Game of Thrones came to an end, and the Montreal Canadiens can take an important lesson from it given the emotion behind the final season.
It’s not the first time someone has taken popular culture and applied it to the NHL, and I doubt it will be the last. However, this will go beyond the typical ‘match a television character to an NHL player’ post, as funny as those usually are. After a nine-year run with eight seasons and 73 episodes, Game of Thrones has come to an end and there is a lot to take from its experience. Of course, there are a multitude of positive angles, but for the Montreal Canadiens, there is one thing they must focus on when it comes to Game of Thrones.
(In case you are a fan and haven’t caught up, spoiler warning ahead here)
Game of Thrones is adapted from Geroge R.R. Martin’s book series called A Song of Ice and Fire. When the show debuted in 2011, it took the world by storm. People everywhere would wait in agony for the next episode and get into groups to take in the craziness from each viewing.
No plot point could be predicted, no stone left untouched, and no main character was safe. Whether they were a moral-filled hero or a budding villain, Game of Thrones had no qualms in taking out a group of crowd pleasures in the most emotionally heart-gripping ways.
But it wasn’t only the characters that kept eyes glued to the television screen. The story, the politics between the families for rulership over the country, the countless number of prophecies, the looming threat of the undead which could’ve destroyed man, all of this was Game of Thrones.
You’d expect a show like this to have an overwhelmingly positive send off and for the writers of the show to be unconditionally praised. For some, maybe, but for the masses of fans, it’s the complete opposite.
What should the Montreal Canadiens learn from Game of Thrones? It’s a lesson that we see take place in professional sports at least once every year: it’s not about how you start, but how you finish.