Posted on 03/25/2008 6:27:58 PM PDT by canuck_conservative
Whenever the subject of hockey comes up, I'm the pansy who prattles on about how much he likes the European game — the big rinks, the passing, the fast players, and — most importantly, a lack of fighting. The fighting in North American hockey is one of the main reasons I stopped paying any attention to the sport a decade ago. What kind of legitimate sport has "enforcers" — whose mission is to engage other "enforcers" in the sort of activity that would get regular people arrested if they did it outside of a bar? I guess the closest analogy is rollerball — which is more or less the way many Americans view hockey.
Of course, every once in a while, someone "crosses the line" and does something particularly sociopathic — as goalie Jonathan Roy did by beating up his opposite number in a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League hockey playoff game Saturday night. And for a few days, we all pontificate over the incident, and tut-tut about how the player in question did not respect the "unwritten rules" governing ritualized combat on the ice.
But the real problem isn't idiots like Roy. It is that the hockey world has created a bizarre culture in which the idea of taking off your gauntlets and getting into fistfights with your opponent is considered a "normal" part of the game. So long as this convention persists, there will be fights, and some people will get carried away and do especially stupid things. Is it too much to ask that — in a society where violence is seen as a pathology in virtually every other context — maybe we should reexamine the century-old boys-will-be-boys idea that hockey games should be periodically stopped so that certain designated players can engage in medieval combat for the benefit of drunken fans?
jkay@nationalpost.com
(1) "You neglected to mention the artistry and surgical skill European hockey players demonstrate by removing an opponents spleen with their hockey sticks."
(2) "As compared to the neanderthalic tendencies of North American players clubbing each others vacuous craniums."
"I was watching a street fight one time when a hockey game broke out."
Hockey should just merge with MMA and be done with it.
Shouldn’t this be posted on a Sports Illustrated site?
I love when dopes write stuff like this. There is more fighting basketball than in hockey now.
Go back to your chardoney and your brie and let the big boys play.
(I am not saying that to you, I am saying it to the author of this piece of trash)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSOb_D1KZXA
We need to bring back old time hockey. Toe Blake, Eddie Shore.
I think that Cam Neely would have something to say about the clean crisp passing of Ulf Samuelson.
First of all the amount of fighting in US hockey has decreased. Second its fun to watch a fight now and then.
I think its great and it sure beats teaching our boys to be pansies.
“What kind of legitimate sport has “enforcers” — whose mission is to engage other “enforcers” in the sort of activity that would get regular people arrested if they did it outside of a bar?”
I agree about the enforcers. It’s too bad they have to have them. The fact remains however that watching Zetterberg and Datsyuk work together is like watching poetry in motion and I believe you are missing a good game if you cannot stomach a few rumbles. What I hate is when the enforcers target the skill players and try to take them out.
The Wings had to sign guys who could protect them.
Yup
There is more fighting basketball than in hockey now
LOL! Good one. Maybe tennis is more violent too? Or ice skating? Bull riding for sure!
Oooh...dang...he was a dirty player. Damn near killed Irvine Bailey with a cross check from behind.
maybe we should reexamine the century-old boys-will-be-boys idea that hockey games should be periodically stopped so that certain designated players can engage in medieval combat for the benefit of drunken fans?
Why stop there, just drag two drunken fans to middle ice give them sticks and let the dogs of hockey free.
“What kind of legitimate sport has “enforcers” — whose mission is to engage other “enforcers”
It’s a dimension used for psy ops . But you knew that . If you want to make some negative observations on or about the game we can start with the goaltending rules .
Well, they must show up drunk, if they really are. At $8.00 apiece, nobody's getting ripped on Arena beer.
I speak from experience.
Politics comes to mind.
“No touch” icing is for pansies.
Stephen Harper: “Politics is the bloodiest of sports.”
But the real problem isn’t idiots like Roy. It is that the hockey world has created a bizarre culture in which the idea of taking off your gauntlets and getting into fistfights with your opponent is considered a “normal” part of the game.
Capitalism bootcamp has taught me that the market was ready to be tapped into . In other words if the fans want to celebrate this sort of thing , the better question to ask is “ What kind of social order do we have when the public accepts it “ ?
Voyerism is as old as gladiator school and Canada as a whole did not market the product well enough to keep it as a product of Canada .
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