If lovin' playoff hockey is wrong...

[Feilan]

... I don't want to be right.



Take that, San Jose. Double overtime. Smack. Down.

[Feilan]

I'm a Habs fan, but that was awesome.

... and it's really okay if I'm alllllll alone in this thread. I kind of expected it.

[Canadian_watcher]

I only watch hockey during the Olympics.

And seriously... are sports camera-people psychic? How do they follow the action?? I can't do it and I'm not behind a huge piece of equipment.

[82_28]

No, that was awesome. Nothing quite like playoff NHL hockey. And honestly it has a hell of a lot to do with the announcers. Those dudes are pros. Someone told me after we had just watched the Belmont Stakes at work and had a little money riding on it and then the topics verged into hockey, that hockey announcers are like the horse race announcers, but have to keep it up for 3+ hours. So true.

Canadian_watcher, the US tried to improve your hockey viewing experience once!



Just kidding. That laser puck shit was embarrassing. But so technologically advanced!

[Nordic]

Seeing your post, my eye immediately went here:

Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:46 am
Posts: 104
Location: Kanada

Suddenly it all makes sense.

[Laodicean]

[Feilan]

Seeing your post, my eye immediately went here:

Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:46 am
Posts: 104
Location: Kanada

Suddenly it all makes sense.

If by 'sense' what you mean is I'm exhibiting a stereotypical fondness for the great game (sans violence, natch) in accordance with my presumable location/associated nation state, I suppose so. When I was a kid ... blah, blah, rink, blah, blah, street hockey, and so on... the usual raised-in-hockey-country back-story.

Olympic hockey is great, but four years is a long time to go between tournaments. To watch our Olympic women's team play is to savour the greatness sans the bullshit. World Junior's are great. Local junior hockey, or shinny on outdoor ice are both great. Street hockey / driveway hockey / parking lot hockey - all great.

Regular season NHL hockey is often brutish and hardly worth watching, ergo, outside of stumbling into a game on a screen in a bar or at a friend's place, I don't. Hextall is certainly a good example of the kind of bullshit I was referring to above. There are much fresher examples of course. Every season brings more.

Back in 2007:

We are at a point where all the forces of the game have ramped up tremendously: physical forces, like faster speeds, stronger players and harder equipment. And psychological forces, like the huge financial stakes, intense media heat and ultra-tight competition. The pressure to win – and the incentive to resort to violence to gain an edge – is immense. Together they are pushing the game down the road of worse violence with worse results. http://www.thestar.com/article/206068

More recently:

Head shots and violence are turning off the National Hockey League's most dedicated fan base -- Canadians, according to results of a poll.

Head shots and violence are turning off the National Hockey League's most dedicated fan base -- Canadians, according to results of a poll.

"Fans are fed up and they are signaling that they will change the channel if substantive changes aren't made," Jaime Watt, chair and senior partner of Navigator, said in a release.

Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nhl/story/2011-03-19/head-hits-violence-anger-fans-survey-shows#ixzz1NPUS5mBW

Eighty-five (85%) per cent of Canadians are aware of the Chara-Pacio retty hit;
Two-thirds (66%) don't think the NHL is doing enough to prevent on-ice injuries; and
One-quarter (25%) say they will change their viewing habits as a result of the hit.
Additionally, 67% put the onus on the players themselves, to ensure their own safety. http://www.cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/March2011/17/c3720.html

If I were a morally perfect being, a spotless mind, cracking open a beer or four or eight and watching some overpaid scrambling after a puck back and forth between two nets wouldn't hold the slightest appeal. I'm not there yet. Braced with the not yet impossible dream that I'll see some good clean fun without any dirty elbows, head shots or charging from behind.... If a Canadian team is in the playoffs, I'm watching. It's a political thing

[Feilan]

[Canadian_watcher]

Lol 82 - I remember that, and I thought to myself HEY! I'm NOT a freak for not being able to follow the puck!!!! But then everyone harshed on it so much that I went back into my corner, never to watch non-Olympic Hockey again.

Besides.. fffffffuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk there's just TOO much hockey. I don't know what it's like in the States but up here all the jokes are about hockey, TV shows all have themes about hockey, we have a reality tv thing called "Hockeyville" election campaigns mention hockey, town councils debate hockey rink after hockey rink, all winter activities involve some former hockey player or another, sports news is endless hockey talk, the newspapers are covered with images of hockey fans, players, jerseys, owners, people at work talk about it, their kids all play, the stores have hockey gear and team logos ...

I'm A Canadian and I hate hockey season, dammit!

[Feilan]

I'm A Canadian and I hate hockey season, dammit!

o well. haters gotta hate, I guess.

[Canadian_watcher]

I'm A Canadian and I hate hockey season, dammit!

o well. haters gotta hate, I guess.

haters?

thanks a lot.

Typical namecalling from the hockey fan set.

[Feilan]

I'm A Canadian and I hate hockey season, dammit!

o well. haters gotta hate, I guess.

haters?

thanks a lot.

Typical namecalling from the hockey fan set.

That highlighted bit is especially friendly.

mmm k. see, that right there is ... well it's about what i expected. you did use the word "hate" to describe your feelings on the matter, right? does "hate" in this context mean something else?

my mother has more trouble avoiding too much hockey talk than you probably do - cuz she lives with my Dad. then again i don't know you in the real world so i could be wrong about that. if you live with or regularly consort with "the hockey fan set" i am truly sorry for your trouble - no doubt you hear more about it than you'd like to. then again, what's the big deeeeal? it's a fun, fun, game. yes, i like a good hockey game. does that make me a member of "the hockey fan set"? i dunno ... does that come with a magic decoder ring that clarifies what you meant by "hate" ...

i'm just lounging. this is the lounge. i could have written "the canucks are going to play for the stanley cup" in the things to be cheerful about thread ... but i didn't want to besmirch the unimpeachable things that give folks a moment of respite from a weary world with my troglodyte hockey affections.

i'm not a bloody super fan. i like hockey. i liked playing nets for a few months with a bunch of other women in a fun league ... i felt a bit like a comic book super hero and i had a pretty satisfying knack for the glove save! i liked wearing my brothers stinky shin pads et. all and playing target versus wrist shot in the driveway in march ... i liked going to watch him play with my Dad, eating cold rink fries and slurping warm rink cocoa ... i loved watching really brave young women from Italy and China work their butts off to play at the Olympics and play with real heart and dignity. i love that hockey is "our" game. i like the annual cycle of gentle mockery i can enjoy at the expense of my mate, a sad, irrationally devoted Leafs fan. i love a tragically hip song about bill barilko and i hope the fact that i also like stompin' tom connors won't count against me. ... i also like talking about the weather at the bus stop with total strangers. i like saying sorry a lot, (the stories about Canadians are all true!) so i'll say it to you, right now - I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ______ (whatever i did there) ... don't take me so seriously. No one else does ... and i don't mind!!

i guess i've never understood why Canaaaadians who "HATE" hockey season get so uptight about a game that millions of us grew up with and still love for a list of sentimental reasons that aren't really hurting anybody. i don't pay much attention to the merchandising. i'm sorry you find it so invasive. i do own a habs t-shirt which i haul out with a can of smug when they make the playoffs and the Leafs don't. is that bad?

you don't have to like hockey ... it's not in the constitution, last time i checked ... but you might find April and May a bit less molar-grinding if you didn't mind so much how much fun other folks have watching the season wind up. obviously, you're not immune to the thrill of a good nail-biter, or you wouldn't have said you like Olympic hockey. I satisfy the craving with the playoff vibe, when, and as long as, a Canadian team has a stake in it.

but by all means, hate on.



edited to add: Boston's powerplay was lame, so we're off to game 7 for a contender in the final round - rest up Vancouver.

[Feilan]

ZoMg i can't believe i forgot - Jane Siberry is part of "the hockey fan set" too!



it is a bona fide tragedy that i can't find a video on youtube, but you can grooveshark it. it's a really beautiful tune ... ...

Hockey - Jane Siberry
winter time and the frozen river
sunday afternoon
they're playing hockey on the river
rosy...
he'll have that scar on his chin forever someday his girlfriend will say hey
where...
he might look out the window...or not
you skate as fast as you can 'til you hit the snowbank(that's how you stop)
and you get your sweater from the catalogue
you use your rubber boots for goal posts
ah...walkin' home
don't let those sunday afternoons
get away get away get away get away
break away break away break away break away
this stick was signed by jean belliveau so don't f**king tell me where
to f**king go...
on sunday afternoon
someone's dog just took the puck-he buried it it's in the snowbank...your turn
they rioted in the streets of montreal when they benched rocket richard it's
true... (great line!)
don't let those sunday afternoons
get away get away get away get away
break away break away break away break away
the sun is fading on the frozen river
the wind is dying down
someone else just got called for dinner
rosy
hmm...sunday afternoon

[Canadian_watcher]

Dude, all I said was that I hate hockey SEASON because hockey is everywhere.

I didn't say I hate people who like hockey, or hockey itself.

I hate that we become this mono-culture so that if you don't enjoy hockey you basically feel like an outsider all winter (and spring, FFS).

okay?
By all means write me twenty pages back on it if you feel like wasting your time.

edit: look, no hard feelings, okay? I didn't like being called a hater, because that's was kind of the whole point of my rant... Canadians that don't like hockey are pretty much shunned if they admit it. It's like talking about 9/11 truth in the wrong crowd.. instant derogatory label.

[Canadian_watcher]

I was going to edit again by this deserves it's own little box: Stompin Tom is the bomb. I absolutely adore red-neck music & honky tonk, too.. not that Stompin Tom is Honky Tonk.. but.. you get where I'm going, right?