Ice Hockey- the greatest Canadian Curse ?

[Freedom]

The past few years that I've lived in Canada, I've tried hard to "like" hockey. I am a huge sports fan. Even the boring baseball grabs my attraction during the world series but never hockey. I am just baffled by Canadian infactuation with this sport. I feel that one can adapt to a liking of any new sport, but the passion of hockey in Canada is probably something that people have to be born with, to wholly appreciate.

What is the thrill in 10 individuals sliding up and down a horizontal slope, chasing after a flattened mad-cow burger look alike ? And worst of all to a newcomer like me, could the tv broadcasters please circle in the puck in motion like they do with the first down lines in the NFL because I simply can't see it with my 20/20 vision ! I've seen the wierd ways of the sport. One can get kudos for big hits, yet if its from a wrong angle, like poor MR burtuzzi, then you've gotta plea bargain. Makes me appreciate that other great canadian sport, Curling. Neither the rocks nor the Walmart brooms would dare get you in a courthouse, no matter how much you scream on the runaway !

And then there's the strike and as CBC likes to call it "THE COLD WAR". There are hours and hours of analyzing individual players, their reactions, even past great hockey games are put on. How crazy can Canadian hockey fans get ?

Now here's what really bugs me. In the midst of all the NHL drama, the Canadian Juniors win the world championship, so now the broadcasters proclaim that Canada owns hockey championship in the men's, womens etc etc ie. in every hockey category. TRUE, but let's get real here. Does any other country really play hockey ? yeah finland shows up, as does russia and the swedes, czechs etc, but for them this is a winter activity always second to soccer. And the Americans ? I am one, and this is what I observed- in southern california, there are 2 hockey teams, and i have yet to spot a public ice rink. There might be, but you get the point.

This is a Canada only passion. No other country deserves championships in hockey. What is it about hockey that drives people in Canada nuts ?

please tell me

[Anti-Rightwing]

Your national pastime is baseball, ours is hockey. As you say you get interested in baseball when its in the world series. Im not a die hard fan anymore but I still get interested when my team plays.

Its a game that many canadians were brought up playing, and were just naturally raised to love it.

Your reference of not being able to see the puck is amusing as, last time i watched...(was a while ago thanks to American greed)... the camera followed the puck for the most part. Also, as you say the puck is black, with usually some colourful design on it, depending on where you are, and it is moving on a white backround. I really do not see how hard it is to see it under those circumstances. Also, that idea, or one similar to it was tried in the past in America but was eventually thrown out because it was pointless.

[theloniusfleabag]

I always found it funny that baseball (and I believe basketball) in the US call the league winners 'World Champions' when there is no other countries (save a couple teams from Canada) that are allowed to compete. Reminds me of when I was a kid, playing for the championship of the known universe, in my driveway.

[kimmy]

Curse?

You don't need to have 20/20 eyesight to follow the puck. You just have to understand the game a little.

If a guy is skating with the blade of his stick on the ice, he's most likely got the puck. If a guy is skating with his stick off the ice, he hasn't got the puck. If everybody's attention is focused on one guy, he's got the puck. If players are converging on one spot, that's probably where the puck is.

You don't have to see the puck itself to know where it is, you can tell who has the puck or where it's located just by what the players are doing.

Ok, say you're watching a football game, and the quarterback does a fake hand-off, and half the defence is fooled and goes after the runningback even when he hasn't got the ball. Why did they get suckered in? Not because they see him with the ball, but because they see action that makes them think he's got the ball. He rolls out instead of staying back to make a block, right? Same principle applies in hockey. Look for the player who is acting like he's got the puck. He does have the puck; in hockey there's no faked hand-off.

Hockey is a fast game with lots of physical contact, lots of skill and artistry, and few stops in the action compared to football or baseball. Trying to explain why one likes a certain sport is like trying to explain why one likes a certain type of music. You can try to put it into words, but somebody will either like it or not like it and trying to explain it to them won't change their view.

Canada is hardly the only hockey nation; Russia is very competitive with Canada, as is the United States, and other nations such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden are also strong. Nations like Germany and Switzerland are attempting to catch up as well. Could I ask why the United States calls its professional league baseball championship "the World Series", when teams from Cuba and Japan aren't invited to challenge for it?

The Todd Bertuzzi incident is hardly typical of hockey as a whole, and only people who don't follow the sport closely assume otherwise. Why is violence in hockey a concern when violence in other sports gets barely a mention? In baseball, the pitcher will often deliberately throw at a player. In baseball, bench-clearing brawls are common, but they're laughed off-- "boys will be boys", or what have you. Where as in hockey, a fight is seen as evidence of the "thuggery inherent in the game" or similar hyperbole. I don't understand the reason for the double standard. Hockey, like football, is a contact sport, with well defined rules as to what is and isn't acceptible. In football you can tackle someone as hard as you want, but you're not allowed to ram the crown of your helmet into them or strike at their head. In hockey, you're not allowed to check someone from behind, or raise your elbows or leave your feet when making a check, or use your stick as a weapon. Of course there are rules about what is and isn't allowed. How could there not be? I don't see your point in questioning that.

And, of course hockey sounds silly when you describe it in terms of what they're actually doing. Guys on metal blades moving around on a sheet of ice, trying to hit a piece of rubber with a flat-ended pole. That sounds pretty silly. What's baseball? 10 guys on a field, one armed with a club. The 9 men without clubs have leather bags on one hand, and they have a leather-wrapped ball of string and throw it at the man with the club repeatedly. The man with the club is trying to hit the ball of string with the club. If he hits the ball of string and makes it move, he runs towards a bag full of sawdust guarded by one of the 9 guys without clubs. The other 8 guys try to get the ball of string the guy with the sawdust bag before the man with the club gets there. If the man with the club makes it there before the ball of string, he gets to stay with the other man he just went to visit at a spot marked by a bag full of sawdust. Then they throw the ball of string to another of the 9 men who don't have clubs; another man with a club emerges; they throw the ball of string at him as well; he tries to emulate the first man with the club; the first man with the club will try to move to another bag of sawdust, which is also guarded by a man with a leather bag on his hand. The men with the club ultimately want to get back to the exact spot they started from, at which point they are allowed to go sit down.

-kimmy

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear kimmy,

I have heard baseball described as 'the only game where you can play your position and still catch the occasional nap'.

Mind you, I have seen a t-shirt that read; "Hockey: 5 guys in stockings and garters, looking to score".

[Freedom]

I completely agree that its purely foolish for the baseball championship to be called the "world series". much of the world doesn't care about boring baseball. Certainly, after getting rattled recently, US Basketball cannot claim the NBA champions to be world champions.

However, it's important to note that the fastest growing sports in the US (and very silently) is soccer. US lost narrowly to germany in the last world cup semifinal in a game that they dominated. Its the most played global sport and the US is already knocking on the door for championships, something the sports world is extremely bitter about.

Sports is going through an evolution in the US.

Me not being able to see the puck- i don't think it has much to do with vision, but understanding the game, something i won't have because of lack of interest.

nice responses guys

[Freedom]

Curse?

In baseball, bench-clearing brawls are common, but they're laughed off-- "boys will be boys", or what have you. Where as in hockey, a fight is seen as evidence of the "thuggery inherent in the game" or similar hyperbole. I don't understand the reason for the double standard.

i never see hockey fights as fair. it seems that the guy who is better able to balance and ballet dance during the jersey grabbing wins. 1 handed fights are not real fights, maybe that's why its called thuggery.

i'm glad they have baseball fights, that would be the only exciting thing about that sport for me.

[I miss Reagan]

The World Series in baseball is named such because it was named after a newspaper in NYC called the New York World, not because it was supposed to be a world championship. Originally it was called the "World's Series".

[PocketRocket]

And, of course hockey sounds silly when you describe it in terms of what they're actually doing. Guys on metal blades moving around on a sheet of ice, trying to hit a piece of rubber with a flat-ended pole. That sounds pretty silly. What's baseball? 10 guys on a field, one armed with a club........

Very nice, Kimmy. I like it.

Lets try football (with apologies to Robert A Heinlein, I wish I could find his exact quote...):

Two gangs of men, each attempting to move an eliptical, inflated bladder from one end of a field to the other, against the opposition of the other gang. Both gangs are dressed in protective body armor, which does little to actually protect them. Whosoever attempts to carry said eliptical bladder, is the target for various indignities, and sometimes downright violent attack, from defending members of the opposite gang.

Humour (or attempts at it) aside, I think one of the problems with body-contact sports is this; back in the old days, when a quarterback got sacked, the guy who sacked him would simply get up and walk away.

Now a sack is cause for celebration. In addition, these guys seem to think that maximum force is required at all times. The harder the hit, the bigger the celebration.

This is leading to increased number of injuries in football.

Likewise in hockey, it used to be that a bodycheck was delivered with enough force to knock the opponent off his feet, or even just cause him to lose control of the puck.

Nowadays, it seems like every hit is an attampt to put your opponent through the boards.

In extreme cases, players are instructed to put a particularly talented member of the opposing team "out of the game". This is not sportsmanship, nor is it sport.

It is thuggery, pure and simple.

When your aim is to injure an opponent so he cannot continue playing, that is where sportsmanship ends.