And away we go NHL thread!!!!

[clifffclaven]

me too Cliff.

I think all players should learn how to fight and protect themselves. I never understood players relying on other players to do their dirty work, sure you dont want your 10 million dollar hands players to be dropping the mitts To me thta aspect was part of the game and a pride thing that even though I wasn't a goon I was able to drop the mitts when needbe and carry my own and I'm under 6ft and 175lbs....of course I'd think twice about dropping them with a guy like Probert or Domi but if I was pissed off enough I'd give it whirl and take a beating as lesson and hope to land a couple shots along the way

agreed, thats why i would put even money on it- crosbys not a fighter, and they dont want him fighting. Thats why they have godard on the bench. But with the influx of euros in the league, a guy like zetts is at a disadvantage, because he grew up playing a different game, ya know? I started watching hockey around the time wayne was traded to la, But it was evident that you hit wayne, you better be prepared for mcsorley (semenko in edm before that), or twist in st louis. Of course, this was before the instigator, and there seemed (at least to me) to be a little more respect in the game. But wayne and sid still grew up playing canadian/ north american hockey where fighting is prevalent.

thats cool you played, its the one sport i wish i wouldve played.

And, no offfense, but youre out of your freakin mind if you would drop them with probie, domi, or any of those guys. Id just politely skate away.

[atomic charvel guy]

the problem was that nobody could actually catch gretzky to hit him, used to piss me off. there have been protectors and enforcers from the start. Clark Gillies (who could actually play hockey) Terry O'reilly, Schultz, Moose Dupont, shit the list goes on and on......
The Flyers of the 70's were the toughest team in my opinion, physically.

[atomic charvel guy]

The Islanders were no pansies either, they could fight with the best of them too.
Gillies, Howatt, Nystrom, they were tough in every area of the game.

[Endrik]

a guy like zetts is at a disadvantage, because he grew up playing a different game, ya know?

actually he didn't "grew up" playing a different game, kids fight everywhere

pro leagues are a different matter of course, outside NHL the rinks are bigger and games a lot faster so there's a lot less contact... so there's a lot less chance that there's going to be a fight also... of course the referees try to stop the fighters before they go down... there's a couple of reasons too... first the injuries... there's a lot less money involved than in NHL so the fights can end up very pricey, and the other reason is that it slows the game down... most people over here want to see a fast paced game and hockey fights are usually boring to watch anyway unless you are a fanatical fan at the game. But when there's a big brawl, the referees can't do shit. And it depends of the league too, in Finnish SM-Liiga there's a lot more fights than in Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe and Russia.

Then again there's players who just don't want to fight, either they suck at it or just don't have any interest in that sort of activity.

[clifffclaven]

actually he didn't "grew up" playing a different game, kids fight everywhere

pro leagues are a different matter of course, outside NHL the rinks are bigger and games a lot faster so there's a lot less contact... so there's a lot less chance that there's going to be a fight also... of course the referees try to stop the fighters before they go down... there's a couple of reasons too... first the injuries... there's a lot less money involved than in NHL so the fights can end up very pricey, and the other reason is that it slows the game down... most people over here want to see a fast paced game and hockey fights are usually boring to watch anyway unless you are a fanatical fan at the game. But when there's a big brawl, the referees can't do shit. And it depends of the league too, in Finnish SM-Liiga there's a lot more fights than in Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe and Russia.

Then again there's players who just don't want to fight, either they suck at it or just don't have any interest in that sort of activity.

he grew up playing a completely different game. The swedish leagues there is almost no fighting.

Fights boring to watch? i beg to differ.

[Endrik]

he grew up playing a completely different game. The swedish leagues there is almost no fighting.

Fights boring to watch? i beg to differ.

dude, players grew up playing in junior leagues and in junior leagues almost everybody fights, young Swedes don't fight as much as folks in Saskatchewan but no referee, rules, thoughts about penalties or injuries are going to stop teenager's hormones.

personally I find hockey fights very boring to watch, fighting yourself is another matter, once you've seen one fight, you've seen pretty much all... all that gear is in the way of getting good shots out, players are desperately trying to hold the balance, a lot of sucker punches during the brawls, players go down mostly because of half assed wrestling not because of knock downs... it's all incredibly clumsy. You gotta do what you gotta do but man, it looks fucking ridiculous, during a fight you may think you're tough but looking back do you think "oh man, when I fought I was smooth like Ali"

[clifffclaven]

smooth like ali.. thats funny shit

[goodwood]

Goodwood comes out of the woodwork for his annual Crosby bashing while running his man-love for Ovie up the flagpole once again...ho hum

Yes, I can't help but dislike a cupcake and admire a REAL hockey player like Ovechkin. I'll admit the truth all of the time.

Unfortunately I missed the game...did anything go down between those guys earlier on? If Z claims he knew who it was, I have to assume that he knew Sid had a reason to be going after him.

I think Z 'knew it was Crosby' because it is known how Crosby acts when things aren't going his way. It was the same way that he was acting last year prior to Gonchar coming back from injury because the Pens were nothing without Gonchar.



As for the fighting and the style of play and so on...the Olympic hockey was fantastic and now that the NHL is back on it seems lackluster in comparison. I didn't think I'd ever say it because I have always been a fan of the more hitting and the fighting but the Olympic hockey was incredible.

[Shawn Lutz]

The game today is different. There is too much speed with the one on one battles removed from the game, you can't even look at someone in the neutral zone without getting interferance penalty. Todays game is too fast speed wise to keep an enforcer on the bench taking up physical space, minutes (if given any) and cap space. All of which were not around in Gretzky days.

Endrik most Europeans grow up with a different mindset. Their leagues have stricter rules for for players who fight so that curbs a lot of it. As far as Sweden goes, Hank played probably a less aggresive game and league all of his life. I spend a few weeks in Sweden playing the game, I was 14-15 and we were play 16-18 year olds. They out skilled and skated us, after a while the only way we could compete was to be physical and hit them hard. They started hearing footsteps and backing away from what I call the 50-50 battles for lose pucks and whatnot...they avoided the contact and got pissed-off when they got nailed and started taking dumb retalitory penalties. This happened to every team we played against over there.

I played against several Finn teams in tournaments here and they were the same way. I think they only play physical when they play Sweden LOL Czechs and Russians start off with skill but when hit they hit back just as hard back when I played

[atomic charvel guy]

you must all excuse Endy this morning, he's bloated and irregular, and he's run out of Activia...........

[Endrik]

It depends a lot which region the team is from too. Most players from South Swedish metropolises aren't very physical... but hey that's the area where soccer is more popular
But northern Finnish players can be fucking violent. I've seen those kids play, blood everywhere. Mostly those are from small northern villages where people passionately hate the Swedes. It's not a friendly rivalry like most Finns feel but those can be some mean backward people.
But if you look at SM-Liiga then there's a lot more checking going on than in any other European league. Most of it is clean but some players of course are fucking dirty like Jarkko Ruutu.
These days Finnish coaches teach contact play from very early on but Finns are unhappy that they fail to produce as much high caliber skill players like the Swedes do.

Slavic players are of course different, they are the fastest, not as much checking as in Finland but more than in Sweden but slavs can have a very hot temper so some of the hits and fights can be pretty nasty. They definitely gonna revenge if you mess with them.. or at least try.

[Shawn Lutz]

I stayed in Morrow but bussed to different rinks around the area about 1-2 hours from there.

When comparing the Olympic game to todays NHL, I actually like the Olympic rules better. I love physical contact and fighting (if spontaneous and not staged like a lot on the NHL today). I do think once the NHL playoffs start you'll see more of the Olympic type of game as fighting will be way down as too much is at stake to risk getting an extra 2 with the major fighting penalty.

[Endrik]

Yep, I hate staged fighting... those players belong to American Gladiators... I think someone from NBA is behind this shit... they try to fuck Hockey really bad

[atomic charvel guy]

I enjoy a good old fashioned donnybrook any way i can get it.

[Hellbat]

Another headshot takes David Booth out again. After missing 45 games with concussion symptoms I'd say it's fair to say that his season is probably done, if not his career...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1ifchlu1Gg

Spacek did follow through with the hit but Booth really did make himself vulnerable and I think it was a clean check of a puck carrier coming across the blue line.