The NHL is back, do you care? (New Poll 7-28-05)

[chevrock22]

Is there something new in in NHL this year.

[pk500]

Absolutely! Man, I missed hockey last year.

Now we have labor peace, exciting new rules, Sidney Crosby, better competitive balance -- DROP THE PUCK!

Take care,
PK

[e0820]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steve_OS

The NHL is back, do you care?

Im curious to see how the new rules play out and what players have stuck around.

[KBomber]

THe NHL used to be about players who had a quiet nobility about them. If you know anything about the game, you understand that it is likely one of the most physically demanding and that the Stanley Cup Playoffs are more akin to a war of attrition than anything else found in pro sports.

Hockey players were the good guys. The nice guys who would fight like hell on the ice and then go for a beer together afterwards. They were the kinds of guys that you showed your kids and said, "That's a good way to be"

Something unpalatable started happening to pro hockey and the players that played it in around 10 to 15 years ago. They started to change. Oh sure, it wasn't immediately apparent, but if you blinked you could see it when you re-focused that something about the game was changing in a way that wasn't very good. There are a lot of reasons, some blamed the ice surface, some blamed the rules, some blamed expansion, some blamed the owners. There was blame, everywhere, to go around.

As the game changed and became a whole lot more ugly, the players seemed to also reflect that self-same quality. Suddenly, hockey players weren't the noble "warrior-poets" that, at least, I remembered. Suddenly they were guys like Alexei Yashin, playing when it suited him. Suddenly, they were guys like Chris Pronger and Jeremy Roenick, mouthing off like the fans somehow owed them and were beneath them. Suddenly the face of hockey was Todd Bertuzzi, doing things in the name of "The Code" that were beneath honour and used the mystical ambiguities of that term to, somehow, try to rationalize a brutality that, at its core, was not about sportsmanship or the game, but about agenda and heinous violence.

I played hockey for a good portion of my life. Hockey is core to Canada as a pursuit. It defines Canadians and is intricately woven through the fabric of the Canadian experiences of culture and identity. My family was involved with the NHL Oldtimers when guys from the Golden Age were fighting with the NHL and the NHLPA to have something other than memories to see them through their retirements. I've met a great many players from yesteryear and today and, as such, have some basis for comparing those generations. The new guys just don't cut it for me.

I turned off Gary Bettman's and Bob Goodenow's NHL in 2002. The game was hideous. The organization was hideous. The spirit was hideous. And the players were hideous. Sure there may be some good guys in the bunch, found in any of the camps responsible for the NHL and its product, but they are few and far between. Many of them will soon be retired. The NHL won't be back on my radar for any time that I can foresee. I have been successfully disenfranchised from the product and the personalities. To me, it is all a crappy mess. They have a long way to go to prove that it is anything but that to me, and I have other things to do.

Maybe if more "fans" were less like robotic drones and more like an enlightened market of consumers, then they would then be able to convey to the NHL that the brand needs rework through the only media that the NHL and NHLPA understands -- through their profits and losses. Maybe then, realistic and compelling change in the game could occur. But from the comments I see here, I only sense relief amongst the "drones", so happy to to receive whatever scraps he NHL offers from its table, as long as it means that Ron and Don can be seen on Coach's Corner in around 8:15 PM every Saturday night

Just because the NHL says it's the best game of hockey in town, doesn't mean that they're right.

Have fun.............

[Troller]

Sorrry man, but that was pure drivel. I'm from Tampa where the players are more connected to the community than in any hockeytown Iv'e ever lived.(NY, NJ,) There are so many "good guys" in hockey.........more than any of the 4 major sports. Hockey players "character comes under fire far less than NFL, NBA, or MLB. There are problems but far and few compared to say, the NBA. That is the product that has changed and become self-serving, dunk-fest uber-trash. The league is full of "me first" pot heads. How can you criticize the NHL for being an ugly game with ugly players with poor character when you have the NBA, NFL, And MLB that produce condone cancerous behavior on society all the time? T. owens, A.Iverson, K.Bryant, selfish, wife-beating, drug laced players abound in the other 3 leauges while the NHL has by far less isuues. Not zero, but NHL players character when compared to those other 3..........there really is no comparison. To say you grew up on hockey and be so blind to the positives of the sport is shameful. Calling everyone drones who appreciate the game of hockey and the NHL experience makes you a fool in every way.

[KBomber]

Quote: Originally Posted by Troller

Sorrry man, but that was pure drivel. I'm from Tampa where the players are more connected to the community than in any hockeytown Iv'e ever lived.(NY, NJ,) There are so many "good guys" in hockey.........more than any of the 4 major sports. Hockey players "character comes under fire far less than NFL, NBA, or MLB. There are problems but far and few compared to say, the NBA. That is the product that has changed and become self-serving, dunk-fest uber-trash. The league is full of "me first" pot heads. How can you criticize the NHL for being an ugly game with ugly players with poor character when you have the NBA, NFL, And MLB that produce condone cancerous behavior on society all the time? T. owens, A.Iverson, K.Bryant, selfish, wife-beating, drug laced players abound in the other 3 leauges while the NHL has by far less isuues. Not zero, but NHL players character when compared to those other 3..........there really is no comparison. To say you grew up on hockey and be so blind to the positives of the sport is shameful. Calling everyone drones who appreciate the game of hockey and the NHL experience makes you a fool in every way.

I think you need to re-read my post. What I said was that I'm not and will not be an NHL fan. There is a massive difference in understanding the game of hockey and understanding the NHL version of the same.

Nice attempt at a flame war. Maybe next time get a little more conversant with the actual and stated point of what you are reading rather than your misguided interpretation

Have fun............

[Troller]

Calling people drones who support the Nhl isn't flaming......riiiiight. I addressed exactly what your first post described, no question about it. Nice attempt in ducking what you originally said.

[KBomber]

Quote: Originally Posted by Troller

Calling people drones who support the Nhl isn't flaming......riiiiight. I addressed exactly what your first post described, no question about it. Nice attempt in ducking what you originally said.

Your username says it all. I'm done with you

Thanks for your comments, have a nice day

Have fun...........