Today is NHL Trade Deadline Day. For anyone subjected to a steady diet of sports television coverage in Canada, this is a fact that would be difficult to escape. There are few subjects that garner more attention from mainstream sports networks in the Great White North than hockey, and there are few single-day events in the sport that are more conducive to those employed by media outlets for their “insider” status than the last day in which NHL teams are allowed to make trades before the end of the season.
It all sounds exciting. Breaking news. Superstars on the move. Teams going all in. General managers getting roasted. Future lineups being projected.
Trade Deadline Day is a lot like New Year’s Eve. In our minds we imagine that we’ll spend the last day of the year as though it’s 1991, and we’re Axl Rose. In reality, we’re negotiating with a cab driver how much we’ll pay for the vomit that spilled out of our mouths on the back seat of the taxi. Likewise, we imagine today to be about draft picks being exchanged for impact players that will decide whether the current season is bust or boom. In reality, today is about dozens of men in suits fiddling with smart phones trying to be the first one to share the details of a fourth line winger being traded for a sixth round draft pick via social media.
