cabledonut

i found myself unable to sleep last night so switched on the tv. not alot on at 4am as usual, so i went with ice hockey. i've watched it before but only bits of it. last night was a full NHL match between black hawks and the other team's name i can't remember.

crazy is all i can say!

all it is is watching men skate around fast on the ice, it's impossible to see the puck. the only time i knew someone had scored was when the commentators said so, i swear i never saw that puck hit the back of the goal.

then what's all the incidental music about? bursts of pop music and some bizarre tunes....

then there's the fights! i knew already that the referees let the fights take place but it was the fight replay that got me. the way the commentators commentate on the fight was hilarious! commenting on the quality of punch thrown and how well it was landed! it went from ice hockey commentary to boxing commentary.

top quality entertainment! if not totally bizarre......

i know it's a big sport in usa and more so in canada. maybe i need to be american or canadian to appreciate it all?


cabledonut.

velo

Well, on some channels (at least in the U. S.), there will be a streak of light that the TV people will put on the screen to help viewers watch the puck and keep track of it.

LoL! The fights are half the game!

I guess you just have to get used to it...I've never played actual ice hockey, but a good game of floor hockey is my second favorite sport (next to you know what...)

velo

Chris L

You mean there's a puck? I am so disappointed! I thought it was just high-speed brawling. Somehow I feel as though I was missing out on something

aerobat

You're right about having to grow up with it! It is pretty fast, but it helps to know where the puck is and where it is likely to go, to keep up with the action.

Fights are part of the game, but in my opinion have gotten a little out of hand. Every year there are attempts to use new rules to tame them a bit, but it never seems to work. They don't want to slow the game down too much.

velocipedio

Like Aerobat said, you kind of have to grow up with it...

But this isn't all that different from any other team sport. I used to play rugby -- and I'm a big fan -- but I have trouble explaining the game to people who've never played it: "Well... you've got two teams of fifteen players, and an oval ball. The object is to retain possession until you cross the end of the field. There are not forward passes... possession is contested when eight of the biggest members of each team get into a group hug and..."

And I have never understood Aussie Rules -- how, exactly, is that scored? -- or why the staid referee/umpire/touch judge does that strange dance? Imagine explaining cricket or jai alai to someone who has never watched a match. Imagine watching your first!

I grew up with hockey [like most Canadians]. I have no trouble following the puck because I instinctively know how to read the action on the ice. I guess it just takes experience.

As for the fights... well, most contact sports are just ritualized violence; in hockey, some players freelance. The other thing is that it is such an aerobically intense game to play [trust me on this], that the players are just this side of the fight-or-flight reflex; it doesn't take much to push 'em over. The fighting used to be much worse, in the mid-1970s. Rule changes have ensured that, though there may be occasional fights, they are rarely bench-clearing brawls, and they tend to be short-lived.

By the way, the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Dallas Stars 3-2.

fubar5

I can see the puck....Hockey is awesome. You know what is totally wierd? Watch figure skating for a few minutes, and switch to a football(not soccer) game. Football suddenly seems very barbaric to say the least.

velocipedio

I've always hated football. It may be that I grew up playing rugby, but football [American and Canadian] always seemed excessive to me: Excessive force, excessive tackling, excessive time-outs... and what's with this forward pass? What weenies!

Hockey is a fast, exciting game. It has much more in common with basketball than with football, although the original rules, I'm told, were intended to be a variation of rugby on ice. There was no forward pass in hockey until 1918.