Any hockey fans here?
 

It's the only professional sport I'm interested in anymore. Blackhawks fan since I was a young kid (although in those days it was the Black Hawks). If so...might be fun to chat about the playoffs this year.

I'd like to start with an observation about Milan Lucic. He scored this empty net goalthis afternoon and started beating his chest like a fucking monkey. The puck was dropped in his lap in center ice with nobody within 20 feet of him. WTF did he do that warranted the display? Nothing. On the other hand, when Brian Bickell got his empty net goal Friday night, he actually had to finesse it past a defender right in his face. Bickell's reaction...a big grin. Lucic is a schmuck.

I used to go to a lot of Black Hawk games when I lived in Chicago in the 70's. I even had season tickets for a couple of years. Next opportunity I had was when I lived in Montreal for a year or so in the 80's and went to several games at the Forum. I had access to two season tickets any time I wanted, center ice second row.

Here in the 90s' I started going to Sharks' games but then lost interest. IMO, one can only appreciate ice hockey live to see the plays developing. FWIW, I went to the very first Stanely Cup playoff game at the Shark Tank.

There it is!

Nope. Not a hockey fan, sorry.

Love the skill, hate the other stuff.

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I love the violence, the game is okay I guess.

Dave

OK...I guess I'm the only one really watching the playoffs. So thanks for the feedback. I thought somebody might like to see this though, a thing of beauty it was. He's the most dangerous player in the league on a rush...nobody knows what he's gonna do...he doesn't know what he's gonna do. Watch when he crosses over in front of Sharp, everybody in the building (including all the Wild defenders) are certain he's going to drop it back for Sharp, even Kane thinks he's going to drop it, and then halfway through dropping it, he changes his mind, reaches back and grabs it, and puts it in.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkQXYzBuq1c

Something like this...even though it's only now and then, is what keeps me interested.

Not here

Not really. Like soccer the difficulty to score turns me off.

Best game in the whole of sports!

I saw the beginning of my first and only game in Birmingham several years ago and the first quarter was great, the second the interruptions started and ruined it for us, like a loudly bickering couple in a concert, and spoiling an otherwise enjoyable event. We decided we had enuff and left.
I do wish i could enjoy it but until it becomes a clean sport without the violent interruptions, that just isn't possible.

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Ya mean like, opposed to the NFL? Where the entire game is made up of two of the worst aspects of American life...violence (on every play), interrupted by committee meetings.

One other thing about soccer...obviously it's hours of guys in shorts running around and around. But as far as the violence goes...what's the deal with soccer players bumping into each other and then both of them falling down, and thrashing around like somebody stabbed them both in the eye with a pencil??? A hockey player gets a fracture to his cervical spine, wraps his neck up with duct tape, and goes out and finishes the game. Anybody remember what Andrew Shaw's face looked like at the end of game 6 of last years NHL final?

http://i.imgur.com/pYBMn5U.png

Now you got me thinking and...uh...ruminating, I guess about scoring. So I did some research:

Top 4 professional soccer leagues goals per game...2.1 (A whole 7.1 "accurate" shots on goal where there's a score or the goalie makes a save.)
NFL Ave Touchdowns per game...4.95 (Does anybody get excited about FG's unless it wins the game?)
NHL Ave goals per game...5.3 (On just under 30 shots on goal per game. A great save is just as exhilerating as a goal, IMO.)
MLB Ave runs per game...8.3
NBA Ave field goals per game....unable to find the data anywhere. :confused: So let's say, between the two teams there are 200 points per game, and that between the 3's, 2's, and 1's, the ball goes in the hole 50 times per game for each team, that's 100 scores in per game.

Interesting...I feel the same way about basketball where the difficulty not scoring causes me to lose interest pretty quickly. If scoring frequency appears to be out of line in the 5 major sports, seems to me it's in basketball.

It used to be, back in my teens the purchasing agent where I workd gave me a pair of tickets to the Senior A league game. Farm team of the Montreal Canadiens and some other team. Called my Dad at work so we hhad dinner and saw the game. No fighting nor unnecessary rough play, we really enjoyed the game. Probably the last one thatI ever enjoyed watching.

Later in life my Son was in a boy's league. One of the coaches (I knew him) kept one kid on his team who could not really play but he was big for his age. The coach admitted that his sole purpose was to pick a fight with the opponent's best player and get them both off with penalties. My Son asked if I would let him quit and I said yes, he did not need examples like that.

The NFL has done a better job of cleaning up the game than hockey, baseball has a ways yet to go. F.I, if the pitcher hits the batter with his equipment the batter should be allowed to retaliate with one free swing at the pitcher's head or ribs.

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Huh? Football has cleaned up? Maybe we should just ignore the gouged eyes, and bite marks, and fishhooking that goes on in the interior line every game. The forearms to the head, elbows to the chin, etc. BTW - If I were NHL king, body checking would be outlawed like it is in college and international play. And everybody would have to wear a full cage. But it's still the best game in town. Football is a relatively filthy game. The headhunting rules are a joke.

You're just having some fun when you talk about baseball though...right? The game has always been about the pitcher putting one on the batter's hip when he crowds the plate, or when he slammed one last time up. That's all part of the strategy of being a pitcher. But maybe the players should just change into a dress when they come up to bat...ya think?

I've never been to a hockey game, but my son told me that he's seen guys there missing front teeth that were in great condition when they were removed. Must be pretty rough on each other out there.

Yeah his prime purpose is to create mayhem and mess up the star on the opposing team. :D

The operative word in your last paragraph is "one". That's one bad coach who would be tossed out if I had a kid in that league and heard abou it. If a kid doesn't like the game and wants to quit, that's one thing, but if a kid wants to quit because he's stuck with an asshole for a coach, that's another.

I'm only partly kidding on the batter being allowed reprisal, the ability to throw a bat endwise with accurate force would be useful. Better would be a "designated" player ejection for a pitcher striking a batter with the choice of the ejected player by the team at bat.


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So brushing a batter back should be illegal? Because any time one's intent is to throw a brushback pitch, there's a chance the batter is gonna get plunked.

But if it's gonna be left to the team at bat whether the opposition's pitcher (or their best hitter or their vaccum cleaner third baseman) stays in the game or not...you'll start to see hijinks in the batter's box that make all that phony thrashing around on the soccer field look downright legitimate.

Maybe instead of a designated hitter, we have a designated stunt man, who goes out there to make getting hit it look really bad.

Quite right, it could easily be gamed a two way street, but a hit on the batter should regardless always be an automatic ejection of the pitcher. Then the guy on the mound could decide whether the act is worth the risk or not and this stupid puerile "tradition" could cease sullying the game.

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Seems to me you want to take an integral part of the game out of the game. Then again maybe I'm just an old hardball pitcher that refused to let anybody crowd the plate on me. When they start doing that to a pitcher, and the pitcher gets a rep for not doing anything about it that pitcher is done.

I'm more incensed when a pitcher retaliates against a batter that got a fair hit off him than a batter leaving no space for the pitch. That's something else and a brush back makes some sense there but doesn't justify a hit on the batter.

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Discussion on NPR right now talking about improved bat design for better ergonomics and fewer stress injuries.


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When I was playing, it was utter bullshit to showboat a big hit the way they do now. Far as I'm concerned, anybody pulls that shit deserves one in the ribs.

First thing they should do is outlaw aluminum bats. I don't know much about composite bats...but it seems to me they ought to be able to control the engineering way better with composite and make them perfom as wooden bats do.

Why not? Seems kinda arbitrary to me between a slow start for a walk- around and an out-and-out celebration before departure. Plenty of that goes on after.
And what entitles the pitcher to be immune from the same response of a bat windmilled to his midsection after that offensive act?
Pitchers can seem so arrogantly entitled with all that strutting and preening, what's with that anyway.
I like the skill and the unexpected but some of it is just bullshit.
I'm not trying to pick an argument, I really want to get your perspective.
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My perspective is...throwing a ball is part of the game. Throwing a bat is not part of the game.

You want to play baseball? Occaisonally you're going to have a pitcher move you back. Once in a while you'll get hit. That's the way the game is played. Grow the fuck up and deal with it. If you want do to something with your bat besides attempt to hit a ball with it, here's my suggestion...stuff it up your ass.

There's my perspective.

So, selective thuggery is tolerated and encouraged as "traditional", like ice hockey.

I haven't had much interest in "sports" in spite of my bro once being a perennial Olympic hopeful (cross-country/track), tho' a long-term friend is passionate about American football and at one time baseball as well. He invites me over to see significant football events (Super Bowl, Iron Bowl, ect) to share the experience and mentors me by explaining the plays and significance of them and strategies as well as how the player's skills are utilized and this gives me some appreciation and enjoyment. If someone did this with baseball, ice hockey, soccer, and other such games then I expect my horizons would be expanded, but on my own there isn't much incentive or interest, and some of the points I've previously mentioned concerning the game-stopping distractions spoil the experience for me.