Advice for the playoff-bound (yet another x-post)

These are some thoughts I wanted to jot down in the wake of Tom Luongo’s post over at the AOL Fanhouse.

IF–IF your team wins the Cup (and it is always an IF until the moment the Commish puts the trophy into your captain’s hands):

Cherish that moment. Treat it like it’s purest gold, given to you by whatever powers or forces you worship, and keep it close to your heart forever because you don’t know if or when it will happen again.

Revere the Cup. It’s a holy artifact, sanctified with the blood and sweat and tears of hundreds of players from all over the world, and it deserves your respect.

Win with class, lose with dignity–that lesson was taught to me by (of all people) a Sabres fan. Sure, it feels good to dance on the graves of your perceived enemies and wave your e-peen around for all to see–but all it does is make you look like a classless piece of garbage. The gods favor the worthy, and if your team isn’t judged worthy, then you shake your opponent’s hand, congratulate him on a series well-played, and look ahead to next season. If your team is judged worthy, then you shake your opponent’s hand, congratulate him on a series well-played, and look ahead to the next round or the next season. There’s plenty of crying in hockey, but no whining.

It’s true. You all know that it’s true.

Luck to you all (even the Sabres fans), and I look forward to sparring with you all again next season.

Even the Sabres fans.