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This is why I hate North American hockey
National Post [Canada] ^ | Tuesday, March 25, 2008 | Jonathan Kay

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: enforcers; fighting; hockey; nhl; pansies
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To: Tribune7

Derick Sanderson and Bobby Orr ... unstoppable dynamic duo.


21 posted on 03/25/2008 7:04:38 PM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: Holicheese; All

Hockey is just like basketball, except that men play hockey.


22 posted on 03/25/2008 7:06:42 PM PDT by wbill
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To: canuck_conservative
the European game — the big rinks

The end zones on N.A. rinks are deeper than European rinks and thus negate the width difference.

While on-ice fighting has been severely curtailed with appropriate penalties handed out, it is still a necessary part of the game.

Anyone who cringes at the thought of the dropping of the gloves should switch their attention to figure skating.........

23 posted on 03/25/2008 7:06:55 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Congress needs to investigate the increasing disappearance of socks from washers)
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To: canuck_conservative

The sport has already been ruined by the ridiculous interference rules. There is no real defense played anymore. It’s like watching an NBA game. And don’t get me started on shootouts...


24 posted on 03/25/2008 7:07:20 PM PDT by Tallguy (Tagline is offline till something better comes along...)
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To: canuck_conservative
A few years back, I took sound-level measurements at a game. Fighting evoked a lot louder cheering than any great plays or goals.
25 posted on 03/25/2008 7:07:38 PM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: wbill

“Hockey is just like basketball, except that men play hockey.”

bravo bravo


26 posted on 03/25/2008 7:09:55 PM PDT by driftdiver
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To: canuck_conservative

I just luv Center Ice in HD on DTV; money well spent. I also have a brother-in-law who has never been to a game, yet hates hockey over something he doesn’t even get or understand.


27 posted on 03/25/2008 7:10:51 PM PDT by Eska
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To: canuck_conservative
I agree with the author on this one. The worst aspect of fighting in North American hockey these days is that for the most part it has become so completely staged that it's really no different than professional wrestling.

I'd prefer to watch an Olympic gold medal round game than a Stanley Cup finals any day.

28 posted on 03/25/2008 7:12:32 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
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To: canuck_conservative

Ok, you write that you are a pansy (I was thinking of another word beginning with P).

Note that I have just dropped my gloves and given you the look. You are undoubtly turtling as I write.

;-)


29 posted on 03/25/2008 7:15:18 PM PDT by School of Rational Thought (Truthism Watch)
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To: canuck_conservative
The fighting in North American hockey is one of the main reasons I stopped paying any attention to the sport a decade ago.

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

30 posted on 03/25/2008 7:18:31 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: Hot Tabasco
An NHL rink is 200 feet long and 85 feet wide, with goal lines 11 feet from the end boards.

The international ice is 200 feet long and 98 feet wide. Goal lines are 13 feet from the end boards.

On an NHL rink, the blue line is 64 feet from the goal line and the two blue lines are 50 feet apart. In international hockey, the blue line is 58 feet from the goal line and the two blue lines are 58 feet apart. The Olympic game is much more wide-open -- not just because of the wider rink but because of the larger neutral zone.

31 posted on 03/25/2008 7:25:03 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
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To: driftdiver
I think its great and it sure beats teaching our boys to be pansies.

It's great that our boys will associate masculinity with cheating. They'll learn that if someone else is better than them at something then violence is perfectly acceptable.

32 posted on 03/25/2008 7:25:11 PM PDT by agere_contra
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To: Holicheese
I love when dopes write stuff like this. There is more fighting basketball than in hockey now.

Really?

I don't watch anymore, except maybe when they get to the Stanley Cup semis. But I do see highlights at my gym in the morning and it seems they're always showing fights. Some guys in the locker room were talking about a Devils game they went to last week where the fights broke out during the warmups. I don't watch the NBA, but I probably see 50 NCAA BB games a year and I cannot recall ever seeing a fight.

ML/NJ

33 posted on 03/25/2008 7:25:36 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: agere_contra
It's great that our boys will associate masculinity with cheating.

Please define "cheating."

34 posted on 03/25/2008 7:27:24 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (Bob Taft has soiled the family name for the next century.)
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To: agere_contra

In your country, the fans simply try to kill each other. Whether it’s setting the stands on fire, or pressing against fences, it’s always entertaining to watch soccer hooligans.


35 posted on 03/25/2008 7:33:18 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (Bob Taft has soiled the family name for the next century.)
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To: canuck_conservative
This pansy will be moving over to the Globe and Mail any day now.
36 posted on 03/25/2008 7:43:00 PM PDT by TheMole
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To: agere_contra

“It’s great that our boys will associate masculinity with cheating.”

Fighting in hockey isn’t cheating.

“They’ll learn that if someone else is better than them at something then violence is perfectly acceptable.”

Perhaps they’ll learn that they need to work hard for what they want. It has nothing to do with who is better it has to do with intimidation and its part of the game.

Do you think there isn’t intimidation in the NBA, NFL or MLB?


37 posted on 03/25/2008 7:45:23 PM PDT by driftdiver
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To: ml/nj

“But I do see highlights at my gym in the morning and it seems they’re always showing fights. Some guys in the locker room were talking about a Devils game they went to last week where the fights broke out during the warmups.”

Networks like ESPN ignore hockey, but show clips of the fights because that’s what they think people want to see. I saw a poll last year that asked two groups of people (regular hockey viewers and those who rarely see a game) how often fighting occurs. The group that rarely saw games believed that fighting happened four times as often as it actually did! Their perception was skewed by highlights and hearsay.


38 posted on 03/25/2008 7:46:05 PM PDT by trublu
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To: driftdiver
Fighting in hockey isn’t cheating.

Yes, but the other great tradition of professional hockey--throwing yourself to the ice and flopping around like a fish in an attempt to draw a penalty--is.

39 posted on 03/25/2008 7:48:10 PM PDT by denydenydeny (Expel the priest and you don't inaugurate the age of reason, you get the witch doctor--Paul Johnson)
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To: canuck_conservative

This was written by a guy with the honest to God first name of Jonathan. Enough said.


40 posted on 03/25/2008 7:48:11 PM PDT by ShadowDancer ( Losers always look for excuses. Winners never quit.)
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