Big Phil
Registered User
- Nov 2, 2003
- 31,703
- 4,146
What things do you hate or like about the game that you know are in the minority with other fans. Here are some of mine:
- I still dislike the netting behind the nets. Sure we're used to them by now, but it just was another thing to disconnect the fans from the players. Back in the day you would try and catch a lot of pucks in warm up from shots that would go off the crossbar and into the stands. Brittany Cecil got hit by a puck in 2002 and died 3 (?) days later. I just thought the NHL was a little extreme in their reactions. Now, would I tell the Cecil family to their faces that there shouldn't be netting back there? No, but just because I wouldn't it doesn't mean I think it is needed. Look at baseball, you've got the netting behind home plate which is obviously needed but you are in danger every pitch of getting scorcher of a foul ball if you are sitting by the dugout.
- Not sure if I am in the minority, but I probably am with Leaf fans. We didn't deserve 1993 and Kerry Fraser - although a blown call on Gretzky - didn't cost us the series or Cup. We did.
- I thought Bobby Orr was far too naïve and may have written the script himself when it came to his exit from the Bruins. Granted he didn't have a lot of hockey left himself, but I don't care if Mr. Rogers was my agent, I would still go directly to the Bruins management - which was Harry Sinden - and find out personally myself whether they truly wanted to let me go. Sinden offered Orr part ownership of the team if I remember correctly and the crooked Alan Eagleson was his agent who left that important detail out, so he signed with the Hawks for a ton of money. If I am Orr, I don't leave the team I called home for a decade until my GM looks me in the face and tells me this is true.
- Hasek wasn't as immortal as we thought in the 1998. He didn't have to be. In the Canada/Czech game we only threw 22 shots at him through three periods and rarely a good quality chance either. We were lost on that big ice. He also didn't look as great as people remember on the shootout. Fleury came dangerously close to beating him, Lindros rang it off the post and Hasek had no clue where the puck was, Nieuwendyk never got a shot on net and lost the puck, Bourque took a weak shot and Shanahan came towards him as slow as possible with a poor attempt.
- I am not sure if I would have picked Gretzky either for the shootout. I am on the fence, but if I don't then I know I am in the minority. Yzerman, Recchi at the very least were guys I would have wanted instead.
- I dislike two very structured things players do. I hate when the players stand at center ice and lift their sticks to salute the fans and I dislike when players do the fist bump down the bench to each player after a goal. Just too unnatural for me.
- You can tell me if this is in the minority or not, maybe it is, but I could care less about any insult the players say to one another and roll my eyes at the lip readers that demand apologies. The Getzlaf thing was just ridiculous recently as anyone who has played sports has heard that and much worse. Every discussion on facebook seemed to be showing the same sort of opinion other than the odd "he's a role model for children" type of comment. I always figure if the media never shed light on it we'd never know about it, which is ironic. I think the trash talk humanizes the game and keeps the intensity going.
- I actually applauded Dion Phaneuf who supposedly was the force behind "snubbing" the fans who booed them by not saluting them at the end of the game. After a loss it looks pathetic seeing the players being forced to stand there and lift their sticks, good grief, let them just get off the ice, its all they want to do.
- I still dislike the netting behind the nets. Sure we're used to them by now, but it just was another thing to disconnect the fans from the players. Back in the day you would try and catch a lot of pucks in warm up from shots that would go off the crossbar and into the stands. Brittany Cecil got hit by a puck in 2002 and died 3 (?) days later. I just thought the NHL was a little extreme in their reactions. Now, would I tell the Cecil family to their faces that there shouldn't be netting back there? No, but just because I wouldn't it doesn't mean I think it is needed. Look at baseball, you've got the netting behind home plate which is obviously needed but you are in danger every pitch of getting scorcher of a foul ball if you are sitting by the dugout.
- Not sure if I am in the minority, but I probably am with Leaf fans. We didn't deserve 1993 and Kerry Fraser - although a blown call on Gretzky - didn't cost us the series or Cup. We did.
- I thought Bobby Orr was far too naïve and may have written the script himself when it came to his exit from the Bruins. Granted he didn't have a lot of hockey left himself, but I don't care if Mr. Rogers was my agent, I would still go directly to the Bruins management - which was Harry Sinden - and find out personally myself whether they truly wanted to let me go. Sinden offered Orr part ownership of the team if I remember correctly and the crooked Alan Eagleson was his agent who left that important detail out, so he signed with the Hawks for a ton of money. If I am Orr, I don't leave the team I called home for a decade until my GM looks me in the face and tells me this is true.
- Hasek wasn't as immortal as we thought in the 1998. He didn't have to be. In the Canada/Czech game we only threw 22 shots at him through three periods and rarely a good quality chance either. We were lost on that big ice. He also didn't look as great as people remember on the shootout. Fleury came dangerously close to beating him, Lindros rang it off the post and Hasek had no clue where the puck was, Nieuwendyk never got a shot on net and lost the puck, Bourque took a weak shot and Shanahan came towards him as slow as possible with a poor attempt.
- I am not sure if I would have picked Gretzky either for the shootout. I am on the fence, but if I don't then I know I am in the minority. Yzerman, Recchi at the very least were guys I would have wanted instead.
- I dislike two very structured things players do. I hate when the players stand at center ice and lift their sticks to salute the fans and I dislike when players do the fist bump down the bench to each player after a goal. Just too unnatural for me.
- You can tell me if this is in the minority or not, maybe it is, but I could care less about any insult the players say to one another and roll my eyes at the lip readers that demand apologies. The Getzlaf thing was just ridiculous recently as anyone who has played sports has heard that and much worse. Every discussion on facebook seemed to be showing the same sort of opinion other than the odd "he's a role model for children" type of comment. I always figure if the media never shed light on it we'd never know about it, which is ironic. I think the trash talk humanizes the game and keeps the intensity going.
- I actually applauded Dion Phaneuf who supposedly was the force behind "snubbing" the fans who booed them by not saluting them at the end of the game. After a loss it looks pathetic seeing the players being forced to stand there and lift their sticks, good grief, let them just get off the ice, its all they want to do.