Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Hockey players are an enigma

I just don't get the hockey mentality. I kind of get the sport now, at least some of the strategy like cycling, backchecking and forechecking, but I don't understand a lot of the other stuff that goes along with hockey.

By all accounts, hockey players are some of the most down-to-earth athletes in sports. You very rarely hear of them getting into trouble off the ice. However, on the ice, it's quite a different story.

It's the only sport where sucker-punching is almost common. I was watching some youtube videos of the crazy game-long fight between the Penguins and Islanders last week and there were cheap shots and attempted sucker punches throughout the game. If this happens in other sports like football, they almost have congressional hearings over it, but in hockey it's just "part of the game."

I know hockey is a physical sport and there is wear-and-tear from long season after long season, but, in my opinion, hockey can be played physically without the players suffering the same long-term health effects of football players.

I remember a number of years ago, on that show called Sports Science, they compared the hardest hits in sports. As you can imagine, boxing, football and MMA came in pretty high, but a check in hockey, surprisingly, didn't register with nearly the same amount of force. You want to know why? A hockey check, done legally, really shouldn't leave a player severely injured.

For one thing, hockey players are on skates, and even though some of them can fly around the ice at high speeds, they still don't have the leverage and power that a person on solid ground would have. And lets not forget about size. Yes, there are some big hockey players, but not nearly as big as your average NFL lineman or linebacker.

The sport of football has come under the microscope recently because of head-shots and the long-term effects. But it's almost unavoidable in that sport. Football really is a collision sport and even a clean, legal tackle might do enough damage to injure a person.

I'm not going to pretend that there aren't dirty football players who cross the line because there have been countless stories over the years. But in football, dirty play is considered on the peripheral of the sport. Yes, it goes on, but we don't always see it or even become aware of it until years later when an ex-player tells tales at some reunion some where.

But in hockey, dirty play is built into the game. I mean, two players fighting while the referee just stands there and watches is pretty odd in the sports world.

The other night, the Penguins and Islanders had an embarrassing game-long battle in-which fights broke out the entire night. The one that really stands out to me is the cheap shot delivered by Islanders' "enforcer" Trevor Gillies on the Pens' Eric Trangradi.

I don't know if Trangradi said something about this guy's mom, but he viciously attacked Trangradi and was thrown out. But the most disturbing thing is how Gillies stood in the doorway just off the ice and taunted Trangradi as he was being attended to by trainers.

I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in sports. For all Gillies knew, Trangradi could have been severely injured, but there was this clown doing his best Ivan Drago impression: "If he dies, he dies."

But what do you expect from a sport that employs "enforcers?" An enforcer in hockey is a guy, usually with very little hockey talent, who is there to protect his team's star players and sometimes he is sent out on the ice to rough up another team's star player. This usually results in a fight, often times between each team's enforcer, and the "message" is sent.

What that message is is very unclear to me.

Sometimes, hockey players will start fights if their team is lacking energy and needs a boost. I know I don't get hockey, but I just don't see how a fight is supposed to jumpstart a team. Ever see the movie "Major League" when the one fan turns to the other and says, "do you think we should start one of those waves?" And when the fight is over, even if the guy who was trying to jumpstart his buddies gets his clock cleaned, he gets congratulated by his teammates for the "energy" he gave the boys.

Like I said, I just don't get it, but many people don't, and that's why the games are televised on Versus and not ESPN.

Since I'm not a true hockey fan, some might say I'm just someone who is mouthing off about traditions that I'm not educated enough to comment on. But there is a reason hockey is on Versus and not ESPN. It's because there are many people like me out there who love sports and would probably gravitate towards the NHL if the neanderthal, old-school Canadian thinking changed, but since it hasn't really changed at all in the last 100 years or so, and since the old-guard is so defensive and protective of their sport and is unwilling to change, people like me would rather watch dvds of Super Bowls from the 1970's than the current Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Not hatin', just sayin'.

Keep on fightin', boys!

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