The Red Wings are in the playoffs!!!! Ok, so it wasn't much of a stretch. After a while you just begin to expect these things. To tell you the truth, I haven't really been following hockey much this season. Not that the Wings aren't an excellent team, but I kind of feel like the hockey they brought back after the lockout isn't really like the hockey I know and love. I still enjoy the sport, but it just seems a little different. This "family-friendly", offensively fast game just doesn't feel the same to me. Maybe it's just the team I grew up on, but I want to see a couple of teams duke it out. The scoring doesn't even make sense anymore. Scoring use to tell you a little something about the other team. If your team scored more than three goals in a game, then you knew that the other team really sucked and probably needed to go back to their knitting circle meetings. But now you get these higher scoring games because "America demanded a faster paced game." Does tradition mean nothing? Do we have to tailor everything to the ADD / MTV generation? I mean 6-3 is not a hockey score, it's a player's height. But not anymore. And this whole shootout thing being exciting....Huh? A breakaway is exciting because it occurs during the game and is usually the result of either extreme skill or extreme luck. Hell, if I just wanted to watch someone skate from the midline and shoot on goal to decide the game, why don't they just do that at the beginning and quit wasting my time. Now get through three or four overtimes when everyone is exhausted, then a shootout might be interesting, but this? Nah.
The fighting isn't even really worth talking about. I've never wanted to see anyone get seriously hurt, but most of the guys in these fights jumped into them of their own free will...adreneline influencing them or not. And don't even think about checking too hard or the whistle will get blown before you even get done thinking about making the hit.
Ah well, maybe I just need some time to adjust. Now that I've got it off my chest maybe I can sit and enjoy the playoffs. But I can't be alone. Last I heard there are still playoff tickets available for Friday's game.
Playoff tickets available in Hockeytown.
That just doesn't happen.
Welcome to the new NHL
1 comment:
I do share your pain. My enjoyment of hockey has waned because of the new way of playing. This new offense that means we crowd around the net and swing our sticks until the puck just falls into the net.
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