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
Nobody that has watched the game over the last 30 years could make that comment. How much defense was there in the 80s?
It’s like watching an NBA game
Except it's interesting. Doesn't have 472 timeouts per game. Doesn't penalize for touching. The last 30 seconds don't take 8 minutes. Doesn't make annoying squeaking noises. Doesn't assault you with ghetto culture and "music" at the arena. And, the players don't produce 8 bastard children each.
And don’t get me started on shootouts...
Nobody that pays $90 to see a game wants to go home with a tie.
Mandatory helmets are the root of the problem these days. Formerly, if you couldn't keep your stick under control and clipped another skater behind the ear, the gloves would drop, and then so would you.
Nowadays, the kids coming up aren't even coached to keep their sticks down...with the unfortunate and obvious result.
Not EVEN close, m'friend!
The loudest roar I ever heard that wasn’t provided by the United States Air Force was at Chicago Stadium. The game was tied late in the third period. The Maple Leafs got caught down ice and the Blackhawk’s Bobbie Hull came up with an errant puck and a clear lane along the boards. As he crossed mid ice, picking up speed, Eddie Shack sped across the rink, drew a bead on him and was about to nail him to the boards.
Hull stutter stepped and used a forearm to introduce Shack’s face to the boards. The crowd left it’s feet and the yells shook the rafters. The puck was sliding toward the blue line as Hull regained it, nudged it into position and took a full wind up. The crowd had not stopped yelling but the crack of the stick meeting the puck was clearly audible. For a moment Hull was frozen in the classic follow through, one skate on the ice, one leg trailing in the air, the stick high over the shoulder, while gliding toward the net.
I’m sure Terry Sawchuck, in goal, saw the puck leave the stick but after that it made little difference. When the puck drilled the net, the continuous roar that had started as a high pitched cheer when Hull came up with the puck in his own zone and intensified as he gained speed, peaked and deepened as he upended Shack had now reached a crescendo, a full throated blast, reverberating from every surface, and shaking every inch of the building. The floor was vibrating, I couldn’t hear the sound of my own voice yelling.
There must have been hundreds of gallons of beer spilled in those moments. The official attendance at the Stadium was always announced as 16,666 but with a couple rows of standing room fans all the way around the mezzanine, the first balcony and the second balcony and the fire marshal looking the other way, I’m sure there were closer to 21,000 people there and every one of them was on their feet, arms in the air, yelling as loud as they could and not one of them was thinking about pugilism on the ice.
“Yeah, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
NO. They should shoot pucks!
I think the real reason none of it will ever happen is the power Canada has over hockey. Do what you propose and Canadian unemployment will rise 14%... ;)
College Hockey is very much like European style. And, their Frozen Four is coming up in a few weeks. Typically, it's carried on ESPN2 (semis) and ESPN (finals).
Good luck finding College Hockey on any other time of the year...unless you're near a hockey school. I'm in the South....we've got 8 channels worth of cars driving in circles, but do they bother to put on any of the major College Hockey Games? Noooooooooo.....
Hey watch yourself. As a goalie I can tell you, we NEVER do anything illegal or untoward.
That is the official statement from the President of the Professional Beer League Hockey Players Assoc of America and Canada (PBLHPAAC)
NICE!!
There is a story about Eddie Shore when he was in his late 60s or early 70s. At an All Star event he beat up another player that was in his 30s at a dinner. Not a game but at dinner.
He was a tough bastard till the end.
You can easily pick one game out of a entire season.
There was a Bruins game the other night an no fights or cheap shots happened.
When was the last time that NHL players went into the stands to fight fans?
When did it happen in the NBA? Two seasons ago?
Not to keep beating a dead horse, but there's no (or not much) fighting in college hockey. Drop the gloves, and there's an automatic 1 game suspension.
The result? The game is faster and the hitting is much, much harder. I'd rather watch a guy get his bell rung with a good clean open ice hit, than two goons dance around with each other at the blue line.
This guy is a total pansy. Most of the time these guys don’t really hurt each other other than a few scratches or bruises, its done mostly for respect and to get the team motivated more than anything else.
Heh heh heh.
I played goal, too. Once I slashed a guy camping out in my crease so badly the ref made me serve my own penalty.
And how do goalies get into it with each other in the first place. Besides one of them usually being busy, isn't it tough to actually antagonize each other that far apart? I'll hang up and listen for my answers....
Oh yeah - if Hanrahan's wife is a dyke, does that make him a fag?
No way. Thats awesome.
Did they put a trash can in the net? Sometimes I feel that a trash can could play better than me on certain days.
Do you still play?
“Hit them with your purse?” Nah, if he did that, his strand of pearls might break.
Who was picking? I don't even set the channel on the TV in front of me at my gym. I'd say it's odds-on that there will be an NHL fight highlight tomorrow while I'm riding my bike for a half hour. As for the comparison with the NBA, I don't really want to be defending the NBA (which I consider to be a joke) but it is a little more difficult for hockey players to get to where the fans are than it is for the basketball players. Anyway, you know the issue isn't fights between fans and players. It's between the players themselves.
ML/NJ
!!!!!!!
This is how it went down: mid-'80s, Merrimack Valley Conference (high school) game going down to the wire; we were a goal up and the other team was pressing us big time, pinning us back in our own zone. I had one or two forwards parked in my crease for what seemed like hours, and this was back in the days where we goalies could give them rear knee chops to clear 'em out.
Less than a minute in the third; puck goes to the point, I come out appropriately, this a-hole practically backs into me, so I get down low to cover the angle, and with my waffle, I take the bastard down, Old School Style. He yard sales all over the ice, gets up, feels like taking me on, and the refs break us up.
I get the slash; since there's about 25 seconds left in the period, the zebra tells me I have to go to the box. I look at him, incredulous, and as I skate over to the box, my coach is pitching a fit. Big conference. They let my back-up come in, and me and one of my teammates go to the box.
Face off in our zone, we win it, and scotch the game.
So no, I didn't get to bust out of the box like Terry O., but now I've got my own little piece of MVC lore . . .
And how do goalies get into it with each other in the first place. Besides one of them usually being busy, isn't it tough to actually antagonize each other that far apart? I'll hang up and listen for my answers....
Honestly, that is something I have never understood. I always considered the other team's goalie as a brother-in-arms. How the hell could I get mad enough at another goalie to fight him? I've fought plenty of forwards/defensemen, though.
Oh yeah - if Hanrahan's wife is a dyke, does that make him a fag?
"I'm gonna open up my robe, and wiggle my d*ck . . ." Best sports movie ever.
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