Superstition

I've never been a superstitious person -- I never had any particular clothes or actions that I was convinced would bring me good luck.

Still, when your favorite team (in my case, Cornell hockey) is in a slide, it's fun (and distracting from the real problems) to look at some potential scapegoats.

1. The early fan gets the win.

The team loses if I don't get to the rink for the start of warmups. If you've ever gone to a hockey game with me, you'll know that I make sure to get there at least 40 minutes before the game to watch warmups. I've arrived that early to 18 games this season (team is 14-1-3). The ones to which I arrived late (team is 0-4-1):

-@St. Lawrence. Stopped to get food with a friend and missed the start of warmups. Loss, 8-1.
-@Clarkson. Took longer to get there than I anticipated. Tie, 0-0.
-vs. Princeton. Game was delayed due to Princeton's bus breaking down, so I was next door in Bartels watching the women's basketball game. When warmups started, I was still walking over. Loss, 2-1.
-@Dartmouth. Ate dinner before the game with some other fans, missed the first 10 minutes of warmups. Loss, 5-4.
-@Harvard. Got lost on the way to the rink and drove in circles around Cambridge for 20 minutes. Loss, 4-2.

Clearly I shouldn't let myself get to the rink "late."

2. It's all her fault.

I took my friend Kelly to the January 23 game vs. Yale. Before then, Cornell was 13-1-3. Since then? 2-5-1.

3. It's the pep band's fault.

Last year, a few of us noticed that Cornell seemed to lose every game during which the pep band played "Paradise City." I haven't followed this trend too closely this season, but on Friday, the pep band played "Paradise City" during the second intermission and Cornell lost in overtime.

Of course, there are legitimate, non-magical reasons why the team has hit a rough stretch. It's not as much fun to talk about those, though.