I played a lot of hockey when I was young. It was the only time I ever got in fights. It is hard to explain ,but when you have a breakaway and someone hooks you face first on the ice ,you come up swinging. I quit because I hated that and strangely could not control it. The fights are not staged. They are a part of the game.
Fighting was abused a few years ago in the NHL. Philly put a bunch of goons on the ice to intimidate and beat the opposition off their game. Some fans loved it. I hated it.
Okay…let’s see if I got this right:
[ol]
[li]An uncaring and incompetent corporate ownership group that treats the team like a real-estate holding;[/li][li]A history of expensive, poorly-conceived and unsuccessful free-agent signings;[/li][li]Representing a large metropolitan area that is held in contempt by much of the country;[/li][li]Decades having passed since their last title;[/li][li]Reorganization, yet again, with the promise, “This time, we’ll get it right!”;[/li][li]Widespread media coverage despite having a chronic case of The Sucks;[/li][li]Blatatantly interfering with another team’s desire to relocate to “their” turf;[/li][li]A knowledgeable, loyal, and long-suffering fan base on the brink of mutiny.[/li][/ol]
So- the Toronto Maple Leafs are the New York Knicks of the NHL. A fair comparison?
Also: a very rich, losing team that still charges 40$ for the few nosebleed seats, and anywhere up to 250$ for a decent seat. Assuming you can get tickets without already having season seats, which is a lot harder than it sounds. A lot of fans will never get to see a Leafs game, because taking the kids and sitting somewhere they can actually see the action will cost you upwards of 300$.
(I’d love to get my husband tickets for a game when the Habs are in town, but yeesh!)
I absolutely disagree with this. The fights that begin on a face off are agreed to happen and are staged. They maybe actually hitting each other but the fight is not from hostility, anger, agitation or for any real reason. It serves no real purpose in the game.
It brings the sport down.
Apocrypha states that Georges Laraque (apparently the ‘toughest guy in the NHL’) was standing at the red line waiting for the puck drop, and his helmet mic picked up Georges turning to the opposing winger and saying “You wanna?”. Both men dropped their gloves and went at it, no further verbiage. Not quite planned, but certainly not in the heat of the moment.
Some may be. Sometimes it is to make up for a transgression in an earlier game. Teams have enforcers because a goon could just beat the hell out of the skill players if they were not defended. A small fast skillful skater could be neutralized by an aggressive player who just beat him up at every turn. It may be ugly but that is part of the game.
Yes, this was against the Kings (my team) and I saw this live.
BTW, I am not opposed to fighting, but it should be in-line with what is happening in the game.
Nice. Thanks for digging up that link. I had only had the occasion described to me.
one correction, I saw it live on TV, I can’t afford to go to the games 
OK, I think I get the fighting thing. In the Flyers-Penguins game I was watching Tuesday, Riley Cote and Eric Godard started going at it while lined up for a face-off at about 5 minutes of the 1st period. It certainly wasn’t a “heat of the moment” thing, so I assumed one of them complimented the other on his sister’s sexual prowess.
I remember seeing a game not too long ago where somebody (forget who- someguy from the Bruins, maybe) skated up to Donald Brashear in a seemingly menacing manner. Anyways, Brashear throws one punch and drops the guy like a bad habit.
I have to admit, I kind of like the fighting in hockey, to a degree. A couple of guys in a friendly brawl after a couple of checks is fun to watch, and, I assume, to participate in. Violence à la Todd Bertuzzi is another story altogether: completely unacceptable, and it’s sad that some players can’t grok the difference.
I’m not a big sports fan, but I’ve had a warm spot in my heart for the Montreal Canadiens for the last couple years.
To be fair, as bad as John Ferguson Jr. was…he’s no Isiah Thomas. So we’ve got that on our side.
No surprise that I might stumble in here, right?
I agree 100% with all of the Leaf comments. However, having followed the team for 40 years it seems impossible to abandon them now.
The Ballard years (70s - 80s) were terrible, but the 1990s brought respectability again: semi-finals in 1993, 1994 and again in 1999. You could hardly call that a dysfunctional team. The 90s were good.
Before the new collective bargaining agreement the direction of the team was to spend money on veterans and free agents in an attempt to buy a Stanley Cup. It didn’t work, and since the new CBA (and salary cap) they’ve been scrambling to find a way out of the mess they found themselves in. It looks like they’ve finally capitulated and resigned themselves to the fact that they need to get worse in order to get better, therefore the recent dismantling of the team and the signing of young players. Not to mention some attention, finally, to draft picks.
By the way The Leafs are blacked out up here in the Ottawa area. Only nationally broadcast games are available. I can’t even subscribe to Leafs TV even if I paid for it. It’s a league decision to keep teams out of other teams’ markets and has nothing to do with Leaf arrogance in Southwestern Ontario.
Yeah, so… anyway… You’ve got a team that sells out every night, owned primarily by the Ontario Teachers’ Union. They don’t appear to have winning as the primary goal, rather return on the dollar.
I need a beer now…
Re: the two-line pass - I’m all in favor so far. I think the old defense–>pass–>pass–>offence led to the clogging of the middle of the ice. Defense–>Pass–>Offence has a lot of potential to enhance the flow of the game, but the potential hasn’t been realized yet.
Teams I root for:
1- Penguins
2- Flames
3- Habs
4- Nordiques (What?)
Teams I Respect but Do not Root For:
1- Red Wings
2- Hurricanes
Team I wish would slide under a gas truck and taste their own blood:
1- Flyers
As far as radio announcers, I have to go with my hometown pick, Mike Lange for the Penguins. Hockey Hall of Famer and with good reason. Get past the sometimes-strange goal calls, and he has great depth of knowledge and brings an exciting presence to the game.
Hockey has the best shirts in sports. Wings, Canadians, Blackhawks and even Leafs.
I live in the Raleigh area and am a huge (read HUUUUGE) Hurricanes fan. Before they came though, I pulled for the Flyers. I have a great deal of respect not for certain teams, but certain other players. I love Marty Brodeur, Marty Turco, Roberto Luongo, Chris Osgood, Rick DiPietro, Christobal Huet…anyone sensing a pattern here? Anyway, other than goalies I still follow players who have been traded that used to play for the Canes.
All the original six teams had great jerseys. The NHL has had some of the nicest uniforms, and some of the worst.
WTF? Who the hell thought THAT was a good idea?!?!
I very rarely watch hockey, but I’ve found since moving to Montreal, I don’t seem to have a choice but to know what’s going on with the Habs, because otherwise there are a lot of conversations where I’d just have to sit silently by and wait. I did get into it a little more during the playoffs last year - I just am not interested in following a whole season.
I do appear to be an NFL newbie fan though… I love doing homework with a football game on in the background!
Nobody could be as bad as Isaih Thomas. That’s a mean comparison to even suggest.
Thomas is a human tornado, leaving wreckage in his wake wherever he goes.
Canadiens. Note the e. It is spelled in the French even when writing in English.