The Athletic Saint
Kristian Urstad
April 08 2010 12:46PM
It is too often said that athletes who are ethically suspect run the risk of morally corrupting their fans and audience. We judge and condemn the athlete – from Shane O’Brien’s late nights at the Roxy or Kyle Wellwood’s weight gain, to Tiger Wood’s sexual infidelities – for not being moral saints. They have a particular responsibility, we say, to provide a higher standard for all of us to follow and admire. But I’d like to turn the tables and ask us all the following:
Does the athlete who is a moral saint serve as a compelling personal ideal? Does it really help us to hold up as an exemplar, as a type of person to strive to become, the perfectly righteous athlete?Captain Luongo
Kristian Urstad
April 02 2010 05:09PM
Luongo after the Kings' game:
"As a team, we should be embarrassed by the way we played. From the first guy, which is me, all the way out to the last guy, it's unacceptable to play this way."
I’ve been saying it ever since it happened, but Luongo shouldn’t have been anointed captain.
Getting To The Hart Of The Matter
Kristian Urstad
March 29 2010 05:05PM
Typically the Hart Trophy goes to the flashier player and to the candidate with the most goals. But what is flashy and why is the flashy player often equated with being the league’s most valuable player? Ditto for goal-scoring. Why is scoring goals almost always taken to be more valuable than setting them up?
I have no doubt that Ovechkin will yet again be afforded the title of the league’s most valuable player. But should he? Isn’t there a better candidate here in Vancouver?
Learning to Forget
Kristian Urstad
March 20 2010 02:21PM
It is a difficult thing to get over discouragement and anger. Seneca, the Roman statesman, spent his life trying to find ways to avoid becoming too angry and bitter. He noticed that our anger invariably lasts longer than the damage done to us. He thought we were fools to allow our tranquility and composure to be disrupted by minor set-backs. It is important, he said, to realize that many of the things we think are important short-term in fact are not, at least not in the grand scheme of things. So anytime we feel ourselves getting too angry or bitter about something, we should pause to consider its overall insignificance – something which helps us to nip our discouragement in the bud.
The Canucks have mastered this ability – an ability all elite teams, whatever sport they belong to, have.
The Place of Willie Mitchell
Kristian Urstad
March 16 2010 05:19PM
Willie Mitchell is a master-disrupter at close quarters – in front of the net and especially in the corners. He anticipates well, is good at angling his body in the right ways, and, with that long stick, is able to knock the puck off opposing players – even when it seems they are out of reach. His poke checking ability too is superb. Aside from these technicalities, he’s a workhorse and a good team guy.
