e writes a fine blog about Ice Hockey A Theory of Ice. I stop by now and again to read it , and today I was struck by some of what she had to say about losing in sports.
Losing is not sad, or even infuriating, so much as it is itchy. A loss is uncomfortable, awkward, a disturbance in the force, and it doesn’t matter how many times it happens, it always feels that way
and
A team wins by doing the few clear but immensely difficult things that all its members have known, for their entire careers, that they must do
and
... there is a great deal of nuance to losses. There are games lost on unfortunate bounces, on injuries, on fatigue, on bad calls. There are close, down-to-the-wire losses and losses so one-sided that it’s as if only one team was even there. A game can be lost on one bad play or twenty, and sometimes even on none at all. Each of these losses is different, they feel different and they are, in fact, structurally different.
and
It is true, then, that a game can be lost easily on individual failings. But it can only be won as a team.
e, I don't know if you aspire to a job as a sportswriter. If you do, I hope someone spots you soon and gives you a job. I like what you say and how you say it. You go, girl.
As it happens, I root for the Sharks myself.
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