Early to Rise

[caroljane]

This being the time of year when hockey news is thinnest on the ground, puck addicts are reduced to thinking about player contracts and salary caps and things like that which I at least cannot ever understand; so I think about other things, like how the career arc of a professional hockey player is so similar to that of a child actor, yet different.

In both professions the kid is a star performer from the age of 5 or so. They progress seamlessly from age group to age group, "auditioning" whenever they are on the ice, acquiring an agent in their early teens. Here the paths diverge. The talented athlete will continue to play and progress. The talented actor will face a dearth of roles, new competition, typecasting prejudice, and any body changes deemed unaesthetic by casting directors.

At around age 20, having worked in their professions all their lives, they face the new Final Frontier of adult roles and sports, major or minor league, knowing that all they know will continue another 20 years at most, at best, or end at any moment, at worst.

Hilary Duff and Mike Comrie, Dion Phaneuf and Elisha Cuthbert, l'chaim.

[PDS]

Daunce: are there fantasy hockey leagues?

If so, they would seem as natural to someone of your tastes as the Maple Leafs squandering another season...

[caroljane]

Yes, there are, but for me it would be like trying to join the editorial board of JARS. I am just a fan, not a statistician/scout/coach manqué and beyond the Leafs my knowledge of the whole league is superficial. I'll stick to completing the autograph collection on my Playoff Petticoat.

[caroljane]

I will be watching the Oilers this year too, as I admire Dallas Eakins and think along with many that he should be coaching the Leafs. Also waiting for Yakupov to choose his third girlfriend!