In the long run-

Hockey doesn't matter.

Sure, the Buffalo Sabres won a game tonight, and so did the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

But what of it?

You may have come here for hockey, but that's just it. hockey is awesome, but let's be honest- there's other shit going on.

Earlier today, I went to the Museum of Modern Art, which has free admission on Fridays, and I saw the exhibit on Edward Munch, which dealt with the evolution of the human soul. For those of you who are not familar with Munch, he is most famous for his painting The Scream(now stolen), a work designed to show how dehumanizing the utter horror of the universe can be, an sensation well known by Buffalo sports fans.

Munch, widely considered one of the best Norwegian artists of all time, felt that the modern life of the soul went though many stages- "birth, innocence, love, sexual passion, melancholy, anger, jealousy, despair, anxiety, illness, and death."

I guess what I'm trying to say to you here is that art can do a great many things.

For me, a hockey fan, it brought up the memory of Espen Knutsen, widely considered one of the best Norwegian ice hockey players of all time, but more popularly known as the guy whose deflected shot hit 13-year old Brittanie Cecil, an injury that ultimately resulted in her death.

He retired "due to injury" in 2005.

Don't tell me that guy's soul hasn't gone through the motions.

Yeesh.

Maybe I should stick to wisecracks.

Fucking Norwegians, man.

Fucking Norwegians.