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Confession time: Thank you NHL!

hokieonehokieone5,000+ posts
This will come across as heresy to pro hockey fans, but for years, I have only partially jokingly mused that I'd love a hockey-free ESPN so there would be more time for baseball highlights.

Aside from not knowing the game, which I'm told is great to watch in person, every highlight seems the same: several guys skating, somebody appears to shoot, the light comes on, and everyone throws up their hands...and then they show the highlights of the in-game fights. I'm never able to see the blasted puck, and how can a real sport have so many games end in a tie?

Anyway, with apologies to the hockey faithful, a big thank you to the NHL. I supect they have made an incredibly huge mistake this season that may not be fixed for many years, if ever.

Immediate impact?: ESPN will telecast 11 spring training games! It's working already. (But I do feel for the true NHL fans-the ultimate bummer)
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CallawayCallaway500+ posts
If my son had grown up in upsate NY as I had, he would have been a hockey player, as I was. He has a hockey player mentality.

It is a great sport to play and I still miss it. They finally opened an ice skating facility here, but at 11yo, it is too late for him. You really need to start very young.

Baseball has replaced that outlet for me and he has the same passion for baseball that I had for hockey as a kid. We do however, regularly support our local ECHL team, the Columbia Inferno, and I still dream of what might have been.

I love hockey and I am very disappointed that they couldn't reach an agreement. This will hurt a wonderful sport that I love.

R.
H HiHardHeat1,000+ posts
Believe it or not, I went to my first Hockey game last month ... saw an ECHL clash between the Bullies and the Titans.

On the way to the Scrum, the guy I was with told me ... "Remember, this is minor-league hockey, you won't have all of the fighting that they have in the NHL".

Yeah ... sure ....

162 Penalty minutes later after every player on the ice got into a prolonged brawl (except the goalies who seem to have a bit more sense ... or worse skates) at the end of the 2nd period, the game mercifully ended.

I still can't see the puck, even in person. It's a total waste of time on TV. If you get beyond 5 rows off the ice, it was just as bad as watching it on the tube. The only time the fans didn't look bored was when there was a fight going on.

... don't think I'll go back.
B BeenthereILHSBBWeb Old Timer
Pro hockey...Couldn't happen to a bigger group of goofs and goons.

I remember the days of Stan Mikita and the Montreal Canadians with Richard and the others that could actually skate and pass.

Good riddance. If you can't handle the puck or skate backwards, you become the "goon-enforcer".

Used to be a season ticket holder for the Blackhawk games.

Wirtz deserves everything he gets with his pro teams. How do you like it William W after screwing the fans for all of these years?

--

While I'm at it, can we do something to get rid of the most boring sport of all....s....r?

Highlights in those games last about 5 seconds. It is an "avalanche" of scoring if a team scores 2 goals. Wow!

...end of my tirade
H HiHardHeat1,000+ posts
Hockey seems to be a love/hate kinda thing. There isn't much middle ground. You have to grow up with it I think or else, you'll just never "get it" when it's hockey time.

Compare that to Communist Round Ball, which people either hate or profess to love (but really don't) ... what's to understand?

Hockey at least has confusion going for it. "Where's the puck?" ... "What penalty is that?" ... "That wasn't a High Stick ... come over here and I'll show you a High Stick!!!!" duel

Communist Round Ball is a simple sport for simple minds. It even color codes it's penalties ... like pre-school. 14

Give me baseball ... it's like a great drama in 9 acts ... a whodunit with an outstanding cast, and the good guy doesn't always win!
jaxnbulldogjaxnbulldog100+ posts
You can put me it the "I could care less" category. Even watching the strike talks on ESPN is too much for me, much less actual game film.

When Hockey was a Canadian/Yankee sport, it made sense. But come on, I mean they have hockey teams in Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Phoenix, LA, Anaheim, Dallas, and San Jose. How can anyone take that seriously.

Bring on Baseball.
Rob KremerRob Kremer1,000+ posts
Beenthere:
I'm not much of a hockey fan, but used to live in Chicago and got to know Stan Mikita after he retired and was a golf professional at Kemper Lakes.

What a great guy. Class act and funny as all get out. He did a great impression of japanese tourist/golfers in which he would take his false teeth out....

I'd go to a few Black Hawks games just to see his retired jersey hanging in the old Chicago stadium (which to this day I think was the best place I ever saw an NBA or NHL game.)
A algae100+ posts
Hockey is a great sport It gets me through the winter until baseball starts up. but it has been watered down over the past years too many teams not enough quality players. This should be good for the game in the long run. It will get rid of the weak. Maybe someone with lots of money like a Bill Gates will start up a new league. Greed strikes again.
O OldVaman500+ posts
As the father of a junior hockey player and card-carrying hockey coach, but mostly as a parent of a junior hockey player:

Bad for hockey, good for my son.

There won't be a draft this year. There will be one next year, my son's last year of junior eligibility. When this thing finally gets fixed, there will be a lot of player movement. My son hopes he's in the right place at the right time and gets a chance, even if it means forfeiting the chance to play hockey in college.

If it works out for him, I'd be thrilled. If it doesn't, what I'll tell him will be pretty brief:

Pick up your mask and mitt, son, it's time to go back to school.
CADadCADad5,000+ posts
I grew up in a hockey neighborhood in SoCal (Culver City). We played hockey in the streets all the time and spent a lot of time at the ice rink. I was about the only kid in the neighborhood who didn't play ice hockey.

I remember wearing one of my friend's team jackets so that I could get into a Kings - Bruins game for free. We sat right behind the Bruins bench for most of the game and got to see Bobby Orr close up.

Good memories but I could care less about the NHL.
sportsdad&fansportsdad&fan1,000+ posts
Callaway,
It's not too late for your son to take up the game. There are many kids up here who start at that age. They seem to pick up the skating pretty quick at that age and your son seems to be very athletic and the right temperment.I would look into a power skating class, learn to skate, or just public skate.
My son loves baseball , but it appears to me that kids who play hockey seem to have a passion that can't be described. They have no problem getting up at 5:00am for a 6:00am practice.They will come off the ice with their heads dripping with sweat,cheeks flushed, and the biggest grin on their faces.
I can understand many negative views from people,especially from the southern states, because espn and abc do a terrible job broadcasting hockey. I grew up watching Hockey Night In Canada and they do an excellent job.
W windmill100+ posts
HHH - you must have been up our way if you watched the Bullies and Titans - the Battle of New Jersey!! -For the neophyte, it can be a littel complicated - whistles to stop play at inopportune times and for no apparent reason [kind of what I went through when my daughter started field hockey - 7 years later, still watching her in college I still don't get it -"What do you mean you can only hit it with one side of the stick? What if you are left handed??] I played for years and never liked the game on TV - even for the experienced, it is a difficult task at best. My only claim to fame as a player? Stupid enough during a Juniors game to drop the gloves against Nick Fotiu [sp] later a NY Ranger. And before anyone asks: YES he did, NO I didn't, and YES I did look like a racoon for 2 weeks!!

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