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This is hockey, right? |
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Ty Anderson
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I’ll never forget the first time I watched hockey. It’s all still incredibly vivid. Living in a tiny apartment a quick ride over the Tobin Bridge away from the city, watching hockey was as good as it got for me. I didn’t live in a city fiscally sound enough to support a hockey program. Nor did I grow up in a family that could afford to send their undersized son to hockey every morning. But watching the sport, man, that was as awesome as it got.
Sitting on the couch, I’d put my homework down, turn on TV-38, and watch the local team; The Boston Bruins. There was something about the Bruins and the sport they played that appealed to my overactive mind. It didn’t take long before I was hooked. Hockey was the only sport I cared about. The only sport that’d make me stare out the car window in search of a glimpse of the Boston Garden when driving through the city.
It brought me all the joys I couldn’t find in baseball. It was aggressive, fast, and most of all it was hard-hitting. To some, the sport bordered on barbaric. If you didn’t like something or somebody, you’d fight them, hit them, or do anything you could to make their night as unenjoyable as possible.
In short, it was physical. But as hockey progressed, it appears that the physical side of the game is frowned upon.
Every hit -- if not avenged with a fight mere moments later -- is dirty and worth a suspension. Especially if it’s against the team you root for. Disagree with something that affects your team in a negative light? Well then you’re a homer. No if’s, and’s, or but’s.
If you're a physical team? Oh, well then you're a group of bullies, goons, and neanderthals that are just playing out your NHL days before a lifelong prison sentence awaits you. That's what they tell you anyways.
"They" are the new-age hockey fans, the fans who throw all previously understood logic out the window in search of consistency. They want fighting and they want hits, so long as their not against the team they cover or the team they root for.
The goons? The Boston Bruins. And boy, do "they" hate the Bruins. They've made that extremely clear, and impossible to forget in a season that's 26 games old. Just ask typical Bruins thug David Krejci, who's now catching the ire of disgruntled Winnipeg fans following a hit on former teammate Mark Stuart that left the blue-liner down in a heap for a few moments near the corner.
"Shanahan better have something to say to him!" one Jets enthused emailer said to me in all capitals. "I can't believe how much the Bruins get away it," he added. "If he's not suspended for this, it just proves that the NHL is a joke."
Normally, I reply with something snarky or what I perceive to be witty, but this time was different. "How?" was all I could summon up. How would this be a joke? Stuart, while not the best way to judge anything, was not only fine (returning to play a key role in the win) but saw him coming and turned his back. How would a non-suspension prove anything?
"Well, the Bruins didn't get suspended for the Chara hit. Or the Lucic hit. Not to mention all their antics in the playoffs."
That, my friends, is not progress. You cannot be suspended for not being suspended in the past. That's where "they" are flawed in their thinking. Hockey, thank god, is a hard-hitting sport. Not every hit is dirty, not every hit that went unpunished needs to be avenged by a fan-produced overreaction.
It pains me to think that Mike Milbury may be right. We're getting ridiculous, soft, and ridiculously soft.
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The Bruins are back at it tomorrow night when they play host to the Florida Panthers. The Panthers come in the Hub just one point behind the Bruins this year (seriously), with wins in six of their last ten, and are tied for the conference lead with nine road wins this year. What the hell is going on?
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