Hockey Hell Yeah

I've never been much of a sports fan, but that was a great game last night. Canada, Hats off to you. You played hard and won.

It was a good game all around.

You should go see a live game. If you have a local junior team, that's exciting hockey, on the cheap.

I've been to a Flyers game. It was ok.

That's why I recommended a junior game. More exciting, IMO.

Have to agree with Zomby - Junior A games are cleaner/better hockey IMO. That said, last night's game was excellent - and both teams played well.

With the exception of a few blowouts, the Olympics this year were the closest, best played games I have ever seen The NHL would do well to adopt the Olympic rules on fighting. Even the officiating was reasonably good!. As a former player, coach, and fan, I agree with what the woof says.The AHL has at least four teams within an hour or so of Iggy and it is some of the best(to watch)professional hockey, and decent seats can be had for $10-$15.

We're fortunate here in Michigan, to have two Ontario Hockey League (Junior "A") teams, Plymouth and Saginaw. It's really entertaining and tickets are only $11. Friday night games are only $5. Can't that for value.Not sure I'd say it was cleaner hockey though. There is a lot of chippy play,but is very quick.

In reply to zomby woof:

Huntsville Havoc FTW. I just back from traveling to Niagara to see the UAH Chargers play Niagara University.

minimac wrote: Even the officiating was reasonably good!

Really? I thought it was awful. Maybe just cause I look for it all the time; seeing as I am a ref.

Iggy, if you are interested in seeing a good, cheap, live game, you have three semi-pro teams, Yale (one of the top 5 in the nation), not to mention a half a dozen boarding schools that will have a good team (Kent comes to mind).

A big surprise that Canada won. Hockey is their only sport, well that and a mutant form of football...

mtn wrote:

minimac wrote: Even the officiating was reasonably good!

Really? I thought it was awful. Maybe just cause I look for it all the time; seeing as I am a ref.

Why was it bad? Did it affect the outcome of the game? I have no idea, I don't know the game, but I sure liked watching it.

rebelgtp wrote: A big surprise that Canada won. Hockey is their only sport, well that and a mutant form of football...

Don't forget Curling! That's truely a Canadian game. I think Hockey was invented in Europe somewhere.

rebelgtp wrote: A big surprise that Canada won. Hockey is their only sport, well that and a mutant form of football...

The CFL used to have a series of ads with the tag line "our balls are bigger"

Compare a hockey game to baseball. Now, why would you want a different national sport? Other than the chance to watch millionaires massage their crotch while waiting for something to happen.

Officially our national sport is lacrosse (if you think we're good at hockey....), but since hockey is really our number 1 sport, it is accepted to refer to both as such.

I was very surprised by the Canadian fans' attitudes during the Olympics. Not that they always expect to win and only Canadians can know hockey to such a great extent because it's their game, you hear that all the time. But the behavior. I'm a hockey junkie, I'm at the RBC Center every chance I get. A higher-than-usual percentage of fans from teams like Philly, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Boston and New Jersey are always showing off rotten sportsmanship when they attend. Starting fights, getting in peoples' faces and shouting (man I hate that), shoving, blocking people from leaving, finding cars with home team stuff on them vandalized. Far and beyond what trash talking is. It's not the majority of fans; it never is in things like this. But it's enough to make people groan when they "visit" us for a game.

But Canadian fans who come down have always been very well-mannered and good sports. Doesn't matter where from. Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton etc... It doesn't matter. It's a total pleasure having them stop by, even if they're rooting for the wrong team So I was surprised to see such a reversal during the Olympics. When they lost, I never heard a congratulations or an acknowledgment that the other team did well. No positive aspects of the other team at all. You'd think the pucks just threw themselves past Luongo. "They didn't deserve to win. They were just lucky. We should have gotten the win." As if any loss for them would just be a fluke. And the "berkeley USA" chant didn't endear them to me either. I just expected better from them as a whole. And I know they invented the game, but the arrogance that no one else could best them because they invented it was hard to stomach. I lost quite a bit of respect in the last few weeks. Somewhat redeemed when they gave a big ovation for the US team yesterday, particularly Miller. Watching the Swiss, the Finns and the Slovaks was very entertaining, however. Great "never say die" attitude and they played with heart every minute. How many times would the game seem lost for the Swiss, yet they're still throwing bodies around like human missiles.

DeadSkunk wrote: We're fortunate here in Michigan, to have two Ontario Hockey League (Junior "A") teams, Plymouth and Saginaw. It's really entertaining and tickets are only $11. Friday night games are only $5. Can't that for value.Not sure I'd say it was cleaner hockey though. There is a lot of chippy play,but is very quick.

Even moreso, we also have 7 colleges who play NCAA hockey in this state. And the Frozen Four will be hosted in Detroit this spring.

I prefer college hockey to pros. Never been to Jr game, but seen them on TV, and never been to the Joe for a regular season game. But I've had season tickets at Yost for 19 seasons in a row, and have been going to the Frozen Four for the last 8.

E-

not to nit pick but Brodeur was the the one letting all the pucks in the first US/Can game. That being said, just like many sports, there is almost always a local minor league, semi pro or college team to watch, that is less as expensive and just as entertaining.

I was kind of surprised Brodeur didn't start more games. But I guess that's how it goes in sports. The guy's gettin old.

alfadriver, you ought to try a Plymouth Whalers game . It would be interesting to get your take on it. I've been to a few (1 or 2 per season) Michigan games. I think OHL is faster, but the college players are older and ,with that,comes size and experience. OHL plays more games and the competiton is closer, I think. Added bonus is that fans come in from Saginaw, Sarnia or Windsor ,so it gets loud sometimes.

You'd think the pucks just threw themselves past Luongo

Luongo didn't lose a single game, and yes, the pucks practically threw themselves past Brodeur. He was awful. That game was so lopsided it wasn't funny. Brodeur (and to a lesser extent, Miller) was the only reason they lost it.

JeepinMatt, if you happened to see the men's curling gold medal game, you saw the other side of Canadian behaviour. Some clown in the crowd had a horn and blew it (twice !!!) right when the Norwegian skip was delivering his rocks. The crowd started booing the fool with the horn, but would stop while anyone was shooting. It worked, the horn wasn't heard again, except to celebrate the win. I would also suspect that the type of person at the curling might be different than the people at the hockey game who exhibited the poor behaviour.

zomby woof wrote:

You'd think the pucks just threw themselves past Luongo

Luongo didn't lose a single game

But that isn't what I'm getting at. There's just a general attitude (and sometimes outright statements) that any goal, any good play on another team's part was just a fluke. In particular during the first US vs Canada game, that the US only won because we got lucky. No, if we were that lucky then the four (?) shots that went off the post/crossbar would have gone in and the two other goals wouldn't have gotten called off. Now that would have been lucky.

alfadriver wrote:

DeadSkunk wrote: We're fortunate here in Michigan, to have two Ontario Hockey League (Junior "A") teams, Plymouth and Saginaw. It's really entertaining and tickets are only $11. Friday night games are only $5. Can't that for value.Not sure I'd say it was cleaner hockey though. There is a lot of chippy play,but is very quick.

Even more so, we also have 7 colleges who play NCAA hockey in this state. And the Frozen Four will be hosted in Detroit this spring. I prefer college hockey to pros. Never been to Jr game, but seen them on TV, and never been to the Joe for a regular season game. But I've had season tickets at Yost for 19 seasons in a row, and have been going to the Frozen Four for the last 8. E-

I've seen probably 250 college hockey games, almost all involving my beloved Boston University Terriers. My high school (Hamden, CT) is a perennial contender for the state championship so I've been privileged to be around high quality amateur hockey all my life. With the internet, I can still follow my teams.

Finally, I saw an NHL game in the flesh at Staples Center here in LA. The TV timeouts are more jarring than baseball or football. The game came to a screeching halt while everyone watched two guys fight. Throwing punches on skates is about the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

In between were a few stretches of good hockey. The hockey/baloney ratio is better at the college level. I enjoyed the Olympic tournament very much because the play was fast & physical, yet the baloney was non-existent.

Kudos to the USA. They gave the Canadians all they could handle until the very last. My 80-year-old mother now refers to Sidney Crosby as "that little E36 M3."

In particular during the first US vs Canada game, that the US only won because we got lucky.

That's not true.

Everybody knows you won because Brodeur was brutal, and Miller was excellent.