No too bad an introduction to hockey I don’t think.

Favourite line: “For example, there are times in every hockey game when the puck skitters into a corner or behind the net and players on opposing teams converge to dispute possession.”

“It’s mine!”
“No! He was there first!”
“Yeah! I was here first!”
“I was holding it before you even thought of entering this dispute!”
“I had intention to blow my whistle. Disagreement nullified. The floor is now closed.”

Posted by Nathan from BC on 02/08/10 at 03:25 PM ET

The skill of watching ice hockey on television is knowing where the puck is probably going, not focusing on where it is at any given moment.

Exactly what I tell everyone who doesn’t watch much hockey or complains that they can’t follow the puck.  Watch enough and you can tell where it is by looking at the players on the ice.  My fiance has been watching games casually with me for the past 2 seasons now and she’s even said that by watching it more, she has an easier time following the action.

Explaining how NHL games are officiated on the other hand…

Posted by Incognetis from Delaware... Hi... I'm in... Delaware on 02/08/10 at 03:32 PM ET

I approve of the author’s use of “flummoxes the goalie.”

Not bad at all, despite a bit of “that’s hockey” snark. At least they’ve got the right idea with the game.

Posted by Nate A from Detroit-ish on 02/08/10 at 03:52 PM ET

The skill of watching ice hockey on television is knowing where the puck is probably going, not focusing on where it is at any given moment.

exactly.  a difficult skill to acquire, but you have to watch the play not the puck.

once you master this, it makes hockey so much fun to watch because you can see things coming before they happen - players sneaking into the slot, making room for a breakaway, lining up a long pass, etc.

I always love it when Mickey Redmond says “look out” a few seconds before something big happens.

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 02/08/10 at 04:07 PM ET

I just read the whole article.  it paints a horrible picture of hockey - one that we as fans in the US would like to see disappear.  this “he dies, he dies” attitude is not at all what hockey is about.  I wish that was a blog post I could comment on.

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 02/08/10 at 04:16 PM ET

Yeah it almost makes it sound like the players want to get injured. Really it’s just that they play the game so hard, with intensity, speed, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win, that some injures occur. You wouldn’t know it from watching Red Wings games, but injuries don’t happen most games, but this article implies it happens every time a player is hit into the boards.

Body armour? It’s not like they have on iron scale mail armor.
A hockey match? No one calls it that.
Getting walloped? No one calls it that.
Overlaps? I don’t even know what that is.

There’s also no mention of pretty tape-to-tape passing plays, dangling with the puck playing keep away from the defenseman, end-to-end action for several minutes at a time with no stoppages of play, or any other of the high-skill plays that keep me watching hockey. From this article, hockey sounds like a bunch of goons beating their opponents into submission.

Posted by Muero on 02/08/10 at 06:53 PM ET

Body armour? It’s not like they have on iron scale mail armor.
A hockey match? No one calls it that.
Getting walloped? No one calls it that.
Overlaps? I don’t even know what that is.

Well, ok, but people in different parts of the (English-speaking) world have different terminology for lots of things. Watch a “football match” called by British broadcasters on the BBC, and then watch the same “soccer game” called by Americans on ESPN, and you’ll hear a lot of different words that refer to the same things.

That’s the way of the world, whether it’s hockey, soccer, or like, *the news*, dude.

Posted by Josh from Whitehorse, Yukon on 02/09/10 at 01:01 PM ET