Losing In the Finals...Again
Thank you to all my subscribers, especially paid subscribers for bearing with me last week. If you missed it, I took last week off from writing simply because I had no energy. I had nothing in me to do more writing. Well, I am back now. I am coming back from the impromptu break to write some personal thoughts and feelings on watching your team be a continual failure on the largest stage.
The Toledo Walleye have made the Kelly Cup Finals (the ECHL’s championship) three times in their history. All three times have been since 2019. In all three series' they lost. The last two they lost in five games. Frankly, I’m tired of it. It’s painful to watch.
Yes, I know, woe is me. I’ve gotten to see my favorite ECHL team (my second favorite is the Fort Wayne Komets, which I know makes zero sense, but that’s for another article) make the Kelly Cup Finals three times in the last six years. Boo-hoo. Most teams would love to make even one appearance. Us Toledo fans, compared to most teams in the league since 2019, are Kings. Only, we’re not quite Kings because this team repeatedly fails to bring home the trophy. Instead, it always falls in the hands of a different team, mostly the Florida Everblades. For me, that’s what makes it more painful. Continually being so close and failing to make it. They’ve made the conference final or Kelly Cup Finals every year since 2019 (well, not in 2020, but they didn’t play that year). And yet, each year, it was for nothing. Every year, we Walleye fans get our hopes up, start dreaming of the Kelly Cup being lifted in Toledo (by the Walleye, not some opposing team winning it on our ice), and see the team come close, but fail. It feels like a sick comedy. One where our team is the butt of the joke. The reality though, is that we’re just numb at this point. We’re moving past the point of depression. It’s starting to just feel numb. Right now, the Walleye are wasting a generational talent in Brandon Hawkins, one of the greatest players the league has ever seen, and they can’t win a trophy with him. It’s not even embarrassing at this point. It’s just numbing. To be fair, a lot of this is because we’ve had practice. Look at the University of Toledo Rockets men’s basketball team. Or the football team. How about in pro sports? The average sports fan in Toledo, if they’re a fan of all four of the major sports are likely Cleveland or Detroit sports fans. If you were to poll the average Toledo resident, they’re likely a mix of both. (My guess is probably the majority are Browns, Cavs, Tigers, and Red Wings fans.) No matter what, though, you feel the pain of the opposite city of which you root for when you live in Toledo, simply because you know so many who root for the other city. I grew up a Detroit Lions fan but I felt the pain of Cleveland Browns fans simply because I knew so many. I was never the biggest baseball fan, but in the 2000s I felt the endless mediocrity of the Guardians because once again, I knew so many Guardians fans. So, when you’re used to endless mediocrity or straight-up sucking, or in the case of so many Toledo teams, get close to a championship and then fail to do so, you become apathetic. Or angry. Or delusional. In the case of Detroit Lions fans, we chose delusion. In the case of the Toledo Rockets, it’s been apathy. Now, the Walleye are quickly joining the club of the fans feel apathetic towards losing on the biggest stage. It’s starting to not hurt as much as it used to or should.
Once again, I know this is a problem that most teams and fanbases wish they had. I’m sitting on a mountain of gold crying that I don’t have more gold while the average person is begging just for a few pieces. That said, it’s still painful. I’m getting tired of it. Watching Toledo Walleye playoff hockey is quickly becoming more and more of a chore. It’d be one thing if they were eliminated early in the playoffs every year, then it likely wouldn’t feel like a chore. But, they continually make deep runs, their season not ending until the end of May or early June. That’s when it starts feeling like a chore, an annual chore that you quickly learn to despise. I know I make fun of the Carolina Hurricanes for their futility in the Eastern Conference Final, but frankly, my team is just a slightly richer version of them. To be honest, I mostly make fun of them to wipe away the pain of my own team that’s a little too similar. It’s exhausting emotionally and mentally to so consistently see the top of the mountain you’re climbing up and then stumble right before you reach it and fall off it completely, especially when none of your other teams are providing much if any relief from futility.
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