Hockey is a superstitious sport. Players from every country on every team have game day rituals they refuse to break. Blackhawk legend Glenn Hall would vomit before every game. Stan Mikita would flick a cigarette over his left shoulder on his way into the arena, and Hall of Fame Goalie Patrick Roy would talk to the goalposts. Traditions of playoff beards, gameday meals, and hopping the blue lines have been around for years. Almost every year, the Eastern and Western Conference Champions refuse to touch their conference trophies until they win the Cup.
This year, there are countless off the ice potential jinxes for the Chicago Blackhawks. Sports Illustated, Barry Melrose, and countless other publications and experts have picked the Hawks to win the Cup. Patrick Kane is on the cover of EA Sports' NHL10 video game. If that's not enough, the opening sequence of the game shows Jonathan Toews hoisting the Stanley Cup. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that for the first time.
Does the curse translate to the NHL? Let's take a look. In 2006, Vincent Lacavalier graced the cover of NHL06. He enjoyed a solid season of 75 points, and the Lightning finished with 92 points. Alexander Ovechkin was the cover boy in 2007. He finished the season with a very solid 92 points, but that was the lowest total of his career. How about 2008? Eric Staal enjoyed your average "Staal-ian" season, notching 82 points. Dion Phaneuf made the cover in 2009. As we all know, his Flames were eliminated in the first round by the Blackhawks. His -11 regular season rating marked the only time in his career he finished with a minus rating. That's as bad as it's been in recent memory.
It doesn't look like Patrick Kane has much to worry about. For the most part, the players on the cover have enjoyed pretty standard and healthy seasons. If the first two games of the season are any indication, he might be on his way to destroying the notion of an NHL curse all together...knock on wood of course.
Jay Zawaski is the Executive Producer of the Danny Mac Show (M-F 9am-1pm) on WSCR, 670 the Score.
Filed under: Blackhawks, Chicago Sports, hockey, jinxes, NHL, NHL 10, Patrick Kane, sports, video games
Tags: blackhawks, EA Sports, hockey, jinxes, NHL, NHL10, patrick kane, Video Games
Before writing for ChicagoNow, I wrote about the EA curse for ChiTownDailyNews. I found an excellent multimedia explanation of it here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0704/gallery.nhl.ea.sports.curse/content.1.html
I say trade Kane now (then hang up the phone). :)