10 reasons to love hockey

[lilgump]

Found this in my local paper, but its from the AP so its probably in others too

http://theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...028/1002/SPORTS

10 reasons to love hockey

By MARTHA MENDOZA

The Associated Press

The National Hockey League season starts Oct. 4, and if you don't have a ticket yet, you might want to get one.

Or a few.

Hockey is one of the few sports that television just doesn't do justice. The echo of the stick as it cracks on the ice. The dry, cool air flowing off the rink when players whiz by. The fluidity of 12 men dancing, twirling, sprinting on an oval. You hear them pant as they dash toward the goal. You hear them groan as they crash against the boards.

This season promises to be especially compelling. An aging batch of heroes have retired out, and a new round of rookies from all over the world (but mostly Canada) are rising in the ranks, intensely dicing it out for the chance to be the new leaders of the sport. League officials are constantly tweaking the rules too, trying to increase scoring and make the game more exciting.

Just in case you need more convincing, here are our Top Ten Reasons Everyone Should Watch Hockey This Year.

10. Hooking Crackdown. An official crackdown on hooking (snagging an opponent with a stick) and holding, clutching and grabbing means faster play, more goals and less time wasted in pointless grappling, whacking and pounding. The rules, which were partially in place last year, already have all but eliminated those drab 1-0 results with an increase in scoring and some extremely tense (and exciting) third periods.

9. Blood on the ice. Despite the new rules, there's still plenty of brawling. Every game, helmets are ripped off and flung to the ice. Shirts are yanked over opponents' heads. Officials barrel into dense punch-ups. Sticks jettison through the air. ``It's the only sport where you can fight and get away with it,'' says a grinning San Jose Sharks defenseman Garrett Stafford. ``It's the best game in the world.''

8. Joe Thornton. The highest scorer in the league last year, this supernatural Sharks center had a 125-point regular season in 2005 and there's no reason to believe he won't do it again. Thornton, at 6-foot 4-inches and 225 pounds, is one of the larger players on the ice, but he threads through his opponents like a swallow on speed and shoots the puck around, over, under and through thick walls of hockey players. He flies on his skates, he's graceful and smart and he has fun doing it. If the Sharks are coming to town, he's worth the ticket.

7. Canadians and Russians and Swedes, Oh My! The names are crazy-hard to say (the St. Louis Blues right wings include Vladimir Orszagh and Jeff Woywitka) the hair cuts are Euro-mod (check them out during pregame warmups before they get the helmets on) and you get to hear Canadian National Anthem if a Canadian team is in town.

6. Good manners. Hockey players are by nature strong and aggressive. But under all that gear they're the most gentle, polite and intelligent men in professional sport today. Ask any sports writer which locker room has the most class, and they'll tell you it's hockey. There's rarely any showboating on ice, no big displays of ego, and thanks to a self-policing system -- a hockey braggart is likely to get a barrage of extra hard checks and whacks in their next game -- almost no boasting.

5. It's Wicked Fast. Hockey is the fastest professional sport in the country. Players skate 30 mph (no one can run that fast) and the puck can travel 100 mph. And with newer skate-sharpening techniques, better materials and cleaner ice, it's only getting quicker. ``They're unbelievably fast,'' said Kurt Power, watching his first live game last week in San Jose from a front row seat. ``I had no idea. It's amazing. I'm having the time of my life.''

4. The Penalty Box. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing an enemy player shunted off to this Big Boy Time Out, this mini jail cell, where they slump in shame, sip their Gatorade and tap their stick as the 2 minute clock ticks away.

3. Someone always wins. Until last year, games could end in a tie. But last season league officials brought in the highly controversial shootout. Diehard hockey fans don't like it because it's not the skating, passing and shooting that makes up the game. Instead it becomes a tournament of individuals doing something they don't ordinarily do. That said, shootouts are nerve-racking, tense, dramatic and an awesome way to end a game.

2. Kids Love It. Maybe it's the rubber puck. Or those big sticks. Or the goofball mascots. Something about hockey is absolutely irresistible to kids. Madeleine, Spencer and Charlotte Lee, 4-year-old triplets, screamed and jumped up and down nonstop through their first game last week last week in San Jose, hollering ``Sharky! Sharky! Sharky!''

1. It's cool. Sorry baseball fans, but it's true. Hockey is hip. It's a game of style and grace and timing, aggression and speed. You will howl with delight when a puck is flipped miraculously into the corner of a goal just moments before the final buzzer. You'll laugh when two players get tangled in each other's sticks, suddenly clumsy as they grapple on the ice. And you're going to sigh with contentment when an opponent is sent off in shame to the penalty box. Believe me, one game probably isn't going to be enough.

[FiddySicks]

9. Blood on the ice. Despite the new rules, there's still plenty of brawling. Every game, helmets are ripped off and flung to the ice. Shirts are yanked over opponents' heads. Officials barrel into dense punch-ups. Sticks jettison through the air. ``It's the only sport where you can fight and get away with it,'' says a grinning San Jose Sharks defenseman Garrett Stafford. ``It's the best game in the world.''

Oh man I went to the Sharks Ducks pre season game last wednesday and I saw (I think it was) Garrett Stafford give some guy on the Ducks the beating of his life. He beat the crap outta him, then lightly slapped him on the cheek twice and you could see him mouth the words "I think youve had enough, son", he let go, skated away and the guy on the ducks dropped to the ice like a ton of bricks. He straight up got PWN3D!!!!!!!!

[steiny_ramone]

9. Blood on the ice. Despite the new rules, there's still plenty of brawling. Every game, helmets are ripped off and flung to the ice. Shirts are yanked over opponents' heads. Officials barrel into dense punch-ups. Sticks jettison through the air. ``It's the only sport where you can fight and get away with it,'' says a grinning San Jose Sharks defenseman Garrett Stafford. ``It's the best game in the world.''

Oh man I went to the Sharks Ducks pre season game last wednesday and I saw (I think it was) Garrett Stafford give some guy on the Ducks the beating of his life. He beat the crap outta him, then lightly slapped him on the cheek twice and you could see him mouth the words "I think youve had enough, son", he let go, skated away and the guy on the ducks dropped to the ice like a ton of bricks. He straight up got PWN3D!!!!!!!!

Stafford's back? I guess the Perezhogin incident was a few years ago, so I guess it would make sense that he'd be back.