(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."
For me it was closer to three decades ago. I used to attend about 35 games a year living a 100 or more miles from NYC. Now I normally wouldn't walk across the street to see a game for free. The fighting was one thing. But I also realized that I cared more about the games than the players did, which is just stupid. (Watching Brad Park trip over the red line, or Vic Hadfield grinning in the penalty box as the Rangers were losing the Stanley Cup final game was a sort of message to me. There's no one grinning as they're getting booted out of the NCAA tourney.)
ML/NJ
This was written by a guy with the honest to God first name of Jonathan. Enough said.
What a nancy-boy!
What do you do when somebody cross-checks your frilly ass?
Hit them with your purse?
(Comment directed at author, not poster)
The "removing an opponents spleen with their hockey sticks" comment has a ring of truth to it. Take out the fighting altogether, and I think you will see more stick work as players use whatever is at their disposal to try to gain an advantage. It's an aggressive game, and if guys feel the need to drop the gloves and get it out of their systems, so be it.
If I want to watch a bunch of players pussy-footing around a large playing surface, I'll find a soccer game.
I;m one up I hate all hockey.
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.
Hockey is all about ‘puttin on the foil’
I never played hockey as a kid and only watched pro hockey occasionally growing up (hard to avoid in Minnesota).
My 10 year old son plays and I’m starting to realize how much I missed.
He just finished playing at the squirt level this last season. He just started playing at the peewee level for Spring hockey. Spring hockey includes kids from a range of ages and he is on the younger and smaller end of the range. His first game with checking allowed was last night. He was knocked on his butt 6 times and took a jab into the side of the neck from the knob end of a defenseman’s stick. But he managed to get a couple hits in of his own and put in a power play goal. The game ended in a 2 - 2 tie.
All he could talk about at the end was the checks he delivered. Not the goal. He said only one of the checks he took hurt and he looked psyched to get back to it.