Post by janie on Feb 10, 2010 14:00:56 GMT -5
www.canada.com/sports/2010wintergames/reasons+Canadians+nuts+about+hockey/2531783/story.html
By Gord McIntyre, Canwest News Service
February 6, 2010
In honour of the 17 days of the Vancouver Olympic Games, here are 17 reasons why Canadians are nuts about hockey:
1. The Stanley Cup trophy. The venerable Cup is the only one among major North American championship trophies not struck anew each year; the Stanley Cup- winning team keeps it until a new champ is crowned, then passes it on (one man has a full-time job chaperoning it). Uniquely, the names of its winning players, coaches, etc., are engraved on the chalice.
2. The name game. No one knows what the World Series trophy is named after. The Vince Lombardi Trophy has a nice ring. Same for the Ashes, America's Cup, Davis Cup, Gentlemen's Singles Trophy, Larry O'Brien Trophy, Ryder Cup and William Webb Ellis trophy. (Thumbs down on the Winston-Nextel-Sprint Cup.) Lord Stanley of Preston donated the hockey silverware in 1892. It's also become known as The Holy Grail and Lord Stanley's Mug.
3. Hockey's hard to win. There's no championship trophy that's harder to win than the Stanley Cup - four series of best-of-sevens after an 82-game regular season. The toll it takes on the players fighting for it is legendary, and admired. It's similarly hard to get up at 4 a.m. to get your kid to a practice at 4:30 a.m. when it's -12 C.
4. Take it home. You play on the team that wins the Stanley Cup, you get to bring it home for a day. The Cup has been all over the North American hinterland and around the world, falling in canals, being left behind in bars, floated in swimming pools and being sipped from in seedy peeler joints. Several clandestine trips to auto-body shops have also been needed to bang out dents left in the Cup from player revelry. Think that's ever happened to the World Cup or the NBA Championship Trophy?
5. Jargon. It's not a jersey, it's a hockey sweater. It's a rink, not an all- purpose centre. They're periods, not 20-minute sessions, and that's a puck, not a disc. There's also left-wing lock, the slot, cycling the puck and the sin bin, which is better known as
6. The Penalty box. Forget giving up yards, free kicks, yellow flags or foul shots; in hockey you go to jail: ``You go to the box, two minutes by yourself, you know, and you feel shame. Then you get free.'' - Slapshot, 1977.
7. Change on the fly. In soccer they hold a flag up on the sideline waiting for a stoppage in play; in football it's a control-freak's dream when players run on and off the field; in baseball it's clockwork; NASCAR's pit lane tries to come close but it's no cigar compared with 10 men skating off while 10 more jump onto the ice in hockey. Just ask Don Cherry, ill-fated coach of the Boston Bruins who famously cost his men the Stanley Cup by mismanaging the exercise and got a penalty for too many men on the ice.
8. Sudden Death. The longest playoff game in the NHL lasted almost 180 minutes, with Mud Bruneteau scoring at the 176:30 mark to give the Detroit Red Wings a 1-0 win over the Montreal Maroons in 1936. Yes baseball goes on indefinitely, too, but it's not sudden death unless it's the final team at bat.
9. Flipping the puck to the ref. Ever see Alex Rodriguez backhand a baseball to the ump, Tiger Woods wrist a sand wedge to an official? Sure, football players toss balls to refs, but try flipping an oblong piece of rubber delicately into the hands of the guy who's whistling you down.
10. Shootout moves. NBA players make similarly spectacular moves, but during phony-baloney all-star dunking contests. In NHL shootouts, when wins are on the line, guys tuck pucks between their legs, bounce them off their skate blades, make 360-degree spins and bat pucks out of the air.
11. Gordie Howe Hat Trick. It's a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game. Name another sport that has anything like it. Hitting for the cycle in baseball is the closest thing that comes to mind and that usually doesn't involve missing teeth.
12. Gordie Howe is Mr. Hockey. That in itself is what's cool about hockey. While the sport has its Great One and Magnificent One, and other sports have their Mr. October, names such as Mr. Baseball are reserved for flicks (Tom Selleck), trophies (Mr. Football, Ohio high school player of the year), Mr. NASCAR (all about models) and Mr. Footy (infomercial geek for Aussie Rules).
13. Line nicknames. The French Connection, Legion of Doom, Production Line, GAG Line, HEM Line, Russian's famous KLM Line, Party Line, the Triple Crown, Westcoast Express and, best line never to actually make it to prime time, the Mattress Line (Daniel and Henrik Sedin and Jason King, two twins and a King).
14. Pulling the goalie. Here's the equivalent: After an interception, the quarterback runs off the field and a cornerback comes on; after a deep line to left field the pitcher runs to the dugout and a shortstop with a good arm runs to the mound . . .
15. Two intermissions. Somewhere between baseball/cricket/curling (multiple intermissions) and soccer/football (one intermission) falls hockey with its perfect formula of three stanzas of 20 minutes with two 17 minutes breaks in- between. Beer and bathroom breaks are never an issue.
16. No guns, no ambushes. No hockey player has been caught with guns in his locker nor shot himself in the leg at a nightclub. In hockey, your only weapon is the one you hold in your hands during games.
17. The Hockey Sweater (the book). It's a kid's novella and it will tell you several things about hockey and about Canada. The original French title is: Une abominable feuille d'erable Sur la glace (An abominable maple leaf on the ice). The most battle-hardened Celtic-Rangers veteran can't begin to understand the Leafs-Habs dichotomy. Author Roch Carrier captures the combination of otherness, childhood frustration, religious oppression and adult suppression, and the pent-up joy that's released when you jump on the ice with blades strapped to your feet, pushing the limits and hoping the ref doesn't see your worst transgressions. In other words, the rebel in the hockey player in all of us.
Vancouver Province
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
By Gord McIntyre, Canwest News Service
February 6, 2010
In honour of the 17 days of the Vancouver Olympic Games, here are 17 reasons why Canadians are nuts about hockey:
1. The Stanley Cup trophy. The venerable Cup is the only one among major North American championship trophies not struck anew each year; the Stanley Cup- winning team keeps it until a new champ is crowned, then passes it on (one man has a full-time job chaperoning it). Uniquely, the names of its winning players, coaches, etc., are engraved on the chalice.
2. The name game. No one knows what the World Series trophy is named after. The Vince Lombardi Trophy has a nice ring. Same for the Ashes, America's Cup, Davis Cup, Gentlemen's Singles Trophy, Larry O'Brien Trophy, Ryder Cup and William Webb Ellis trophy. (Thumbs down on the Winston-Nextel-Sprint Cup.) Lord Stanley of Preston donated the hockey silverware in 1892. It's also become known as The Holy Grail and Lord Stanley's Mug.
3. Hockey's hard to win. There's no championship trophy that's harder to win than the Stanley Cup - four series of best-of-sevens after an 82-game regular season. The toll it takes on the players fighting for it is legendary, and admired. It's similarly hard to get up at 4 a.m. to get your kid to a practice at 4:30 a.m. when it's -12 C.
4. Take it home. You play on the team that wins the Stanley Cup, you get to bring it home for a day. The Cup has been all over the North American hinterland and around the world, falling in canals, being left behind in bars, floated in swimming pools and being sipped from in seedy peeler joints. Several clandestine trips to auto-body shops have also been needed to bang out dents left in the Cup from player revelry. Think that's ever happened to the World Cup or the NBA Championship Trophy?
5. Jargon. It's not a jersey, it's a hockey sweater. It's a rink, not an all- purpose centre. They're periods, not 20-minute sessions, and that's a puck, not a disc. There's also left-wing lock, the slot, cycling the puck and the sin bin, which is better known as
6. The Penalty box. Forget giving up yards, free kicks, yellow flags or foul shots; in hockey you go to jail: ``You go to the box, two minutes by yourself, you know, and you feel shame. Then you get free.'' - Slapshot, 1977.
7. Change on the fly. In soccer they hold a flag up on the sideline waiting for a stoppage in play; in football it's a control-freak's dream when players run on and off the field; in baseball it's clockwork; NASCAR's pit lane tries to come close but it's no cigar compared with 10 men skating off while 10 more jump onto the ice in hockey. Just ask Don Cherry, ill-fated coach of the Boston Bruins who famously cost his men the Stanley Cup by mismanaging the exercise and got a penalty for too many men on the ice.
8. Sudden Death. The longest playoff game in the NHL lasted almost 180 minutes, with Mud Bruneteau scoring at the 176:30 mark to give the Detroit Red Wings a 1-0 win over the Montreal Maroons in 1936. Yes baseball goes on indefinitely, too, but it's not sudden death unless it's the final team at bat.
9. Flipping the puck to the ref. Ever see Alex Rodriguez backhand a baseball to the ump, Tiger Woods wrist a sand wedge to an official? Sure, football players toss balls to refs, but try flipping an oblong piece of rubber delicately into the hands of the guy who's whistling you down.
10. Shootout moves. NBA players make similarly spectacular moves, but during phony-baloney all-star dunking contests. In NHL shootouts, when wins are on the line, guys tuck pucks between their legs, bounce them off their skate blades, make 360-degree spins and bat pucks out of the air.
11. Gordie Howe Hat Trick. It's a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game. Name another sport that has anything like it. Hitting for the cycle in baseball is the closest thing that comes to mind and that usually doesn't involve missing teeth.
12. Gordie Howe is Mr. Hockey. That in itself is what's cool about hockey. While the sport has its Great One and Magnificent One, and other sports have their Mr. October, names such as Mr. Baseball are reserved for flicks (Tom Selleck), trophies (Mr. Football, Ohio high school player of the year), Mr. NASCAR (all about models) and Mr. Footy (infomercial geek for Aussie Rules).
13. Line nicknames. The French Connection, Legion of Doom, Production Line, GAG Line, HEM Line, Russian's famous KLM Line, Party Line, the Triple Crown, Westcoast Express and, best line never to actually make it to prime time, the Mattress Line (Daniel and Henrik Sedin and Jason King, two twins and a King).
14. Pulling the goalie. Here's the equivalent: After an interception, the quarterback runs off the field and a cornerback comes on; after a deep line to left field the pitcher runs to the dugout and a shortstop with a good arm runs to the mound . . .
15. Two intermissions. Somewhere between baseball/cricket/curling (multiple intermissions) and soccer/football (one intermission) falls hockey with its perfect formula of three stanzas of 20 minutes with two 17 minutes breaks in- between. Beer and bathroom breaks are never an issue.
16. No guns, no ambushes. No hockey player has been caught with guns in his locker nor shot himself in the leg at a nightclub. In hockey, your only weapon is the one you hold in your hands during games.
17. The Hockey Sweater (the book). It's a kid's novella and it will tell you several things about hockey and about Canada. The original French title is: Une abominable feuille d'erable Sur la glace (An abominable maple leaf on the ice). The most battle-hardened Celtic-Rangers veteran can't begin to understand the Leafs-Habs dichotomy. Author Roch Carrier captures the combination of otherness, childhood frustration, religious oppression and adult suppression, and the pent-up joy that's released when you jump on the ice with blades strapped to your feet, pushing the limits and hoping the ref doesn't see your worst transgressions. In other words, the rebel in the hockey player in all of us.
Vancouver Province
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
