This is my hockey

This is hockey people. It pisses me off when I hear the whining and sniveling coming from the casual hockey fan about violence in Hockey. I found myself entering a conversation the other day about the re-acquiring of Steve Macintyre. A guy known for his fisticuffs, hard hits and nothing much there after. This conversation between these dimwits started off with them stating that the Oilers screwed up the team by getting rid of Nilsson and O'sullivan and then "replacing" them with guys like Macintyre and Vandermeer. "Goons who have no place in hockey." "It sends the wrong message." "I don't want my kids playing hockey because it's getting too violent."

Well, that's just
fucked. Vandermeer is a physical defenseman, not really the protege goon, so I won't even go there and Macintyre isn't replacing anyone. Big Mac is a security player who may be lucky if he gets a dozen games in throughout the season. Somebody I'd want on my team when you are relaunching a new brand of players -- young and skilled.

All you need to do is look at the Oilers and the players that have missed extensive time the last couple of years -- it's obvious the Oilers were in need of a more physical brand of hockey. We were forced to watch a bunch of pussies trying to play a mans game. A team that was easy to play against and coughed up numerous turnovers. Thank christ Tambellini smartened up and got rid of some of these fairies.

Secondly, how is hockey all of a sudden becoming "too violent"? Anyone remember the Bruins and Mike Milbury hopping over the boards and fighting fans right in their seats -- Milbury taking the fans shoe and hitting him over the head repeatedly! Or Maurice Richard's punching out the ref after he just had enough with all the bullshit he endured? Don't answer yes, cause like fuck you remember that; It was ages ago -- but it happened.

We will never see these actions ever again. There use to be bloody team brawls, coaches throwing sticks at refs, players throwing water bottles at refs, fans falling into penalty boxes, Hextall breaking sticks and always punching the net cam in a pissed off rage. Some of this wasn't long ago, and yet we no longer see this shit. Avery tried and he got shut out of the game each and every time.

This all started when the NHL tried changing the game after the lockout. They tried taking out the clutching and grabbing completely, they hoped to weed out the said "goons" and allow the smaller skilled players to flourish. Then all of sudden a team that said screw that shit beat up their opponents in the playoffs. The Anaheim Ducks encouraged other teams to bring back the big boys. 

Now most recently the NHL is on it's way to try and eliminate hits to the head. What I don't understand is why hits have come under fire so much lately and why the NHL is just trying to add more rules for the referees to fuck up.  I understand there has been incidents with players being rocked, but why should a player let up just because the receiving player has his head down and, to his own fault, unaware of his surroundings.

The NHL can only go so far. They made helmets mandatory, no elbows, no high sticks, there is no charging, there is no boarding, there is no 3rd man in. What more can you do? If the NHL wants to have a more politically correct game, the only way you can take out hits to the head is to take out hits -- and their goes your American audience.

All we need to do is look at pre-Bettman, when his atrocious 7 million dollar salary didn't exist, and realize hockey was damn good in the old days. What happened if Gretzky got rocked? I think we all know the answers to that. Back then their wasn't an instigator rule and players policed themselves, they didn't have bulky hard plastic shoulder pads and elbow pads, and the players earned the respect of others. This is what made the game pure. There was no bullshit or politics

The game is meant to be played with your heart on your sleeve. So I say suck it up casual fans, we don't need you ruining our game anymore. Go watch soccer or something.