Hockey thoughts. And yes, I did mean the ‘you’re” in the title.  Freaky, I know.

– Let’s say that Ryan O’Reilly really is butt hurt about not having the captaincy of the Avalanche.  Let’s just say that he really does factor that into his contract demands (negotiations is too nice a word for what he and the team have been engaged in).  If you are the Avalanche, do you want to sign a guy who is jealous of his line mate, and make for a bad situation?  For five years locked in?  Would you want to pay a guy that much money with a chip on his shoulder about not being captain?  Perhaps O’Reilly was looking for a way out of Denver before his UFA years came due.  Maybe not.  I doubt we will ever know the story.

– That said, if O’Reilly really was butt hurt about not being named captain, after hearing about it in the media, don’t you think he would find the whole thing silly?  It sounds silly.  You love this team so much, you’re mad you didn’t get the captain’s C, and now you don’t want to play there.  At some point, you listen to the words you are saying, you listen to what is being said about you, and you make a choice as to whether you want to stay on that path.  Guess he does.

– I feel really out of touch with the Eastern Conference.  Maybe there are too many hockey games in a day to keep track of, and this is my way of filtering.  I truly don’t know how people like the writers at Puck Daddy, NBC PHT, and some of the other  “cover the entire NHL” blogs do it.  It seems like a… what’s that word I’m looking for… job.  Yeah, a job.  …. Oh….

– But seriously, if you try to keep track of all 30 teams and all the games, how do you do it?  Do you have a pattern?  Do you mostly track highlights?  Bounce from game to game?  The comments are open, and your insights would be appreciated.

– I feel a little weird saying this, but the best thing that could happen to Vancouver and San Jose is to miss the playoffs completely.  San Jose especially.  They are both teams that have trudged on being almost good enough for a long time.  Vancouver is a strange one, considering how close they came to winning a Cup a few years back, but when the expectation is Cup or bust, there is a lot of room to be disappointed.  I feel like if there are two teams that could use a perspective slap to the face, it’s these two.

– I get to the rink a few times a week for some stick and puck time, just to work on skills, but mostly to fart around with a puck.  I work, but come on, I don’t do drills.  I sweat, I work, but I don’t kill myself.  I have a job, you know?  But there is this kid I see most times I go, mornings at nine AM.  So you know, home schooled, obviously.  And the other day, his dad is in there helping him get suited up, and they are running a little behind, and his dad is on him a bit about it.  Nothing bad, just your usual “come on, we have to hurry up, let’s go” kind of thing.  Normal parent stuff.  Then his day says something about how this isn’t how a first overall pick acts.  Whoa.  This kid is probably 11 or 12 years old, and that might be generous.  I’ve seen this kid and his dad plenty of times before, and I knew the pressure was on this kid, but I didn’t know it was that bad.

I’ve been around plenty of stage parents.  I’ve seen the good and the bad, and I’ve seen how the well-adjusted kids line up with well-adjusted parents, and visa versa.  I’ve also met parents who expect their kids to have careers that sustain the parent’s lifestyle, and parents who have come out and said that the kids were their financial investments.  As in, the kids are working so mom and dad don’t have to.  And it made me sick.

So what happens when this kid isn’t a first overall pick?  What does his life look like?  What if he winds up hating hockey?  What if he already does?  And what do you say to one of those parents, who are setting their expectations so high, they are ruining things for their kid when they fail?  I don’t have any answers.  Perhaps that kid responds well to that sort of motivation.  But not from what I saw.

And maybe I’m wrong about it all.  I sure hope I am.

– Hey, lighter note.  I went back and watched the end of the 24/7 Rangers / Flyers series, because reasons.  So here it is for you as well, because hockey should be epic sometimes.