Making The Call: Hockey Is Worth A Look

Sorry to disappoint you Henry but if you read my posts, you'll see I said that the sport doesn't suck, its the NHL's brand of hockey that sucks. Euro and college players are infinetely more interesting. The fact that I played gives me more insight into how much of a shitty league the NHL is.

Hockey rules. The players are fucking badasses who fly into each other at 20 miles an hour wearing 20 pounds of padding and keep playing - touch a basketball player on the wrist and he falls down like he's been shot. Not only that, because of the sport's largely blue collar base, hockey players are are a lot more like "regular guys" than pro athletes in other sports. When Ray Lewis gets in trouble, it's because somebody got shot. When Marc Staal gets in trouble, it's because he and his brothers were drunk underage at a bachelor party.

I love that hockey naysayers feel the need to weigh in on a topic that they don't give a damn about. Please - go back to ignoring it. The rest of us who love the sport really won't mind.

Quenepa: Fact is, hockey is the only sport where fighting is not an automatic ejection. That will always lead to the sport being considered "more violent" than the others, no matter what the actual circumstances are.

cobalt: Absolutely right about the TV effects of the lockout. Game attendance was actually up after the lockout, but it was impossible to get games on TV, and I still had trouble finding bars that had the satellite package for playoff games last season.

@rfive,The consummate athlete turned Desperate Housewives fan. Anyone who played the game as much as you did would never disparage it-so you have to be full of shit...

Some guy from Queens killed hockey with stupid labour problems, deCanadianization, and sissy-fication. This can all be fixed by giving Don Cherry absolute control of the NHL.

sorry henry. don't really watch most sports these days. I played hockey in high school @ college. and avidly followed the islanders in the 80s, growing up on LI. Now that I'm out of high school, I realize how many pussies like yourself still think its great entertainment.

I remember when they actually showed hockey games on TV. National TV. then they realized how shitty hockey was and relegated it to some obscure cable channel. The only good thing about hockey were fights between all those stupid "ICING" calls that slowed down the game. Now, the fights are pretty lame and if someone injures somebody else than they are called monsters and suspended for entire seasons! You are going to shelve the only entertaining part of the game? get with it NHL.

@Rfive you must like men's gymnastics-gaywad

People who think that hockey is just about fighting probably don't realize how difficult a game it is to play.

some sport....any other sport which was on a barnstorming foreign tour would try to be on their best behavior. Not NHL hockey. This is wrestling on ice.

Seen games @ the garden.whatever. Ranger fans are the worst people to ride home on the lirr with. Worse than heavy metal fans.

C'mon.

One of the best sports movies EVER is "Slap Shot" starring the late, great Paul Newman.

Get the uncensored version DVD, with the original music.

You'll be puttin' on the foil and playing with your toys in no time!

Seriously, get into it slowly. Watch hockey on tv, it's all over cable starting Friday on the channel that reminds me of a Chinese food headache. If you're in the city, head to Chelsea Piers and watch, especially the night groups that play.

Then find a ticket to the Garden ... the spanking new palace the Devils play in in Newark [very easy to get to by PATH train, NJ Transit or Amtrak] ... or see the closest thing to the old minor league Long Island Ducks of "Slap Shot" fame ["Hey Hanrahan ... your wife's a lesbian ... Lesbian..."]... your New York Islanders.

Hockey .. one of the fastest sports in the world.

Oh, yeah .. one of the toughest, too.

The Washington Capitals' Donald Brashear is one of the best in the game. He's tough. Happens to be black, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CdDOKwVLw

I think its a little sad that we need to re-introduce hockey -- but in a way its hockey's own fault.

Hockey had more of a fan base (as well as coverage on TV/Cable) prior to the lockout. The lockout lasted much too long and during that time people seemed to forget that hockey even existed. It wasn't a good idea for them to stop play for that long. When they finally returned it wasn't to much fanfare. The fans and the media weren't really into it.

Its bounced back slowly since then and I'd love for it to get a bit more popular now. Its a lot of fun to watch. I have to admit - I even like the fights :)

Without watching the game and just seeing the above pic one would think there was a big fight and someone left bloody etc. The fight actually was just this because they fell to ice as they lost balance - why the media only shows hockey fights and then complains about the violence in the sport is beyond me. The only highlights they show are fights - as illustrated above. Why not a shot of a goalie making a split second save? Or a fantastic pic of a puck coming off the blade after a wrist shot.

They never will and this is why hockey gets such a bad rap about violence. The NFL has it's share of violence and I recall Gary Sheffield charging and eventually getting pummeled by the Cleveland Indians but hockey is the only violent sport.... right

babyhitler injecting racist idiotic comments as usual. Hockey is an amazing game. Unlike basketball, where one or two players hog the ball and hurl 45 shots at the basket, hockey is a complete team game.

"So, in this baseball-free October, why not give hockey a chance? You just might like it."

I agree, it's an exciting game to see in person. Best game I about 8 or 9 years ago was Rangers/Devils at the Garden, it was electric.

is hockey the new shake shack?

I only wish people would see it once, then they'll know it's a second rate sport. without the corporate culture it'll would be empty.

Hockey is easily the best live sport to watch. If you have never been to a live game then you are missing out.

I have brought many people to live games and they became instant fans.

Growing up on Long Island, I played all my life and wish I had more chances to still pay at age 32.

I know my Islanders will not be good this season but it was fun playing golf all summer with most of the team on Long Island at our club.

I love how, in the photo, the one guy is getting ready to wing up again while the other looks scared with his gay-hand flailing.

what's wickety wack is comparing the rangers to the knicks!

yeah, the above photo shows the sport @ its best. nhl hockey sucks. olympic or college hockey are mildly entertaining, and when they join the nhl, the sport is as entertaining as the wnba.

#1 word.

There are now more than a dozen negroes in the NHL.

You don't have to be a fan of a particular team like the Rangers to like hockey, either. It's fun just to watch games with any team and see the skill and abuse that these guys take.

You have no idea what you're talking about, baby.

hockey is wack! wickety wack! seriously wickety wack! The only good hockey is olympic hockey. the rangers are basically the Knicks on ice but without the crazy isiah thomas drama which was the only entertaining part of the Knicks. Take that away and you've basically got white truck drivers doing this cause black people haven't taken up the sport and started kicking their asses.

Go Rangers!

The best way to get a friend to become a hockey fan is to take them to a game - nothing like seeing the action and hearing it live.

Thanks for this article - hope to see some of you at the games.