What More can You Say?
Almost at the half-way mark of the regular season for the NHL. In short, with all the multi-million dollars of hype stripped away, the league blows. It’s become a league of gimmicks. For instance, The shoot out. Stupid. And wait until they implement it during playoff games. That’s coming down the road. How do I know? It’s simple. If a concept seems ridiculous and utterly stupid, then it’s likely that it will happen in the NHL.
The lack of fights and physical play proves the league and the players look at the game primarily as a business, not as sport or a game they are supposed to love. The NHL and its players lack heart. The games lack merit and pro hockey, therefore, lacks credibility with its true fans. The NHL is almost irrelevant at this point. There’s plenty of good hockey elsewhere. Check out a high school game or evern a Pee Wee game. They play with heart and love of the game. They used to do that in the NHL.
Merry F’n Christmas.
December 21st, 2005 at 5:37 pm
I feel the same way that you do, but I’m willing to give the players this season to learn the new rules, and then learn to exploit them. If, at this time next season, we’re still seeing the hockey that we’re seeing now, i’ll be very upset. I think it’ll be better though.
The ceiling fan of life goes round and round, and doesn’t really get fucked up permanently… minor setbacks are merely that…
December 21st, 2005 at 8:01 pm
Some times you just get your wires crossed and then things click. Leave it to a pro. Thanks
December 22nd, 2005 at 1:41 am
I’ll be honest, the ONLY new rule that I think blows is the misconduct and fine for a fight in the last 5 minutes of a game. (I consider it a “foot-in-the-door” type rule that will lead to them practically eliminating fighting from the game.) As for Stephen Walkom’s Obstruction Crackdown of ‘05, all the extra powerplays that occur each game don’t bother me at all. Even if the PPs did bother me, I know that players will eventually adapt and the powerplays will go down after a while.
But I will say this … I heard that when Brashear fought Boogaard a few days ago that it was Philly’s 5th fight major of the season. What?! Teams out west like Vancouver and Edmonton will sometimes have 5 fights in two games! Even New York pacifist hockey writer Kevin Greenstein has told me how much he has looked forward to the games when Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver come out to New York because of the rougher, more exciting brand of hockey they bring.
Maybe it’s just a case of some of us have been watching differently coached teams than others. Maybe the problem isn’t the NHL, maybe the problem is Hitchcock … and the fact that the whole league is scared to fight Brashear.