Around the NHL: Part XVI - Born on the First of July

[Amazing Kreiderman]

yah that's more pretentious than my meaning, you don't have to know how to skate to watch hockey; but I am speaking to something true about sports generally. it's hard to appreciate what's happening if you've never tried to do it yourself or are ever presented with an opportunity to do so.

I'm not making an 'you've never played so you don't know statement'. If you're experience led you to hockey without any exposure to ice-skating before or during your coming to watch it regularly, great. I don't doubt your insights. I'm just speaking to my experience as a hockey fan in America, in traditional and non-traditional markets. It's a rarity, just as finding a basketball fan who never shot at a hoop is.

Seemed like @aufheben got my meaning, but I apologize if that was an insulting.

I was 99% sure you didn't mean it that way. Just thought it sounded funny the way you worded it

 

[n8]

I don’t care if you need a a Lamborghini to play hockey, it costs for all intents and purposes $0.00 to watch hockey. Posting a handful of old highlight clips via one of the most significant social media platforms in the world during one of the sport’s busiest weeks of the year is totally unacceptable.

PK Subban traded? Nah. Rangers sign Panarin? Nah. Marner? Nah. Canadiens swiping right on literally every RFA? Nah. Here’s five Corey Crawford saves from six ****ing months ago. You’re welcome.

Two big difference: It's important to be able to do the thing to appreciate it. One does not appreciate an activity and the skilled required to do it well until they themselves have tried it themselves and can see the fun in the activity. Ever try painting and then go to a museum? You go from "it's just a painting" to "how the holy **** did he get those paints to do that?!" When one dribbles a basketball or any ball (something pretty much everyone has done), you can appreciate more the skill needed to dribble like Stephen Curry. Humans don't always have the best sense of empathy needed to put themselves in someone else's shoes doing something they've never done before so while you can watch hockey for free, it doesn't mean you can just relate to it the same way you do walking, running, or bouncing a ball.

Second: hockey is more complicated and generally harder to understand (especially because it involves a lot of things people have never done themselves before). It's hard to fathom all the pieces together, let alone someone performing each one well individually to appreciate them alone.

• Skating is one element most people have never tried. It's like a foreign and frightening concept for many beginners. It might as well be magic. Heck, maybe the NHL should advertise itself as Ice Quidditch. The greater variability in speed presents all sorts of different situations you simply don't get in other sports.
• Stick handling - again something most people have never done or understand well
• Shooting/Passing - read above
• Body check / Board work / Physical Puck Protection / etc - this is like combining skating and stick handling. If they can't understand the two individually, how can they understand them put together?
• Tracking the play - one of the biggest complaints is "I can't follow the game" exhibit A: Fox Glowing Puck. It's valid and it takes a lot of watching to learn the skill and all the body language tells that help a viewer figure out where the puck is. I think people who see a live game get a better sense of where the puck is.
• Did I mention goaltending? That's entirely another bag of skills.

I do agree that the NHL's coverage of the off season is deplorable though.

 

[aufheben]

The FoxTrax puck was absolute madness, lirl, but they were on the right track (pun very intended). It was creative, and it was a way to change how people viewed the game without actually changing the game itself.

 

[eco's bones]

I've got jetspeed skates..they ran me 350 bucks.. I waited til they were on clearance. I need a specific boot shape and I like the extra support. Now imagine a kid whose growing a shoe size every 6 months to a year or what not... That 350 dollar pair of skates is more like 3 or 4 thousand dollars in skates.

My daughter constantly asks me if she can play hockey with me and my wife...and we say yes... But odds are she's going to have to use donated equipment that the local women's club has to introduce girls to hockey. If we didn't have access to that I'm not sure we could afford to send her to hockey


She loves running around with a stick and a ball so she wants to play in the ice. That goes from 50 bucks to a grand easy if yr buying new gear.

My son has Asperger's and he never had an interest. I remember grabbing him by the hands and skating backwards with him--just to get him going forward in something of a rhythmic pattern. He would drag on me something awful--did not want to do it and after a few times I just let him be. He's just not into sports. It's okay. My daughter to please me messed around with it for a year or so. None of her friends were interested though--that probably would have helped. She's not into sports either. She didn't get the competitive thing either--someone just bumping into her and taking the puck away. She'd get mad and frustrated. So that was it for my kids--they both played soccer for a while--they were okay with that. I was okay with it too.

I have friends though--they spent tons of $'s.

As far as me after I started using CCM skates I pretty much stuck with them. With kids and skate sizes--that costs. There's the other thing of keeping up with the richest kid on the team--or not falling too far behind.

 

[Inferno]

Two big difference: It's important to be able to do the thing to appreciate it. One does not appreciate an activity and the skilled required to do it well until they themselves have tried it themselves and can see the fun in the activity. Ever try painting and then go to a museum? You go from "it's just a painting" to "how the holy **** did he get those paints to do that?!" When one dribbles a basketball or any ball (something pretty much everyone has done), you can appreciate more the skill needed to dribble like Stephen Curry. Humans don't always have the best sense of empathy needed to put themselves in someone else's shoes doing something they've never done before so while you can watch hockey for free, it doesn't mean you can just relate to it the same way you do walking, running, or bouncing a ball.

Second: hockey is more complicated and generally harder to understand (especially because it involves a lot of things people have never done themselves before). It's hard to fathom all the pieces together, let alone someone performing each one well individually to appreciate them alone.

• Skating is one element most people have never tried. It's like a foreign and frightening concept for many beginners. It might as well be magic. Heck, maybe the NHL should advertise itself as Ice Quidditch. The greater variability in speed presents all sorts of different situations you simply don't get in other sports.
• Stick handling - again something most people have never done or understand well
• Shooting/Passing - read above
• Body check / Board work / Physical Puck Protection / etc - this is like combining skating and stick handling. If they can't understand the two individually, how can they understand them put together?
• Tracking the play - one of the biggest complaints is "I can't follow the game" exhibit A: Fox Glowing Puck. It's valid and it takes a lot of watching to learn the skill and all the body language tells that help a viewer figure out where the puck is. I think people who see a live game get a better sense of where the puck is.
• Did I mention goaltending? That's entirely another bag of skills.

I do agree that the NHL's coverage of the off season is deplorable though.

Agreed with all this..I mean one of the things I always am marveling at is the ability for NHL players to catch bad passes...that's one thing you really need to play to get...catching those passes that are at your skates and transitioning it to your stick without breaking stride...it's nuts how they do that. I'd probably break my ankles trying to do that.

 

[eco's bones]

Agreed with all this..I mean one of the things I always am marveling at is the ability for NHL players to catch bad passes...that's one thing you really need to play to get...catching those passes that are at your skates and transitioning it to your stick without breaking stride...it's nuts how they do that. I'd probably break my ankles trying to do that.

For a pass in your skates if you lift the front foot up and let the puck hit off the back foot it tends to kick up towards your stick a lot better.

 

[Inferno]

For a pass in your skates if you lift the front foot up and let the puck hit off the back foot it tends to kick up towards your stick a lot better.

Yeah.... Usually I just watch it fly by since I don't have those skills lol.

 

[cheech70]

Jealousy in what sense!!! LMAO.

Mitch's father is a jerk, always has been. Never worked for him before and it wont with the Leafs.

He always tried to play hardball with all of the teams that Mitch played for. I will never forget one time Marner and McDavid squared off in an OTHL game. Marner scored 6 goals in one game, McDavid only had an assist. But all the coverage was on McDavid. Paul was so pissed, he threw a tantrum at the next practice blaming the coaching staff for not putting his son in opportunities to be noticed. Truth be told, he even threatened to take Mitch off the team. Didn't make Mitch come out to practices for 2 weeks. Teammates and parents didn't like it, and in the end the team called his bluff and Paul was begging for Mitch to come back to the rink and rejoin his teammates.

Paul isn't your typical hockey father, he goes to the extreme. Imagine Walter Gretzky back in the day, selling off his sons equipment and signed jerseys to make money!!!!! This is what Paul has done. If it weren't for Lou Lameriello putting him in his place, he would be making money off of his son via websites.

He doesn't care about Mitch, he cares about the $$$ and is all for pimping out his son to get them.

There is no jealousy here, just stating the facts.

Looking around for some news and read this about Marners Father. YIKES..I stay away as a GM

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

For a pass in your skates if you lift the front foot up and let the puck hit off the back foot it tends to kick up towards your stick a lot better.

Try doing this at top speed and see if you don't end up on the ice face first lol.

 

[I Eat Crow]

This isnt the first I've heard of Marner's family being a nightmare to deal with.

I want him dealt to Edmonton for the lulz after reading the story of Marner Senior blowing his top when his son played McDavid's team.

 

[PlamsUnlimited]

Try doing this at top speed and see if you don't end up on the ice face first lol.

That is why, when I am not playing goalie, I pretty much just try to gently get it corralled because most of the time I will end up missing or off balance

 

[eco's bones]

Try doing this at top speed and see if you don't end up on the ice face first lol.

Look I don't how good a skater you were or are but I skated for a good 40 years. I had no problems with balance--forward, backward or laterally.

It's physics and choreography in a way--and look you're not going to get it every time but if you can catch it on the back half of your back skate it angles back forward. Think as well how a goalie kind of deadens a puck after making a save. You're kind of trying to do that and not let the puck fly way past you. You do it often enough it becomes easier and it's a thing you can practice with another player easily enough. Start off in a standing position and have someone pass--not hard and catch it with your skate and angle it towards your stick. Do it with both feet and don't worry if it don't work so hot the first couple times--just worry about getting better. He/She then can start doing it while you're moving---just build from slow to faster and you keep playing around with it until it gets easier and more natural.

Anyway I had my own particular issues I never completely worked out--for instance when I was using my basement as my practice rink (using rollerblades and it's a pretty large basement) I was probably shooting it at 90-95 mph--you'd think I was Bobby Hull but whenever I played in a real indoor or outdoor rink the velocity seemed to go way down--it must have been aerodynamics or something--I never figured it out and I hardly ever scored from more than 30' out.

The thing is though you need tricks or advantages or ways to cheat or angle people off because your opponents are almost always evil in some way or at least until the game is over. You can learn by watching others and you can learn by asking. You got to put in the time then too.

 

[Synergy27]

Two big difference: It's important to be able to do the thing to appreciate it. One does not appreciate an activity and the skilled required to do it well until they themselves have tried it themselves and can see the fun in the activity. Ever try painting and then go to a museum? You go from "it's just a painting" to "how the holy **** did he get those paints to do that?!" When one dribbles a basketball or any ball (something pretty much everyone has done), you can appreciate more the skill needed to dribble like Stephen Curry. Humans don't always have the best sense of empathy needed to put themselves in someone else's shoes doing something they've never done before so while you can watch hockey for free, it doesn't mean you can just relate to it the same way you do walking, running, or bouncing a ball.

Second: hockey is more complicated and generally harder to understand (especially because it involves a lot of things people have never done themselves before). It's hard to fathom all the pieces together, let alone someone performing each one well individually to appreciate them alone.

• Skating is one element most people have never tried. It's like a foreign and frightening concept for many beginners. It might as well be magic. Heck, maybe the NHL should advertise itself as Ice Quidditch. The greater variability in speed presents all sorts of different situations you simply don't get in other sports.
• Stick handling - again something most people have never done or understand well
• Shooting/Passing - read above
• Body check / Board work / Physical Puck Protection / etc - this is like combining skating and stick handling. If they can't understand the two individually, how can they understand them put together?
• Tracking the play - one of the biggest complaints is "I can't follow the game" exhibit A: Fox Glowing Puck. It's valid and it takes a lot of watching to learn the skill and all the body language tells that help a viewer figure out where the puck is. I think people who see a live game get a better sense of where the puck is.
• Did I mention goaltending? That's entirely another bag of skills.

I do agree that the NHL's coverage of the off season is deplorable though.

You better watch out for the guys who police the “if you’ve ever played the game” argument.

 

[MyLoveIsBlue]

 

[Deleted member 23124]

View attachment 243575

I haven't seen that cartoon in ages (won't say how many)!!!

 

[Leetch3]

 

[eco's bones]

Amazing!---Kevin LaBanc signs a 1 year deal for $1mil after putting up a 56 point season. Talk about taking one for the team.

 

[aufheben]

Looks like an elementary school. I kinda dig it though.

 

[Matt Rentfree]

Amazing!---Kevin LaBanc signs a 1 year deal for $1mil after putting up a 56 point season. Talk about taking one for the team.

Does this mean we can sign Trouba for 1 year at $892,857?

 

[Procrastinator]

For reference the NBA’s YouTube has over 11,000,000 subscribers.

I had a conversation with an Uber driver this week in Las Vegas that pretty much confirmed my thoughts about the NHL’s marketing. He “had no idea” how fast-paced, action-packed, and physical the NHL is. His family loves hockey now because of the Golden Knights—they had literally never seen hockey before.

You shouldn’t have to add a new franchise to expose people to the sport in 2019.

Unfortunately hockey always was and always will be the red headed step child in America.

Besides hockey is an acquired taste and has an almost cult like following. In my experience true hockey fans only really like hockey. Soccer being a 2nd because of obvious similarities besides the ice. And mostly with the Europeans.

 

[Procrastinator]

I don’t care if you need a a Lamborghini to play hockey, it costs for all intents and purposes $0.00 to watch hockey. Posting a handful of old highlight clips via one of the most significant social media platforms in the world during one of the sport’s busiest weeks of the year is totally unacceptable.

PK Subban traded? Nah. Rangers sign Panarin? Nah. Marner? Nah. Canadiens swiping right on literally every RFA? Nah. Here’s five Corey Crawford saves from six ****ing months ago. You’re welcome.

I would suspect the real hard core hockey fans played the sport at one time in their life. You get a completely different appreciation for the game when you’ve played it.

 

[bl02]

Amazing!---Kevin LaBanc signs a 1 year deal for $1mil after putting up a 56 point season. Talk about taking one for the team.

Is his father Bill Gates? why would he do such a thing? I'm guessing he could have got 3-4 million easy???
I mean why take that kind of risk? what if he tears his acl next year?

 

[Deleted member 23124]

Looks like an elementary school. I kinda dig it though.

I was thinking a high school.

 

[eco's bones]

Is his father Bill Gates? why would he do such a thing? I'm guessing he could have got 3-4 million easy???
I mean why take that kind of risk? what if he tears his acl next year?

I don't get it. I guess he didn't want to leave the Sharks and very badly. Signing for so cheap though--there will be plenty of teams that are sure to ask about him if the Sharks decide to go after someone in a trade. IMO Doug Wilson pretty much disrespecting him. If he ran into a career ending injury he'd be screwed.

 

[eco's bones]

Does this mean we can sign Trouba for 1 year at $892,857?

I don't think that's what Jacob has in mind.