have my friend send me text messages about the score (he gets updates sent to his phone). Just imagine the number of messages I got on Friday during the Ducks/Canucks game! I'm like you, If they are playing...I have to know the score! If they win, I always go home and watch (and still cheer when they score, even though I'm totally expecting it) and if they lose, I can't lie, I usually just watch the goals and calls that I heard about being questionable. Although, I did watch about 90% of Friday's game even though the Ducks lost it in the crazy shootout.
James,
I agree. Unless I really 'have' to watch a game live, I always just TiVo it, and start a half-hour or so in, so I can skip a period break. And for the cases where I can't watch the game live, I TiVo, avoid the web, and watch it later. Usually I can't even wait until the next day, and end up watching it late at night.
It sounds a bit pathetic, but TiVo really changes your life, and in a good way.
Whether I'm at the game, watching on teevee, or doing something else, I always DVR the game. Whenever I can't watch, I do my best to avoid any person or piece of technology that will tell me the score. I try to watch the game in its entirety, not knowing anything. Unfortunately, my curiosity gets the best of me pretty frequently and I end up using my phone's browser to get the score.
Still, like you said, it's great to watch the whole game after the fact, looking for details.
That's really the best way to go; know the score and penalties. It frees up time spent yelling "Shoot the puck" and opens up time to realize how unimpressive Kyle Calder really is. I also think there are less heart palpitations when you know that with 10 seconds left to go in the game, Preissing will trip as the puck floats to him with no one around.
Yeah, it all depends on the score, or how bored I am.
There's some games I've still never seen, though, like the Ducks' first playoff game last year. Sometimes the boxscore is enough of a kick-to-the-nuts already.
I watch the Sharks games when I get off work around 11 or 12 at night on Comcast On Demand. I don't know if they do that everywhere, but in San Jose they put the Sharks game up for free on On Demand for 24 hours or so an hour after each game ends. So I sit on the couch yelling at 1:30 in the morning. It's a fantastic life.
The Kings are so bad, if I miss a game, I'll just have a "if they lost big, which they probably did, at least I didn't have to see it" mentality.
I haven't missed a game, either TV, in person, or on radio, in nearly a full year. Whenever it does happen to me, I'll let you know how I cope.
Living in another city, without the money for Gamecenter, and with night classes all week, I miss pretty much every game. Radio is the only way I can get the game, and I watch highlights online to deal with it. It sucks to be honest. I can't wait til I graduate and can afford Center Ice/Gamecenter.
If I'm not going to the game in person, I Tivo the game and just keep myself in a NHL highlight "cone of silence." This means no checking fantasy teams or hockey blogs until I've watched the game. Luckily this still means I can watch Sportscenter.
Last season, as it got more and more horrible, I found myself checking the score first and then just fast forwarding to the Kings goals.
I can't afford NHL Center Ice, and I'm a Wings fan who moved to Colorado for work. I miss ALL the games. All I can see is fucking shitty Avs games on shitty Altitude.
The way I make up for it is watching NHL Network's On The Fly, which is hands down the best highlight show in the history of hockey. Fanboys who are too busy jerking off to ESPN can go on about NHL2Nite all they want, but while NHL2Nite was good for its time, nothing on tv gives you better recaps and highlights than OTF.
I have yet to miss a game, so can't say. I tend to arrange my social life around game time. Pathetic I know, but priorities ya know. And for the couple games that are not on tv, I listen to it on the radio.
As to NHL's On the Fly - after Sci Fi channel, I love that one.
Joe...I understand your pain. All I ever get to see is Sharks games, which is fine except that 1) this year they only play the Kings 6 times and 2) San Jose only has one major pro team period and that's all anyone cares about in this city. I wish there was something to break up the monotony of teal every once in a while.
Usually the only reason I'll miss a Ducks game is because I'm at work, when that happens, I'll check the score every 20 minutes or so on my phone.
If it's one of the few games on KDOC that we don't get here in Vegas, I'll just listen to the radio broadcast on the Ducks' site.
You forgot the Earthquakes. They're pro, even if they don't get huge crowds.
Sabercats too. Both get decent support and aren't team teal. Really, the Bay Area has a ton of options if you don't want to pay attention to the Sharks. Or you can do what I did: ignore tv coverage and follow your team online. Got me through 4 years in southern california.
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