Nhl thread

[El Kabong]

[Beanflicker]

Up here in Canada, hockey is a religion.

I guess it isn't as big down in the states as sports like football, baseball, and basketball because hockey is much less accessible. The cost of buying skates, pads, stick, helmet, registration fees, ice time, ect really limits hockey to mostly middle class and rich kids.
Which is really a shame, because as we know most of our sport heros (especially in boxing) were fueled to greatness by poverty.

[El Kabong]

Yeah, boxing, soccer, baseball, and basketball are all best suited for the poor just based on equipment.

Hockey is so fun to play and the self policing is great as well

[Beanflicker]

As far as the Canuck's mediocre season goes, it might just be the enevitable growing pains of the coaching switch. Vigneault spent the last 7 or 8 years coaching a more "run and gun" style that gave the Sedin's a lot more offensive freedom. Tortorella is trying to turn them into more defensively responsible two-way forwards, like what Bowman did to Yzerman. I guess time will tell if it works out or not.

The Canucks are still a great team though, and will most likely make the playoffs, which is an impressive accomplishment in the Western conference.

[El Kabong]

I like run and gun hockey, but you have to back it up with some bangers on D and one hell of a goalie! I love full speed net to net, big collisions, loads of shots, crash the net, and an air tight penalty kill.

[Beanflicker]

I like run and gun hockey

Same man. They tried to do the same shit to Ovechkin and it didn't work, it just killed his offensive output and clipped his balls.

They're all about getting that cut now though, other than going to the finals with Boston a few years ago the Canucks are always either put out in the first or second round. We'll have to see how deep they go this year.

[El Kabong]

I must say the players today are only decent when you think about the players from back in the late 80's to the mid/late 90's. Certainly there are some guys who could hang with the beasts from back then but if you allowed 2 line passes when Bure and Federov were playing then they'd have scored many more goals.

Sid the Kid better thank his lucky stars he never played in the same division as Scott Stevens.

Ovechkin is a solid player, but when you compare him to Federov he's just not all that great. Sergei was just amazing.

My Hurricanes are having a bipolar season. When everyone was injured we were really clicking, but now with Eric Staal back we're kind of having chemistry issues again. I think Jordan Staal is better without his brother on the ice. Touomo Ruutu has been shit this year as well which is sad. Khudobin is a fucking beast of a goalie though, I hope we keep him and ditch Peters or Ward.

[Beanflicker]

The late 80's/mid 90s were a great time for hockey, and a huge leap in terms of skill and athleticism over past eras.

To be fair to the guys of today though, it's a hell of a lot harder to score goals today than it was back then. Goalie skill has come a long way, and of course goalie equiptment is much bigger. So not only do you have a smaller target, you also have a much more competent guy trying to block your shot.

Early 90s was a golden age for me because that's what I grew up watching. Gretzky, Mario, Pavel, Federov, Jagr, Hull, Yzerman. It was a great time.

I really loved the pure goal scorers like Pavel and Hull. Pavel could make a play out of anything, and Hull could score from anywhere it seemed.