Hockey barbaric?

[Rissask]

Originally Posted by PlayaGroom

I did know that it was your national summer sport. And yes it is very rough. Some of the stickwork with the long poles make Simon's slash look like my grandma swatting a fly (although they do have facemasks on, slight difference)

This is a really funny video example of one of our TV show host/comedians when he went out to play with the Toronto Rock. (Sorry I can't link right to the video, just go to that page, scroll down to Jan 30th videos and click on the second one from the top, called 'Rick scrimmages with the Toronto Rock'...it's pretty funny...check out their fans too, they are nuts!

[krazy4playa]

I was not aware, for instance, that there was such masive participation in Texas.

They stole our team a few years back. Personally, I don't understand the game. Looks like boxing on ice. Reminds me of roller derby.

[PlayaGroom]

Originally Posted by krazy4playa

I was not aware, for instance, that there was such masive participation in Texas.

They stole our team a few years back. Personally, I don't understand the game. Looks like boxing on ice. Reminds me of roller derby.

Yes, the fighting is, in fact, very similar to boxing on ice. Hence the title of this thread.

Most people don't realize that most NHL games (in today's game anyway) go fightless and actually have 60 minutes of playing time that includes skating, passing, shooting and good clean body-checking.

Players in all levels (as we call them, goons) that do the fighting in hockey actually do follow "the code." A local author wrote a whole book on it. I recommend it to anyone that is at all interested. It provides a lot of insight as to why fights do happen, and why they are "allowed" to happen in the first place. To give you a very very brief hint to the point of the book, fighting continues to be allowed to keep a leash on animals like Brashear, Simon and Bertuzzi. All actions have reactions, and these actions are very well known to every hockey player. When Simon returns to play next year (if he does), he will never again feel comfortable skating with his head down across center ice...

[DavidB]

If you want to see boxing on ice you need to see the tapes of the Red Wings vs. Col. gaves a few years back, where even the goalies started fighting.

[PlayaGroom]

Originally Posted by DavidB

If you want to see boxing on ice you need to see the tapes of the Red Wings vs. Col. gaves a few years back, where even the goalies started fighting.

No need for tapes, just search for "goalie fights".

It just happended again with the Sabres and Senators on Feb 22. Goalies met at center ice. It was almost comical. One goalie was laughing like he was enjoying being in a fight.

Though I agree with you, nothing will compare to said goalie fight between Roy and Osgood.

[B Kromm]

Originally Posted by traci

Nothing like seeing your kid get slammed against the boards, get right up, shake his head a bit, and skate as fast as he can to give back as good or better than he just got!!

The first year that Brandon played, a buddy of mine took the S.O and I to a Flames game. Awesome seats in the corner, second row. Iggy came around behind the net and was verrrrry agressively rubbed out right in our laps! Kath turned to me and said "are you sure you want our sons playing this game?" She cheers louder than I do most games! Well almost

Yup, it gets really exciting at this age. Brandon has been playing since he was 6. Now 13 and loving it. They don't allow full contact here until they are 12. Even She Who Must Be Obeyed really enjoys watching Brandons games. We're getting to the end of playoffs here and it's really been a rush. B is on our Associtions' div 2 team and there is a mix of 1 and 2 Community teams in this Div (no AAA teams for Pee Wees in Calgary 'cept for summer hockey)

There was only a 5 point spread between top and bottom in a 10 team division. So far our Renegades (finished #9) have knocked the #8, 1 and 7 teams to the "B" side of the double knock-out (not to be seen again )and tomorrow we play #5 to go to the final against #3 (who beat us baaaad last night) Gonna be a rockin' game.

The little Brother just finished his 3rd tournament last weekend and ended up playing 42 games on the season (20 reg season, 16 Tourny and a raft of Exhibition) Not bad for a team of 7 and 8 y.o.

This year , Brandon will play roller for the first time. There's a couple of guys from his ice team signing up and their gonna get on a team together. They are really pumped. Now I have to INVEST in another set of gear. Got the skates now it's time for the other "stuff" 'Course as I understand it the major factor in roller pants is the COOL factor. I'm thinkin that I'm gonna end up spending some time on E-bay!

Hey, where's BTODD in this? She's the hockey / ringette Mom

[ryberg]

Well I like soccer, but more or less no way is soccer more exciting than hockey! Soccer highlights, maybe, but not soccer, the whole thing. Not for my money. Guys flying around this way and that doing acrobatic stuff with sticks and this tiny thing while on ice has got soccer action beat, man. Hockey is of the speed and action level of basketball; soccer is of the speed and action level of... well it's higher than baseball, but it's got that lazy sort of approach to it that baseball has. It might be the same in this aspect as American football, if you averaged all the time the game is stopped with the time the ball is actually in play to come up with a composite of those two extremes. I can't believe people would find soccer more exciting or active than ice hockey, frankly.

Of course they might LIKE soccer more than ice hockey, but that's a different story. And personally I like ice hockey better when (1) it's played on the bigger ice, and (2) there's more playing and less fighting, which two seem to go hand in hand. So for example hockey during the Olympics is great to watch. Hockey when I was in college in the 80s was great to watch. Pro hockey, however (at least in the U.S.) was not then so great to watch, imo, though it may be much better now (don't know -- never watch it!).

One particular thing I like much better in hockey than in soccer is the whole offsides situation. You basically know in hockey if somebody's offsides or not a whole lot easier -- more clearly -- than you do in soccer. And thus you also don't get so many disputes about the calls made on such an important thing.

However it would seem pretty clear, even though I think there are bigger and deeper hockey followings in many U.S. cities in terms of it being a spectator sport, that soccer has a bigger base in its future as a sport in which people actually participate. Not sure how well soccer will ever succeed as a spectator sport in the U.S., however...

Steve