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| | From:  KEMARUS (Original Message) | Sent: 4/30/2004 4:11 PM |
Just had to add this one. Big game on the line tonight and Philly fans are psyched. |
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Sorry, I'm a B's fan with memories of 1974. I have to go with the Lightning. |
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Being from the west coast and now hawaii, I never warmed up to hockey. Yet, it sure is popular in cold places. My dad tried to ge me to like it because he was from Detroit, but no kid played it and that was the key to liking it. The issue I have is with the fighting. That is disgusting, is not sports related and is accepted by the league. What's with the bare-fisted fighting? I can see a good body check, but this swinging at each other is awful. All other sports suspend for many games when people fight like they do in hockey every night. Once I brought this up to a canadian and he said that no one would watch hockey if there were not fights. I truly do not know. I kind of see hockey like I see soccer... not enough points scored and too much up and down with no results. Oh well, in Hawaii, nobody gets hockey at all. No snow here (thank god... it must be a learned pain that snow... when I lived in it, it was no fun at all). Anyway, here, all they care about is local sports... volleyball is big and UH stuff. |
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Let me just put in my two cents on the fight issue. While I disagree that people wouldn't watch if there were no fights, I don't see fights as non hockey related. They are directly related to the flow of the game. One fight can change the momentum of the game and swing it in favor of the other team. Fighting is necessary to protect your top star at times. And it is used as intimidation. But the true fighters of hockey also have their standards. They do not fight a non fighter, although they will rough it up in the heat of the battle. If you want to separate fighting from the dirty stick work and other dirty moves in hockey, yes, it does have a place, whereas those other issues have no place in hockey. As for other sports, baseball fans who thumb their nose at hockey are rather hypocritical (and I don't direct this at the last poster, just as a general statement). When there is a bench clearing brawl in baseball, these fans don't turn away. They cheer. But these are the same who deride the fighting as an element of hockey. I never heard someone say that they didn't like baseball because of their bench clearing brawls, but do these people realize that these types of fights are prevalent in baseball and occur frequently, while they do not occur in hockey. There has not been a bench clearing brawl in hockey for years, while it is a weekly event in baseball. And no, they are not suspended long for those brawls in baseball. Those players may get thrown out of the game, but they are back on the field the next night. |
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Yeah, but in bench clearing brawls, it is more of a pile on. When someone truly is slugged, like with the grotesque bare-fisted style in hockey, there are suspensions galore. In baseball, lots of punches miss and it's kind of a fake brouhaha. In hockey, they pound each other like a one on one street brawl and it is sickening. They grab and then punch, punch, punch until there is someone bloodied. You do dnot see that in the other sports... someone grabs the guys. In the case of Kermit Washington who broke Rudy Tomjanovich's face in basketball, his career was over after that. It was a brutal sucker punch that he could never live down. And, really, do not think I am trying to rail at hockey, I am just trying to understand it. It promotes an apparent brutality and I don't get it. If you want to protect, why not body check and hassle and muscle rather than slug in the face, push someone's face into the ice and use the stick as a battlefield weapon. In football, you are penalized for even taking the helmet off. Football fights are non-fights. In basketball, almost all of the punches miss and then the players are grabbed. Baseball fights are a joke... no one ever goes toe to toe. It's usually charge the mound and tackle while the pitcher throws a wild punch adn then it is a pile on and pull away. Now, off the field, that is different. Take Billy Martin who was the king of the sucker punch. He was always in fights (god rest his soul). |
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I've been avoiding this thread like the plague, because I don't want to jinx the orange and black, but had to add my 2 cents. Being a lifelong Flyers fan, I don't have a big issue with the fighting. Hell, that's how we ended up with 2 Stanley Cups here. What is overlooked sometimes with those 2 teams is the amount of skill they had. Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach...all highly skilled, and some second echelon players, like Gary Dornhoefer, Bill Clement (the announcer), Cowboy Bill Flett. Those 70's Flyers had some skill to go along with the toughness. Not to mention Bernie Parent. Only the Lord saved more than Bernie. The problem with hockey IMO isn't the fighting. You don't see a whole lot of it anymore, and the league has tried to curtail it somewhat. Suspensions for multiple game misconducts, and instigator penalties which lead to those game misconducts are at least an attemt to curtail it somewhat. The bigger issue as I see it is the stickwork. That's a dangerous weapon, and if I attack someone with a stick, I'm going to jail. The fighting is sometimes necessary to protect your more skilled players from that type of brutality. Another thing that ruins the game is the clutching, grabbing, interfering style of play. Eliminate that crap, and you would see higher scoring games. There would be more flow, and your skill players would be better able to do their thing.Ironic, coming from a Flyers fan, but I'd much rather see Jeremy Roenick and Simon Gagne on a 2 on one break, than to see Donald Brashear pounding on someone. By the way, I've been a fan since the 70's as well Bruce. Managed to build up a pretty good hatred for the Bruins way back then. Not like I hate the Rangers, but Espo, and O'Reilly, and Cheevers and that bunch weren't favorites around my house. Although it ticked my Pop off that I did enjoying watching Bobby Orr. When I learned to skate I played defense, and pretended I was Orr. John |
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Thanks you guys for clueing me in on this. |
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And John, what you have written about your beliefs in hockey is something I agree with. All the clutching and grabbing and stickwork, and the trap which keeps coaches employed...THOSE are the real problems with hockey. Imagine life without all that, and hockey would be returned to its breathtaking greatness. By the way, I also learned a hatred of the Flyers back in the 70's. Not as bad as my hatred of the Habs, but it is there. I was so desperately rooting against your guys last month. Nothing personal, man, I just couldn't forget that 74 Stanley Cup. I remember where I was when the Flyers won that last game 1-0. Those players you have mentioned? They were the types of characters we could stamd to see more of in hockey, today.  |
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