June 21, 2006
NOTHING COULD BE FINER THAN TO BE IN CAROLINA
Hurricanes capture 1st Stanley Cup (CBC, June 20th, 2006)
The Carolina Hurricanes took a page out of the Edmonton Oilers' playbook Monday night to win the first Stanley Cup in the history of the franchise.
More: Why hockey rules...And other sports suck (Andrew Coyne, National Post, June 21st, 2006)
With the just-completed hockey playoffs coinciding this year with the World Cup of soccer, as well as the overlapping basketball and baseball seasons -- also Canadian football, the U.S. Open of golf and, later this week, Wimbledon -- we are afforded a rare, eclipse-like opportunity to compare the major spectator sports at close range. Compare, and declare: There is one game that stands out as objectively, scientifically, mathematically superior to the rest. I am of course talking about "the best game you can name," le sport des glorieux, the gentlemanly sport of hockey. Let's break it down by category.The game. There is more action in five minutes of hockey than in your average 90-minute game of soccer, whose fans live for the moment when, by some mischance, the ball strays within 50 yards of the net. Basketball suffers from the opposite affliction: As the comedian David Brenner argues, they should start both teams at 100 and make the games two minutes long, since that's what every basketball game comes down to. Only hockey combines frequency of scoring chances with difficulty of actually scoring: Fans, especially at playoff time, are kept in a state of near-permanent hysteria, the prospect of a game-altering goal ever present.
Hockey is fluid, where baseball and football are static. It has been calculated that a 60-minute football game, though it takes nearly three hours to complete, adds up to no more than about 10 minutes of actual playing time. The rest is huddles, signal-calling, etc. Baseball players spend half of every game sitting around on the bench, chewing tobacco. The rest is spent standing around in the field, chewing tobacco. But oh, the geometry.
"The beautiful game?" I'll tell you what's beautiful: a perfectly timed hip check at mid-ice, sending the other player cartwheeling onto his head. It's ice dancing, only with more bruises and fewer sequins.
Posted by Peter Burnet at June 21, 2006 6:15 PM
Did I read it here or elsewhere?
"Ya gotta love a sport where you sharpen part of the equipment."
Posted by: John Resnick at June 21, 2006 7:13 PMThe best sport for guys who like to puck around.
Posted by: obc at June 21, 2006 7:58 PMAll of this presumes that non-stop, edge-of-your-seat action is what you really want in a sport. I'd rather have the natural lulls, the ebb and flow, of a good baseball game, or even football. But maybe that's just me; I prefer the actual football game to the highlights.
Heck, I even prefer soccer to hockey. I'd rather they relax the offsides rule and clamp down on the silly ninnies who milk their "injuries" for more than they're worth, but at least the action makes sense in real-time. In hockey, they need slo-mo instant replay just to let you find the dang puck. And a big green field beats an ice rink any day.
P.S. to John Resnick: baseball players sharpen their cleats.
Posted by: M. Bulger at June 21, 2006 8:05 PM. . . and chess players sharpen their minds.
Posted by: obc at June 21, 2006 8:15 PMHockey in Dixie? Unnatural. Next, they'll be running the Derby in White Horse YU!
Posted by: ghostcat at June 21, 2006 9:31 PMFirst Hurricanes and now Heat. I blame President Bush and global warming!
Posted by: Rick T. at June 21, 2006 10:49 PMIn hockey, they need slo-mo instant replay just to let you find the dang puck.
Which is why it's a bad TV sport but a rocking good time to watch live: you can see the puck, so the flow starts to make sense. Plus if you live in a town with a minor-league (IHL) franchise or a good college team, tickets are still pretty cheap and they skate just as fast.
Posted by: joe shropshire at June 22, 2006 12:24 AMRe: following the puck on TV: Two things really help: an understanding of the game from having played it or having a kid playing it in an organized program, and HDTV. I must commend NBC for broadcasting the entire series in high definition, with some really nice camera work.
We were all rooting for the Oilers at our house. Unfortunately, I think they just ran out of gas.
Posted by: ted welter at June 22, 2006 12:37 AMThe Carolina Hurricanes are the team formerly known as the Hartford Whalers so we Connecticutians are celebrating this one. Hey, what else do we have to celebrate? Hartford isn't even the insurance capital of the world anymore.
Posted by: Bryan at June 22, 2006 6:23 AMAlong with pro wrestling, hockey is about the only North American sport worth watching.
Although yes, the puck needs to be fluorescent orange or something.
Posted by: Ali Choudhury at June 22, 2006 9:27 AMYour pictures are great. nokia6630
Posted by: nydia at July 1, 2006 10:54 PM