Kesler 2K11
Kristian Urstad
August 18 2010 02:22PM
Ryan Kesler is the cover athlete for the new NHL 2K11 game. This strikes me as interesting.
At first, I didn’t really get it. Video games are by their very nature all about creating a flashiness and hyperbole that isn’t quite captured by the reality they are meant to represent. There are loads of things about real hockey that are glossed over, and turned glossy, when it comes to their video game depiction. It is fitting, after all, that the last four cover athletes on NHL 2K are Thornton, Spezza, Nash and Ovechkin – appropriate symbols, it seems to me, for just that kind of gloss.
Backstrom versus Ovechkin
Kristian Urstad
April 28 2010 04:11PM
Since there’s a current lull in the Canuck schedule, I thought I’d write about something else. Try this on for size:
Backstrom is a better player than Ovechkin.
What's The Last Thing You Remember?
Kristian Urstad
April 22 2010 02:51PM
Last night I felt a little like Christopher Nolan in the film Memento. I felt I was afflicted with a kind of short-term amnesia, unable to store new memories, and so to put everything together, to make sense of it all.
So strange was it, that not even in retrospect, with the benefit of hindsight, can any kind of coherent narrative be ascribed to this game.
Becoming Edler
Kristian Urstad
April 19 2010 02:17PM
“Become who you are” – this was Nietzsche’s slogan for the idea that we as individuals have the ability to create and choose out of what we have to work with. We are all born like a piece of clay that already has its unique shape, and it is up to us to do the best we can to sculpt ourselves from it.
After watching Alex Edler in Game One, I was both astonished at just how much original material he has to work with and dismayed by how rarely and how inconsistently he puts it all to use.
He was an all-around force in that first game, excelling in all parts of the game. For 60 minutes, he had fashioned himself into a near perfect defenseman – a work of art on the ice.
It’s scary to think what all that potential could amount to if it was actualized game in and game out. Let’s hope he takes counsel of Nietzsche’s advice and gives us all something unique to admire for years to come.
The Swedish Ethos
Kristian Urstad
April 12 2010 11:02AM
I went to school in Scandinavia for seven years. I learned a little bit about the psyche of this social democratic culture. They are taught from early on not to talk too much about themselves – it is rude to do so. Salary is rarely mentioned. In fact, there is a general leveling of wage diferential – the bottom is pulled up and the top, pulled down. For the most part, they see themselves as belonging to a collective, and take a dim view of the (often) bullying, individualist ethos which dominates our culture.
Even in a sport dominated by absurd salaries and (apparent) individual accomplishment, I can’t help but to see this Scandinavian ethos reflected in the Sedins. They play the game in an understated sort of way. They never complain and see themselves as part of a larger whole. They avoid talking too much about their accomplishments, preferring instead to give credit to those around them and to other players in the league. They have taken less money to stay in this city and on this team. They have given to charity one of the largest chunks of money seen in a long time around this league.
If we don't have the opportunity to learn from some of these Nordic countries, we needn't worry - we can simply take some time to appreciate what the Sedins bring to this game and to this organization, night in and night out.
