Letters For the Underemployed: Now Back to our Regularly Scheduled Programming.

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Now Back to our Regularly Scheduled Programming.

First let's update some internet street cred in the world of sports; Two hockey-related articles for your viewing pleasure as I try to update the masses of Mother England about the greatness of hockey.

But first, a comment on the reporting of major newspapers nowadays and trying too hard by none other than Canada TSN's Jay Onrait with a lead-in by Dan O'Toole, looking dapper in this thumbnail;

Excerpt #1

Hockey in a sentence is this; foot-soccer on meth, all centered around making things go faster. The pitch is shrunk down from roughly 360 x 230 feet grass playing field to a shoe box like 200 x 85 feet gladiator’s den covered in ice called a ‘rink’ from which there is no escape barring a small door to your team’s bench where another player is automatically supposed to take your place. To compensate for the smaller playing area the amount of players are cut down to six players per team, with four officials of varying abilities and responsibilities watching for penalties, offsides and the occasional stick to the balls.

The primary goal of hockey is speed, which is accomplished by wearing blades of steel on the soles of kevlar-leather boots to increase overall sliding velocity along the ice. The secondary goal of hockey is goals which are much like foot-soccer. Players use objects called ‘hockey sticks’ to move an object ‘the puck’ towards the opponent’s goal, which is much faster than kicking it. When they score into the net, there is much rejoicing on one side and much blaming of the referees on the other. They have 60 minutes to do this as much as possible before the game ends. Due to the need to repair the ice, games are broken up into three ‘periods’ of twenty minutes each. If after 60 minutes, the game is tied, there is a brief 5 minute overtime and then a shootout which goes on indefinitely or until one goalie gets bored and stops trying so he can go home, taking his equipment with him.

The NHL is about to begin its 95th Stanley Cup campaign. It’s 2.5 months of heightened intensity and do-or-die attitudes and for many men it will be their only chance to have their name etched forever on hockey’s holy grail. It’s a dream many have had since they first laced up a pair of skates and have worked on all their lives. It takes 16 games to win the Stanley Cup but only 4 games lost to have that dream crushed. As with all great sporting leagues, there are a few rivalries that all marketing men and homer fans hope for as teams with a history of going head to head in the playoffs bring some of the most exciting hockey that will be witnessed this lock-out shortened year.

Thanks to the internet and proliferation of free televised sporting events sites, new and old fans from overseas have more opportunity than ever before to watch some of the greatest, high-intensity hockey you will see this year in an ever-evolving game for better or worse.

Here are 6 of the biggest rivalries in the NHL and the chances of us seeing them on the ice this year…

Letters For the Underemployed

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Now Back to our Regularly Scheduled Programming.

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