Raffi Torres can not be stopped from hurting people for fun…
If the Oilers win, Colby Cosh will get a brush cut.
2 more.. 2 more 🙂
The cup will be awarded in Edmonton. Did you see how long they celebrated the win? What were they celebrating? What did they win? Only the chance to play again. They should have already been thinking about game six.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
I’M HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO OILERS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, the Cup will be awarded in Edmonton, by Jason Smith, to the fans, after a long drunken plane ride home from Game 7! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Yah, whatever Kevin….
It was a huge moral win, aren’t they allowed to celebrate after almost everyone had written them off? Besides it wasn’t enuf we had to battle Carolina, we also had to wade through biased officiating all game.
Just look at one example – we got burned by a quick whistle a few games ago and lost a goal. Today the Zebras watched the play and refused to blow the whistle when our goalie covered it, resulting in a Carolina goal. Nice….
Where’s the World Cup threads???
Go Germany!! Yah Australia!
World Cup? Uh, I thought we only talked about sports on here?
Well, with the new NHL and its zero-tolerance reffing policy I’m seeing alot of weak calls. A hook is not just touchin the other player with your stick, its when you impede his progress using your stick. The two main effects of this pantywaist policy is (1)Games decided by the reffs whistle are the norm now and (2)The players are getting good at diving like pansy-assed soccer players at any opportunity.
Other than that massive downside, I really enjoyed this season. Eliminating the centreline is a wonderful thing.
Go Oil!
Who cares what millionaires do in June?
I thought I saw Andy, Goober,Floyd and Aunt Bea in the Carolina crowd last night….probably went down to see the bicg ice hokey game an catch them One ‘o them puck-balls whut was whomped too hard by the skatin’ fellers. 😉
They’re only prolonging a slow death.
GO MIKE COMMODORE GO!!!
World Cup? Isn’t that cricket or something?
Powerplay on the Cane’s second goal, the penalty called behind the net for holding. Bullshit ref call. There was no holding on the play just some shoving. Ref calls a penalty and the Canes score. I quit watching hockey because of poor refereeing. That’s why I don’t watch it during the regular season. Improve the refs like in the late 50s and 60s and maybe people will come back to the game. But when crucial games like the Stanley Cup final can be decided by an idiot in a striped shirt, well that’s when I quit.
When Carolina won game 4, I watched them celebrate for a long time too. That is when I made the prediction that they would lose game 5. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that long celebration on the ice only serves to anger the opposition, and dull any edge Edmonton may have had going.
I like the World Cup. I watch a lot of the England Premier League soccer matches so I’m pulling for England. They are 1 and 0 so far and play Trinidad and Tobago today. T+T stunned Sweden in their opener by playing them to a 0-0 draw. I doubt very much that T+T can win or draw against England with the likes of Owen, Gerrard, Crouch, J.Cole, Beckham, and Rooney, though Rooney may sit out this match and not see action til latter in the World Cup when they face stiffer competition. They want to make sure his fractured foot bone is well healed.
I’m predicting that England will win the World Cup.
Too bad. I was hoping the Not Hardly Likely series would be over. Boring game played by mainly goons.
I’d prefer World Cup, myself. But my real sport is cars.
Too bad.
Game 5 winners usually prevail in a 7 game series. The Canes know that, excessive celebration or not. But a shorthanded goal in overtime is always worthy of a little extra fun. My take is that, millionaires or not, even it is June, Stanley Cup Hockey in Canada Night in Canada on Saturday is as good as it gets. Especially when the underdogs find another way to play another game. The Canes are not likely to last a long series after what Buffalo took them to 7 with no defencemen. I’d say the Oiler have the momentum and could win 3 in a row.
They found Ward’s weakness…he fold like a cheap napkin on a one on one 😉
More break aways, deaks and short side shots in Game 6 Oilers…you’ll prevail…in spite of the criminally abysmal refereeing.
As overtime started I knew the Oil were going to get a penalty. Or putting it another way, I knew the refs couldn’t leave it to the players to decide the game. So I wasn’t surprised when the call came, nor that it was lame (hey that rhymes).
Heckuva shot by Pisani. 2 overtime shorthanded winners in this playoff season – I don’t remember it ever happening once before, but I suppose someone with their nose in a stats book could find another example.
Can I ask an honest question w/o being flamed?
I’ll admit it: I don’t really “get” hockey. I mean, I’m a sports nut generally, but on my list of sports, it is well behind football, baseball, basketball, soccer, rugby…etc. I really don’t understand this country’s obsession with the game (and i was born here!).
So I have to ask: why is it such a big deal?
As a Calgarian and big Flames fan (with a big hate-on for Edmonton during the regular season), I am shocked at how easy it was to adapt to cheering on the Oilers.
As for game six, I am happy to see another game in Edmonton so that I get to listen to the fans sing the national anthem yet again. And then at the end of game five when they continued the “Let’s go Oilers” chant even after the game was over. Edmonton fans are incredible, and no fans deserve a Stanley Cup more than them.
Does not matter about the celebration, it was overtime. Goals are always celebrated more when they are scored in overtime.
Those ‘Canes are a hurtin bunch, Weight and Ward felt the Torres Train. Keep your head up Commodore, he’s got you in his sights…
GO OILERS GO
==
GM -I’ll answer your first question, but will pose a question (2 actually) myself for clarification regarding your second.
1) No.
2) Is there something about hockey that turns you off, or do you really just not find it interesting? The way you see it, does it share anything with soccer?
I now officially have no idea about this series. Equally acceptable predictions are now Carolina in 6/7 and Edmonton in 7.
I just hope this doesn’t turn into two years where the Flames got robbed in Game 6, and Tampa won the cup in 7.
The saddest thing last night was the camera on a young boy (I’d guess under 10) in a canes shirt, with his mother (possibly a players wife and son)and trying very hard to hold back his tears. As for the OT goal, heard on the news this am that it is the first shorthanded OT goal in the history of the Stanley Cup. What’s with Don Cherry, talking about a socer game on coaches corner.
GM:
Your problem is you never played the game. Anyone who has played hockey with any level of skill (i.e. can skate forwards and backwards without falling over, and can make and take a pass at speed) knows that this game combines the artistry of soccer, the speed of jai-alai, the ferocity of American football, the agility of basketball, the grace of figure skating, and the emotions of war.
I can still remember goals I scored over 20 years ago – the puck at the edge of my stick far to my right, a huge scissors move to pull it left past the defense, my entire body balanced on an inch of knife-edged blade, then repeating the move to deke the goalie, and using the very limits of my control to slide it past him into the net. It’s a combination of strength, skill, and speed that no other sport offers.
Every sport has it joys, and I played them all – basketball, baseball, cricket, football, rugby, soccer, tennis, squash, track, and more – but there is nothing that fires the blood like hockey. Every Canadian boy understands why there is fighting; I’ve seen fights erupt at pickup games between friends. When you play the game with intensity – and hockey without intensity is boring, as anyone watching the Maple Leafs play the Columbus Blue Jackets in February knows – desire and emotion take over so completely that reason sometimes takes a back seat.
That’s why, as great as Gretzky was, I’m willing to bet every Oiler fan here would agree that the Moose was the spiritual leader of the Oiler teams of the 80’s. Gretz was the great rationalist, the supreme reader of the game, but Messier was the heart that burned to win.
And perhaps it’s because Canadians in public are relatively mild-mannered and diffident that we love hockey so, for this is our chance to cast off that mask, and let the wild man inside out. It’s why we love overtime – and will never love the shootout – because in overtime, we see the sheer doggedness and determination to overcome the pain and the exhaustion and the desire to just give up that reminds of what our forebears needed to conquer this inhospitable land.
Hockey is equal parts grit and grace, skill and strength, devotion and desire. To paraphrase Orwell, “All games are great, but some games are greater than others”, and hockey is the greatest of them all.
Lots of whining about the refs… I guess the Oiler fans are preping for a game 6 loss 🙂
Overtime is always a crap shoot, one stumble and you fall. The Hurricanes can take some solice in that fact, but they have to be disappointed to lose in such a fashion.
Game 6, no Dora in sight…go Hurricanes.
Habs suck.
john, I can only assume the Flames aren’t the first team you’ve cheered for. Glad you cheer for Calgary, but, for the record, an “authentic” Flames fan ascribes to ABE – Anyone But Edmonton.
I am shocked that any Calgary fan can adapt to cheering for the Oilers. When I tried, I threw up in my mouth. Highly unpleasant. So then I cheered for the other team – San Jose, Anaheim, Carolina – and became filled with joy. You should try it.
In the NHL, Edmonton is no longer in Canada. It is in the burning bowels of an indescribably horrible hell, full of mullet-headed demons weeping and gnashing teeth (or grinding gums, for many of them). To switch allegiances to the ‘chuk is selling your soul (with a side of sour cream, fried onions and bacon bits) to the devil. You will become an automaton of this evil; you will know not what you do or say, but I assure you it will have no bearing on reality and only make you into an unbearable ass.
So for all that is good and right in this world, listen, Flames fans and fans of other Canadian teams: cheering for Greasers will bring nothing but misery and suffering to your lives. Do not condemn Stanley to such degradation. The Cup belongs A-B-E, Anywhere BUT Edmonton!
2 cents: I know this doesn’t constitute a scientific poll, but are the Oilers even more hated than the Leafs (this might get some keyboards going)? Edmonton-Carolina was actually the final I’ve been hoping for from the start of the post-season. But I’m afraid I’m not with you on the A-B-E wagon. Anyway, may it be decided by players…
KevinB – you’re lucky I wasn’t on defence that day ;/ And agreed – never a shootout, must play hockey to determine the winner.
John:
As a kid growing up, i also subscribed to the ABC theory in Edmonton – Anyone But Calgary. In 86 I even cheered for the Habs if you can believe that one. 89 I was kinda on the fence, as I couldn’t take the Habs and at least it wasn’t the Flames that beat the Oil that year.
So imagine my surprise in 2004 when I also came to be cheering for the Flames. The ease at which it happened was shocking to me.
2 cents – I used to be right there with you, but I think the small market solidarity of the past few years has worn me down. The Flames were in the same boat as the Oil – scraping by with young guys before they got too expensive – the Maple Laffs of the world were the #1 enemy, not the Flames. Perhaps with the new landscape, we can get back to hating each other with the passion we once had. Wouldn’t a Flames/Oil Round 2 have been sweet? That probably woulda done it right there!
In any case, Go Oil!
2 cents, waaaait a minute — I thought that was the “ABT” theory, anybody but Toronto…
Hi Kevin,
well, that was some impassioned posting….
Actually, I don’t get the fighting part. I understand passion….I played football, rugby, and a bit of soccer in high school. I’ve played with concussions, i’ve lost teeth…i get that part.
But in football, if a guy did something cheap, you just knocked the crap out of him on the next play….I think i saw fists fly once in 7 years of playing (pee wee and HS)….
BTW, one thing that bothers me is the “every Canadian boy” thing….with all due respect, I was born and raised here…does the fact that I’m not huge on hockey mean that I’m not Canadian?
Grasshopper,
thank you for the thoughtful questions. In response:
1) a bit of both. I guess I’ve never watched it for long enough to get excited. The other major barriers are that I don’t have a lot of respect for the “goons” (there’s a difference between tough play and dirty play, IMO), and the Don Cherry culture that encourages them.
2) Yeah, it does remind me of soccer a bit…at it’s best, it has the same flow and skill level, but…a)soccer has fewer stoppages in play, generally b) soccer is played on a larger pitch that allows more space for skill players c) Soccer has considerably less clutching and holding….though I understand that the NHL is trying to address this.
I guess I want to know, if I wanted to understand it better, and possibly enjoy it more, what would you suggest?
GM:
I guess my “every Canadian boy” was a bit over the top. I apologize; I’m sure you’re as Canadian as I am.
Sure you don’t fight in football; what are you going to do, hit his helmet with your fist? A hockey fight usually results in nothing more than a few bruises. That’s why a lot of Canadians don’t like European players; they use their sticks to get even (Marian Hossa is a classic example – he’s cut more players than a busy surgeon) instead of their fists.
If you want to understand hockey better, and you’re at all physically able, play it! There are lots of beginner leagues even for older adults, and you’ll be amazed at how much fun, even at a recreational level, that it is.
Daryl, I understand your point about small market solidarity, but once the landscape changed (post-lockout), I found it ridiculously simple to begin hating the Oiler passionately again. Yeah, there were times when both AB teams really sucked and we could commiserate. But those days are in the past.
grasshopper, as much as I dislike the Leafs, they pose no threat to win the Stanley Cup. I liken it to disliking an old dog. It can be annoying, barking and farting and such, but overall completely harmless.
GM, in addition to your points about soccer, you forgot one: it is insufferably boring to watch. The European stadium crowds have made cheering into a mass-appeal artform, so much so that people like to go in order to be part of the crowd, not the game. Frankly, you could have them tossing horseshoes out there and the fans would still be into it. (Actually, in horseshoes, at least someone will score now and again.)
Italy vs U.S.A in the afternoon, Oilers in game 6 of the Finals at night.
Pinch me.
ENGLANDENGLANDENGLAND!!!
Let’s goooooooo Oilers!
GM – It sounds simple, but if you can bear to watch a few games (a bit like listening to a new CD a few times before entering a verdict), you’ll probably be able too “see” the game a little better, and start to anticipate the play. I think that really helps. It a lot more fun, too, if you have a favourite team, so that you actually care about the outcome. Unless you devote a lot of time to it, it’s hard to learn the players on very many teams (especially now that there are 1,417 teams in the league). If you at least know the ones on “your” team, you again can anticipate better what the individual players might do. With respect to the fighting and clutching and grabbing – it’s unfortunate, but it’s getting better. In particular, you’ll see VERY little fighting in the playoffs, and I would venture a guess that you’ll see none for the duration of this year (if someone runs the goalie, my confidence in this drops).
On the other hand, if you don’t watch hockey you free up a lot of evenings.
One final note – watch the right* wingers very closely – they’re dangerous ;|
* or left – you choose
The action on Whyte last night was quite subdued. Are people getting exhausted from the regular celebrations or is it that the police are handing out jaywalking tickets at the slightest provocation and have been witnessed at being pretty quick at slamming people onto the ground and cuffing them if they show even a little resistance? They may be going over the top at times, though I guess they have to show they mean business. The cops are getting pretty tired of having to put in all that overtime after a full day on the beat.
Grasshopper and Kevin,
Thank you once again for some helpful responses.
So I guess I’ll catch the next couple games and try to start watching more next year….
As for having a team, I understand totally what you mean: my interest in basketball increases 5-fold if the pistons are playing, for example…
…suppose I wanted to watch a decent team full of younger, faster, skill players who play as a team(sort of like the Russians at the recent olympics…they were fun to watch)…who should I check out?
(I’m from SW Ontario, but the Leafs are clearly not an option)
GM:
As much as I hate to say it, the Sabres and the Senators are two very fast, very good teams. The Sens are especially fun to watch, as they play a great attacking style. If you have satellite, you can probably get a lot of Sens games.
GM:
Concur with KevinB – the Sabres are right up there skating wise. The Buffalo-Carolina series was quite fun to watch. If you weren’t paying attention, you’d think it was Western Conference teams!
On that note, in the past I’ve found the Western Conference to be the more up-tempo, hard skating style of play. Hopefully that will start to expand across the league with the new rules, but last year it still held true. Not surprising with the personel on the teams being geared to a different style.
Being in the Eastern timezone tho, staying up to watch west coast hockey is tough on my job concentration, so plan accordingly!! In in Michigan, but cheer for the Oilers so it gets late sometimes. (Their first round win over the Wings was sweet tho, i have to say!)
Last night’s game was a brief reprieve for that poor Edmonton sap that had the cup tatooed on his entire back.
There’s a very good chance the ‘chuk will take game 6 at the Coliseum. Then we’ll see about game 7 and the tatooed Whyte Avenue denizen.
the sens??
who would have thought that so many Euro types were so over interested in golfing to give up early.
Its like the sens recruited nothing but unionized scots. Lazy to the point of disgust.
Can this weekend get any better for a sportsfan?
1st up…RIDERS vs. Lions (TSN Friday Night Football)
2nd…OILERS vs. Canes….Sat night
3rd…U.S. Open Golf fiinal round Sunday afternoon
4th….WORLD CUP soccer….ALL weekend (between all the stuff listed above)
5th…JAYS baseball…maybe only get to see an inning or two
If this is what heaven’s like…
Anyone else willing to give up their Visa card to their wife for the weekend??? This lineup of sports is pretty well worth it IMO.
Canes in six! Woohoo!
Heaven….
Oilers win in seven
and
My 72 fresh virgins to boot!
Woohoo! Oilers in seven, I hope.
Raffi Torres can not be stopped from hurting people for fun…
If the Oilers win, Colby Cosh will get a brush cut.
2 more.. 2 more 🙂
The cup will be awarded in Edmonton. Did you see how long they celebrated the win? What were they celebrating? What did they win? Only the chance to play again. They should have already been thinking about game six.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
I’M HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO OILERS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, the Cup will be awarded in Edmonton, by Jason Smith, to the fans, after a long drunken plane ride home from Game 7! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Yah, whatever Kevin….
It was a huge moral win, aren’t they allowed to celebrate after almost everyone had written them off? Besides it wasn’t enuf we had to battle Carolina, we also had to wade through biased officiating all game.
Just look at one example – we got burned by a quick whistle a few games ago and lost a goal. Today the Zebras watched the play and refused to blow the whistle when our goalie covered it, resulting in a Carolina goal. Nice….
Where’s the World Cup threads???
Go Germany!! Yah Australia!
World Cup? Uh, I thought we only talked about sports on here?
Well, with the new NHL and its zero-tolerance reffing policy I’m seeing alot of weak calls. A hook is not just touchin the other player with your stick, its when you impede his progress using your stick. The two main effects of this pantywaist policy is (1)Games decided by the reffs whistle are the norm now and (2)The players are getting good at diving like pansy-assed soccer players at any opportunity.
Other than that massive downside, I really enjoyed this season. Eliminating the centreline is a wonderful thing.
Go Oil!
Who cares what millionaires do in June?
I thought I saw Andy, Goober,Floyd and Aunt Bea in the Carolina crowd last night….probably went down to see the bicg ice hokey game an catch them One ‘o them puck-balls whut was whomped too hard by the skatin’ fellers. 😉
They’re only prolonging a slow death.
GO MIKE COMMODORE GO!!!
World Cup? Isn’t that cricket or something?
Powerplay on the Cane’s second goal, the penalty called behind the net for holding. Bullshit ref call. There was no holding on the play just some shoving. Ref calls a penalty and the Canes score. I quit watching hockey because of poor refereeing. That’s why I don’t watch it during the regular season. Improve the refs like in the late 50s and 60s and maybe people will come back to the game. But when crucial games like the Stanley Cup final can be decided by an idiot in a striped shirt, well that’s when I quit.
When Carolina won game 4, I watched them celebrate for a long time too. That is when I made the prediction that they would lose game 5. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that long celebration on the ice only serves to anger the opposition, and dull any edge Edmonton may have had going.
I like the World Cup. I watch a lot of the England Premier League soccer matches so I’m pulling for England. They are 1 and 0 so far and play Trinidad and Tobago today. T+T stunned Sweden in their opener by playing them to a 0-0 draw. I doubt very much that T+T can win or draw against England with the likes of Owen, Gerrard, Crouch, J.Cole, Beckham, and Rooney, though Rooney may sit out this match and not see action til latter in the World Cup when they face stiffer competition. They want to make sure his fractured foot bone is well healed.
I’m predicting that England will win the World Cup.
Too bad. I was hoping the Not Hardly Likely series would be over. Boring game played by mainly goons.
I’d prefer World Cup, myself. But my real sport is cars.
Too bad.
Game 5 winners usually prevail in a 7 game series. The Canes know that, excessive celebration or not. But a shorthanded goal in overtime is always worthy of a little extra fun. My take is that, millionaires or not, even it is June, Stanley Cup Hockey in Canada Night in Canada on Saturday is as good as it gets. Especially when the underdogs find another way to play another game. The Canes are not likely to last a long series after what Buffalo took them to 7 with no defencemen. I’d say the Oiler have the momentum and could win 3 in a row.
They found Ward’s weakness…he fold like a cheap napkin on a one on one 😉
More break aways, deaks and short side shots in Game 6 Oilers…you’ll prevail…in spite of the criminally abysmal refereeing.
As overtime started I knew the Oil were going to get a penalty. Or putting it another way, I knew the refs couldn’t leave it to the players to decide the game. So I wasn’t surprised when the call came, nor that it was lame (hey that rhymes).
Heckuva shot by Pisani. 2 overtime shorthanded winners in this playoff season – I don’t remember it ever happening once before, but I suppose someone with their nose in a stats book could find another example.
Can I ask an honest question w/o being flamed?
I’ll admit it: I don’t really “get” hockey. I mean, I’m a sports nut generally, but on my list of sports, it is well behind football, baseball, basketball, soccer, rugby…etc. I really don’t understand this country’s obsession with the game (and i was born here!).
So I have to ask: why is it such a big deal?
As a Calgarian and big Flames fan (with a big hate-on for Edmonton during the regular season), I am shocked at how easy it was to adapt to cheering on the Oilers.
As for game six, I am happy to see another game in Edmonton so that I get to listen to the fans sing the national anthem yet again. And then at the end of game five when they continued the “Let’s go Oilers” chant even after the game was over. Edmonton fans are incredible, and no fans deserve a Stanley Cup more than them.
Does not matter about the celebration, it was overtime. Goals are always celebrated more when they are scored in overtime.
Those ‘Canes are a hurtin bunch, Weight and Ward felt the Torres Train. Keep your head up Commodore, he’s got you in his sights…
GO OILERS GO
==
GM -I’ll answer your first question, but will pose a question (2 actually) myself for clarification regarding your second.
1) No.
2) Is there something about hockey that turns you off, or do you really just not find it interesting? The way you see it, does it share anything with soccer?
I now officially have no idea about this series. Equally acceptable predictions are now Carolina in 6/7 and Edmonton in 7.
I just hope this doesn’t turn into two years where the Flames got robbed in Game 6, and Tampa won the cup in 7.
The saddest thing last night was the camera on a young boy (I’d guess under 10) in a canes shirt, with his mother (possibly a players wife and son)and trying very hard to hold back his tears. As for the OT goal, heard on the news this am that it is the first shorthanded OT goal in the history of the Stanley Cup. What’s with Don Cherry, talking about a socer game on coaches corner.
GM:
Your problem is you never played the game. Anyone who has played hockey with any level of skill (i.e. can skate forwards and backwards without falling over, and can make and take a pass at speed) knows that this game combines the artistry of soccer, the speed of jai-alai, the ferocity of American football, the agility of basketball, the grace of figure skating, and the emotions of war.
I can still remember goals I scored over 20 years ago – the puck at the edge of my stick far to my right, a huge scissors move to pull it left past the defense, my entire body balanced on an inch of knife-edged blade, then repeating the move to deke the goalie, and using the very limits of my control to slide it past him into the net. It’s a combination of strength, skill, and speed that no other sport offers.
Every sport has it joys, and I played them all – basketball, baseball, cricket, football, rugby, soccer, tennis, squash, track, and more – but there is nothing that fires the blood like hockey. Every Canadian boy understands why there is fighting; I’ve seen fights erupt at pickup games between friends. When you play the game with intensity – and hockey without intensity is boring, as anyone watching the Maple Leafs play the Columbus Blue Jackets in February knows – desire and emotion take over so completely that reason sometimes takes a back seat.
That’s why, as great as Gretzky was, I’m willing to bet every Oiler fan here would agree that the Moose was the spiritual leader of the Oiler teams of the 80’s. Gretz was the great rationalist, the supreme reader of the game, but Messier was the heart that burned to win.
And perhaps it’s because Canadians in public are relatively mild-mannered and diffident that we love hockey so, for this is our chance to cast off that mask, and let the wild man inside out. It’s why we love overtime – and will never love the shootout – because in overtime, we see the sheer doggedness and determination to overcome the pain and the exhaustion and the desire to just give up that reminds of what our forebears needed to conquer this inhospitable land.
Hockey is equal parts grit and grace, skill and strength, devotion and desire. To paraphrase Orwell, “All games are great, but some games are greater than others”, and hockey is the greatest of them all.
Lots of whining about the refs… I guess the Oiler fans are preping for a game 6 loss 🙂
Overtime is always a crap shoot, one stumble and you fall. The Hurricanes can take some solice in that fact, but they have to be disappointed to lose in such a fashion.
Game 6, no Dora in sight…go Hurricanes.
Habs suck.
john, I can only assume the Flames aren’t the first team you’ve cheered for. Glad you cheer for Calgary, but, for the record, an “authentic” Flames fan ascribes to ABE – Anyone But Edmonton.
I am shocked that any Calgary fan can adapt to cheering for the Oilers. When I tried, I threw up in my mouth. Highly unpleasant. So then I cheered for the other team – San Jose, Anaheim, Carolina – and became filled with joy. You should try it.
In the NHL, Edmonton is no longer in Canada. It is in the burning bowels of an indescribably horrible hell, full of mullet-headed demons weeping and gnashing teeth (or grinding gums, for many of them). To switch allegiances to the ‘chuk is selling your soul (with a side of sour cream, fried onions and bacon bits) to the devil. You will become an automaton of this evil; you will know not what you do or say, but I assure you it will have no bearing on reality and only make you into an unbearable ass.
So for all that is good and right in this world, listen, Flames fans and fans of other Canadian teams: cheering for Greasers will bring nothing but misery and suffering to your lives. Do not condemn Stanley to such degradation. The Cup belongs A-B-E, Anywhere BUT Edmonton!
2 cents: I know this doesn’t constitute a scientific poll, but are the Oilers even more hated than the Leafs (this might get some keyboards going)? Edmonton-Carolina was actually the final I’ve been hoping for from the start of the post-season. But I’m afraid I’m not with you on the A-B-E wagon. Anyway, may it be decided by players…
KevinB – you’re lucky I wasn’t on defence that day ;/ And agreed – never a shootout, must play hockey to determine the winner.
John:
As a kid growing up, i also subscribed to the ABC theory in Edmonton – Anyone But Calgary. In 86 I even cheered for the Habs if you can believe that one. 89 I was kinda on the fence, as I couldn’t take the Habs and at least it wasn’t the Flames that beat the Oil that year.
So imagine my surprise in 2004 when I also came to be cheering for the Flames. The ease at which it happened was shocking to me.
2 cents – I used to be right there with you, but I think the small market solidarity of the past few years has worn me down. The Flames were in the same boat as the Oil – scraping by with young guys before they got too expensive – the Maple Laffs of the world were the #1 enemy, not the Flames. Perhaps with the new landscape, we can get back to hating each other with the passion we once had. Wouldn’t a Flames/Oil Round 2 have been sweet? That probably woulda done it right there!
In any case, Go Oil!
2 cents, waaaait a minute — I thought that was the “ABT” theory, anybody but Toronto…
Hi Kevin,
well, that was some impassioned posting….
Actually, I don’t get the fighting part. I understand passion….I played football, rugby, and a bit of soccer in high school. I’ve played with concussions, i’ve lost teeth…i get that part.
But in football, if a guy did something cheap, you just knocked the crap out of him on the next play….I think i saw fists fly once in 7 years of playing (pee wee and HS)….
BTW, one thing that bothers me is the “every Canadian boy” thing….with all due respect, I was born and raised here…does the fact that I’m not huge on hockey mean that I’m not Canadian?
Grasshopper,
thank you for the thoughtful questions. In response:
1) a bit of both. I guess I’ve never watched it for long enough to get excited. The other major barriers are that I don’t have a lot of respect for the “goons” (there’s a difference between tough play and dirty play, IMO), and the Don Cherry culture that encourages them.
2) Yeah, it does remind me of soccer a bit…at it’s best, it has the same flow and skill level, but…a)soccer has fewer stoppages in play, generally b) soccer is played on a larger pitch that allows more space for skill players c) Soccer has considerably less clutching and holding….though I understand that the NHL is trying to address this.
I guess I want to know, if I wanted to understand it better, and possibly enjoy it more, what would you suggest?
GM:
I guess my “every Canadian boy” was a bit over the top. I apologize; I’m sure you’re as Canadian as I am.
Sure you don’t fight in football; what are you going to do, hit his helmet with your fist? A hockey fight usually results in nothing more than a few bruises. That’s why a lot of Canadians don’t like European players; they use their sticks to get even (Marian Hossa is a classic example – he’s cut more players than a busy surgeon) instead of their fists.
If you want to understand hockey better, and you’re at all physically able, play it! There are lots of beginner leagues even for older adults, and you’ll be amazed at how much fun, even at a recreational level, that it is.
Daryl, I understand your point about small market solidarity, but once the landscape changed (post-lockout), I found it ridiculously simple to begin hating the Oiler passionately again. Yeah, there were times when both AB teams really sucked and we could commiserate. But those days are in the past.
grasshopper, as much as I dislike the Leafs, they pose no threat to win the Stanley Cup. I liken it to disliking an old dog. It can be annoying, barking and farting and such, but overall completely harmless.
GM, in addition to your points about soccer, you forgot one: it is insufferably boring to watch. The European stadium crowds have made cheering into a mass-appeal artform, so much so that people like to go in order to be part of the crowd, not the game. Frankly, you could have them tossing horseshoes out there and the fans would still be into it. (Actually, in horseshoes, at least someone will score now and again.)
Italy vs U.S.A in the afternoon, Oilers in game 6 of the Finals at night.
Pinch me.
ENGLANDENGLANDENGLAND!!!
Let’s goooooooo Oilers!
GM – It sounds simple, but if you can bear to watch a few games (a bit like listening to a new CD a few times before entering a verdict), you’ll probably be able too “see” the game a little better, and start to anticipate the play. I think that really helps. It a lot more fun, too, if you have a favourite team, so that you actually care about the outcome. Unless you devote a lot of time to it, it’s hard to learn the players on very many teams (especially now that there are 1,417 teams in the league). If you at least know the ones on “your” team, you again can anticipate better what the individual players might do. With respect to the fighting and clutching and grabbing – it’s unfortunate, but it’s getting better. In particular, you’ll see VERY little fighting in the playoffs, and I would venture a guess that you’ll see none for the duration of this year (if someone runs the goalie, my confidence in this drops).
On the other hand, if you don’t watch hockey you free up a lot of evenings.
One final note – watch the right* wingers very closely – they’re dangerous ;|
* or left – you choose
The action on Whyte last night was quite subdued. Are people getting exhausted from the regular celebrations or is it that the police are handing out jaywalking tickets at the slightest provocation and have been witnessed at being pretty quick at slamming people onto the ground and cuffing them if they show even a little resistance? They may be going over the top at times, though I guess they have to show they mean business. The cops are getting pretty tired of having to put in all that overtime after a full day on the beat.
Grasshopper and Kevin,
Thank you once again for some helpful responses.
So I guess I’ll catch the next couple games and try to start watching more next year….
As for having a team, I understand totally what you mean: my interest in basketball increases 5-fold if the pistons are playing, for example…
…suppose I wanted to watch a decent team full of younger, faster, skill players who play as a team(sort of like the Russians at the recent olympics…they were fun to watch)…who should I check out?
(I’m from SW Ontario, but the Leafs are clearly not an option)
GM:
As much as I hate to say it, the Sabres and the Senators are two very fast, very good teams. The Sens are especially fun to watch, as they play a great attacking style. If you have satellite, you can probably get a lot of Sens games.
GM:
Concur with KevinB – the Sabres are right up there skating wise. The Buffalo-Carolina series was quite fun to watch. If you weren’t paying attention, you’d think it was Western Conference teams!
On that note, in the past I’ve found the Western Conference to be the more up-tempo, hard skating style of play. Hopefully that will start to expand across the league with the new rules, but last year it still held true. Not surprising with the personel on the teams being geared to a different style.
Being in the Eastern timezone tho, staying up to watch west coast hockey is tough on my job concentration, so plan accordingly!! In in Michigan, but cheer for the Oilers so it gets late sometimes. (Their first round win over the Wings was sweet tho, i have to say!)
Last night’s game was a brief reprieve for that poor Edmonton sap that had the cup tatooed on his entire back.
There’s a very good chance the ‘chuk will take game 6 at the Coliseum. Then we’ll see about game 7 and the tatooed Whyte Avenue denizen.
the sens??
who would have thought that so many Euro types were so over interested in golfing to give up early.
Its like the sens recruited nothing but unionized scots. Lazy to the point of disgust.
Can this weekend get any better for a sportsfan?
1st up…RIDERS vs. Lions (TSN Friday Night Football)
2nd…OILERS vs. Canes….Sat night
3rd…U.S. Open Golf fiinal round Sunday afternoon
4th….WORLD CUP soccer….ALL weekend (between all the stuff listed above)
5th…JAYS baseball…maybe only get to see an inning or two
If this is what heaven’s like…
Anyone else willing to give up their Visa card to their wife for the weekend??? This lineup of sports is pretty well worth it IMO.
Canes in six! Woohoo!
Heaven….
Oilers win in seven
and
My 72 fresh virgins to boot!