Not everything is supposed to be new. Remakes of old classic songs, reunions of television shows that ended decades ago, rebooting old movie franchises for some damn reason — we like looking at the past and getting all mushy-hearted thinking about what time was like back then.
Well during the Philadelphia Flyers’ prospect showcase game against the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon, we got a look back into what covering hockey on social media would have been like in 2004.
Wade Allison drops the gloves. #Flyers pic.twitter.com/oBPEKLvXJY
— Sam Carchidi (@BroadStBull) September 18, 2021
Yes, young forward Wade Allison did drop the gloves, but we could all collectively barely see it past the inch-thick vaseline on the lens and handful of pixels that Flyers beatwriter Sam Carchidi’s cellphone would allow. Making us feel that we have been sent in a time machine where Follow Fridays were a thing, you could send a tweet via text, and retweets had to be done manually.
Of course Carchidi is no newcomer to online mishaps and mistakes, but unlike the infamous TSN incident, this is purely doing his job and he for sure thought he would get in on the trend of getting close-up footage of games between rookies.
Somehow, this video instantly seeps into the direct center and deepest part of my heart, the nostalgic vein that controls every emotion I have connected to this sport and just seeing two guys go at it covered in the raw digital goop resolution is like a classical piece of mid-18th century opera. The zoom-in about four seconds into it, the finger (thumb?) that swipes across the lens amidst other barely-legible obstacles — all that was missing was Sam turning the phone around and just peering down, trying to figure out how to stop recording.
Yes, there’s a much more clear video of the fight available, but that’s not fun. This is the new trend. Search your local pawn shop or thrift store for 15-year-old cellphones and start recording the shit out of hockey games. The only thing I want to watch are games through this stylized medium. Thank you Big Sam.
