John Scott. Most everyone not associated with the NHL PR machine have no idea who he is. A lot of people in the NHL probably don't know who he is. Except Phil Kessel. Simply put, John Scott is one of the last of a special breed of hockey player. He's a pugilist, an enforcer, an intimidater, a goon. No matter how you put it, out of all the teams he has played for (9 and counting) he has never been hired to put the puck in the net. He's been hired to serve and protect, old school.
Someone apparently called one of the professional (read; paying) minor farm leagues, in particular the Federal hockey league, a 'beer league'.
In response, 2 opposing players took matters into their own hands. Apparently this is being banned just as quickly from Youtube as quickly as people are uploading it, but here's a good link that won't ask you to 'join facebook' or 'like this thing that is useless to you' to proceed.
I'd embed it but frankly, don't know how. if you do and care to tell me how, let me know in the comments.
After last weekend's raucous display between the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks off the opening face-off, there were really only two questions; how badly did John Tortorella need a vacation from his once-powerful now mediocre Canucks and 2, what is up with Kevin Bieksa?
First, let me state that I enjoy Kevin Bieksa. He seems to be a funny guy. He jokes with the assembled sports reporters like a high school quarterback that acknowledges the local nerd squad. He looks to be the type of guy that makes funny comments after the waitress walks away and is constantly daring you to do something stupid and because it's Kevin Bieksa, you kind of want to do it.
In this little pre-season brew-ha-ha, one thing is for certain; the NHL rules committee is getting drunk on it's own stupid power. I sorta get the goalie pad thing but don't get the over-the-glass thing. I don't understand being able to face wash someone but not get punched in the face for doing it. There definitely should be no-touch icing but instead they decide to worry about head injuries that may be related to fighting.
I'll let you watch the video before we comment on the peculiar beginnings to it.
Did you notice the way that they hugged each other at the start, tapping the other's helmets off? That's to get around a rule that gives an extra 2 minutes to 'any player that removes their helmet for the purpose of fighting'. -Seriously?
It's pretty bad that most of the real fighting has gone out of the game, leaving only those lame-ass glove in the face scrums that are even more pointless and time-consuming than a WWE's time with the microphone.
But now the league has decided that any player that dares to show a modicum of personality (in one of the few avenues left available to him) they will receive an extra two minutes? Come on, NHL. Embrace your heritage, not hide from it. Not one fan ever has said "ah, what the fuck man? That guy took his helmet off to fight? That should be a penalty!"
We here at Ogieoglethorpe (so, me basically) says if someone wants to take a few extra punches to the head instead of having to dish out the extra dollars to replace a broken helmet, let'm. I get the concussion argument but really, these guys aren't out to break their hands or the other guy's heads. They are just trying to win a job, as politely as possible while punching someone. That's why they have their code.
The only other way this is going to go is that every enforcer that follows the code will be sitting for 7 minutes each fight if their opponent takes off their helmet and face scorn and ridicule from myself (and others) if he doesn't.
Oh yeah, it should go without saying that it was very 'gallant' of them to take each other's helmets off before engaging in an actually pretty good tilt.
Watch out world; I just learnt how to embed a video directly on the blog. Now i don't have to rely on Big Brother's Youtube with their annoying pre-video advertisements. So for my 1st post-advertising linked video, I give you this adorable little bit of poor sportsmanship from what must be the New York Islanders family appreciation skate day. I am guessing that this is a young John Tavares taking on a petulant Matt Moulson over who gets to use the hockey stick first today. As you can see, a confused Michael Grabner tries to intervene to no avail and then comes the cute chase to see who can get to the team trainer first to declare an upper-body injury.
fer pete's sake, another commercial? Internet where have you gone wrong???
First; let's start with these two guys who will go down in history as 'those two guys who had a great fight not-fight'.
One of these guys apparently represents the Cornwall River Kings, which is so close to Corn hole that it's too easy. I don't know who the other team is. A google search tells me that they are both tough guys and are playing in the NAHL, which is basically a french (you can tell by their names) semi-pro league (you can tell by the ice). Plus, NAHL stands for Nord America Hockey League. Nord is french for North. I think.
So let's see how to have a real hockey fight;
I am sure it's just a coincidence that at the top are two french guys, at the bottom there are two not french guys. I think Don Cherry is calling me to go out for some pops now.
But in all fairness, it's not just because they are in different leagues. Here's another classic not-fight between two guys that aren't french. One of them is actually Irish, which makes this slightly more embarrassing as he went on to become quite the punching bag in later tilts with Mark Messier and Wendell Clark, to name a few.
So an odd thing happened at a Montreal hockey game this week...a Canadiens player stood up for himself.
Ryan White pulled a Dan Carcillo in last night's game against Buffalo and in particular Steve Ott, for what really was a pretty light hip check. My grandma has bumped into me harder than that. Yet Ryan White didn't get the memo about 'playing smart' and jumped Ott, resulting in a double minor and nearly cost Montreal the game. This was White's second trip onto the coach's shitlist in the last week for stupid penalties so I think he's going to be watching a few from the press box for the next week.
However, after this I began thinking of all the tough Montreal Canadians that have pummeled the crap out of opponents in the last decade. This is all that i could come up with;
