IC3

I rarely see any threads here about hockey, Usually it's Football, Basketball...That's how it seems to me.

I know Hockey isn't as popular as Football or Basketball.

So why do so many people not like Hockey...Just thought of this and wanted to ask.

I don't mind watching a bit of Football...But in all honesty, I cannot stand basketball or baseball.

Basketball. I don't really know what it is, But i just don't like the sport.

Baseball. It's just boring to watch...To slow of a game. I know 99% of Athletes are over paid, But baseball players take it to a new level. They are WAY over paid.

I just wanna know what it is about hockey that people don't like.

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Begora21

I like hockey, but just can't get into it until at least December ... The regular season is just too meaningless and frankly confusing now with these overtime loss points and all that weirdness

absorbentishe

Can't get into it until December?? I love hockey, it's my fav to watch, live or on TV. Nothing is better than hockey, the speed, the hits. I love it all!!

bond007

hockey is 1000 times better to watch in person than on tv.

Lunchbox7

Ive played hocky, baseball and basket ball. They are all goos in their won way. Im assuming that by football you mean gridiron? Im also assuming by Hockey you mean ice/inline hockey. Anyway I thought Hockey was a good game. But where I played was run soooooo badly that I ended up hating playing. The game had to pay because of the bunch of dickheads who ran the league. I have never come across a sport run so badly. I like baseball too but in my opinion it is a poor version of cricket. It is like you wouldnt play softball when you can play base ball. Well I wouldnt play baseball when I could play cricket. Baseball in comparison is way easier than cricket. Basket ball was pretty fun though I had alot of difficulty figuring out exactly what amount of contact I could use. Also being pretty short I was at a huge disadvantage anyway. But it is fun to have the odd game these days.

Since we are talking about specifically American sports I would like to bring up related topic. Basically american sports need to be fast, showy and focuses on the spectators more than the players. Gridiron would be a really good game if they changed it around a bit to focus it on the players. What I call this is americanisation of sport. I think this is detrimental to the game. Being an Australian the americanisation of sport is taking a stronger mental hold on our population everyday. They have tried implementing interchange rule into rugby league and soccer. It was horrible. It takes the endurence aspect out of the game which is a huge component in the strategy and integrity of the players. I have a really hard time explaining to americanised people that games that end in draws cna be the most exciting game there is. When you have a group of people who are disatisfied when a game is not fast enough when they score every minute, it is almost impossible to comprehend the concept of playing a game for 5 days and ending in a draw. Soccer is often called boring because it doesnt have double or triple figure scores. 2 top level teams end a game in a draw can keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time beause they are both so good as to be evenly matched. And when a goal is scored it is usually so good that the spectators just beat off at its brilliance. I think that might contribute to why soccer is the largest sport in the world. Anyway thats my feelings.

Spiker

It's a Canadin thing. I'm a good ol' Canuck boy, I've played all my life. I like nothing more than to watch the game, be it NHL, AHL or OHL.

It's truly the toughest, fastest sport on earth. You have to know how to give a hit and take a hit to survive. There is no out of bounds, just hard boards, glass and an elbow to the head.

jcookc6

Maybe the real reason hockey is not big on TV in the states is that for good TV coverage, the production people have to have played hockey to be able to anticipate what is going to happen. If you are lucky enough to have the Hockey package on digital tv, you will see the difference in the coverage on Hockey Night in Canada and the ESPN production.
Also the announcers make a big difference, the Canadian ones have played hockey or followed it since they were kids.
Also, HNIC will go for long periods of time without having commercials, whereas ESPN is constantly interupting the game with endless commercials.
Watch a game broadcast by Bob Cole and follow the play or listen to the babble and drone of Gary Thorne. You would think you were listening to a game on Radio with Thorne, except for the fact that they don't talk as much on radio.

ledhead

but, really hockey is the funnest sport to watch, the action is non stop. it also happens to fun to play. even though i do not play anymore

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Averett

I like hockey a lot. I tend not to watch much on TV, but I go to local college games frequently. Friends have season tickets so I go with them. It's fast paced and exciting. Love it

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dragon2fire

I find hockey boring

its to low scoring

give me a good basket ball game any day of the week

TheShadow

Now we're talking! Gotta love Hockey!... Just watch a good game, and you'll be hooked for life! [Preferably with the Vancouver Canucks in it
]

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Loup

So what if they change hockey to increase the overall scoring, would you watch it more? Say:

• 1 goal for empty net
• 2 goals for scoring in your offensive zone
• 3 goals for scoring in the neutral zone
• 4 goals scoring in your defensize zone

That way, if your goalie scores when the other team pulls there goalie (a la Damian Rhodes in 98-99 Season) that would equal 5 goals right there.

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djtestudo

I only enjoy watching the Stanley Cup playoffs, because the regular season is almost meaningless until the second half when the mediocre teams are fighting to make it in. I think that if they went with a system more like baseball and had fewer teams, they would make the regular season a lot better.

Also, getting rid of a couple teams couldn't hurt either.

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Loup

So that teams can be mathmatically eliminated within the second month? What would be the motivation if you know that you couldn't continue into the post-season?

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splck

I know what you mean. My dish has ESPN and CBC feeds. The ESPN play-by-play guys have no clue how to tell the viewer what's going on down on the ice. You can tell they are well schooled in baseball anouncing because they are so fucking boring.

I'm still waiting for the "I can't see the puck" comment.

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nice line eh?

Averett

I HATED the glowing blue puck thing that FOX brought out a few years ago. It was the stupidest thing ever. I found it more distracting if anything.

Stupid glowing puck.

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Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

djtestudo

How about getting ready for competing next season? Baseball plays 162 games. Yet the regular season is better then both basketball and hockey because the lack of playoff spots forces teams to keep playing all year. If they don't keep winning they end up losing their spot and out of the playoffs (see: 2003 Phillies).

Even the bad ones keep playing because they know if they end up with a decent record they could get some free agents to sign there and instantly improve the team. Plus, if the team quits, the fans quit, and the team goes from "bad" to "screwed".

Basically, it forces everyone to play.

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"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

splck

Uh, hockey teams keep playing too, even if they are technically out of the playoffs they don't just give up. They can still be the "spoilers" of another teams attempt to make the playoffs right up to the last game of the regular season.
No team want's to finish at the bottom of the heap no matter what sport being played.

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nice line eh?

Cubby

See I disagree here. 162 games to me means that a few games that you don't play your heart out doesn't matter...you still have a hundred, hundred and 50 or so games to go. The lack of playoff spots means that some teams will be out of contention extremely early and so why continue to play hard? Basically you just play spoiler all season long. And finally, I'd have to say it is money that brings free agents to teams not decent records. Sure players like to play for a team that is going to win, but if a worse team offers you more money to play, I think they'd likely go for the more money...

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sTghezzo

hockey is such a good sport to watch. its even funner to play. Last seasons playoffs were killer to watch!, the Ducks! haha.

there isnt really anything about hockey that i dont like. Sometimes it can drag on but not really. Alot more people than you think like hockey!

dragon2fire

yea i would be more likely to watch it if it was higher scoring


basketball would still win out if i had to pick between the 2

Spartak

Last year when watching the Stanley Cup playoffs I got a smudge on my TV screen and kept on confusing it with the puck until I had to get up and wipe it off.

I quite like Ice Hockey, fast paced, good hits, drama, excitement.

Also a lot of Russians play in the NHL, so it's cool to see your fellow countrymen making it big and playing awesome

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Artermis

Yeah pro basketball so exciting. None of them dribble within the rules but because none of them do they let everyone get away with it. Traveling....never heard of it. Shots from 15-20 feet...done away with....3 pointers and dunking is the name of the game.

Since I moved from Michigan I do not get much hockey here in the south and therefore I do not have it constantly on and so it takes a while for me to get going with it.


Art

Artermis

one last thing...all College sports own pro sports except baseball with the crappy metal bats.


Art

ledhead

my friend seems to think that there will be a strike in hockey next year. since the owners want a salary cap. he thinks that if the strike happens, that will pretty much be the end of hockey in the u.s. he almost has me convinced that this is a possibility, but neither of us want it to happen.

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"If you can count the number of cylinders on one hand....it is NOT a race car." big bubba

"Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way"

Artermis

It will not be the end to hockey in the US but 3-4 teams might go bye-bye, which is not an all together bad thing. NHL never should have expanded over the last decade when teams should have relocated rather than make new ones.

I say it is 60-40 against a lockout at this point.


Art

dragon2fire

did i say pro basketball no


i said a good basketball game and the only way you get that is at the college level


there are tons of good teams and nothing any were compares to march maddness


i agree with you that pro has nothing on colldge

Loup

C'mon, most of the players in professional sports are playing for the money. Sure, you get the occasional player to leave one team to play for another in order to win the Finals (a la Ray Bourque leaving Boston). But money is the current reason that people play for whatever team they are on.
That's for sure - in college the players are playing to prove themselves. The Pro's thoughts are "I'm here, no need for me to play my ass off anymore."

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"If you cannot lift the load off another's back, do not walk away. Try to lighten it."
~ Frank Tyger

dragon2fire

i can think of at least one pro football player who is not playing for money

jerry rice

i know nothing about hockey

Tempboy

I've heard some people say they don't like Hockey because it's too fast paced.

...

Personally, I can't stand baseball.. so..boring...slooooooow...

jerseyboy

Why would anyone not like a sport that is fast paced? Its not that hard to follow the flow either, after watching for about 5 minutes anyone can pick it up. The thing I find most frustrating is explaining the icing rule to newbies. Its like explaing the offsides rule in soccer.

archer2371

I love hockey and am a very devoted Dallas Stars fan (been one since they moved there, so no, I am not a bandwagoner). Hockey is an awesome sport, especially since I have played the game (goaltender, yeah, I'm crazy enough to put two pillows on my legs and keep a rast moving piece of rubber out of the net). I love watching plays develop and I can generally tell when a breakout is going to happen or when a score is going to happen. I remember watching one Pittsburgh game, I think it was the playoffs, and the Penguins were down by one, and they were shorthanded. I took one look at Mario Lemieux and said to all my buddies, "He's gonna go score a shorthanded goal here in the next thirty seconds." And I'll be damned if he didn't, cuz there he went with Straka and got his pass, and there ya go, SH Goal. I made a nice buck off of that one. So yeah, I love everything about hockey ('cept when the goalie gets his sovereignty infringed upon, a goalie's crease is his castle ya know) and I am slowly getting more converts to the hockey brethren over here in Virginia (altho they turn out to be Caps fans, I need to work on that).

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Soggybagel

Dragon2Fire, I don't get how you don't like it simply on the merit of lower scoring? Simply put, its a different game and different scoring. Where as Basketball its typical to get a very high scoring game, games like Soccer or Hockey have back and forth shift and it is good if a team scores, so good that play stops and everyone jumps around excited .

Fly

that had to be the dumdest thing ever.

hey maybe.......if we put a glowing streak into baseball.....then all the stupid viewers can follow the ball right to the plate.

(Stupid glowing puck)

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Nikilidstrom

Hockey is the only sport I watch anymore. I've been watching the Red Wings since I was 6, when Steve Yzerman came into the league, and haven't looked back since. You won't find a better game for pacing, excitement, drama, and heroism than Hockey. Even though I grew up during the 80's and early 90's, where goal scoring was very high around the league, I prefer less goals to more, which is why I like Hockey better than Baseball or Basketball. Each goal actually means something, a team had to fight hard to get that goal, put every bit of effort they had into it. Basketball has bucket after bucket after bucket, and Baseball has gone insane in the last decade with 12-20 runs a game not uncommon.

It is a shame to see the greed expressed in other sports finally rearing its ugly head in the NHL. The owners have always been gluttons, but up unitl recently, the players salaries were low enough to where you knew they were actually playing because they loved the sport, not just to earn a paycheck.

I also believe that if there is a stoppage next season, the league will be all but over. They just don't have the financial or media backing enough to survive it like Baseball did. Russia , as well as some EU leagues, are currently maneuvering to get all their high end players back to start a league on par with the NHL, and the idea of the WHL is gaining popularity.

Anywho, I love Hockey, and GO WINGS!

Soggybagel

I think if there is a work stoppage...it will definitley hurt hockey a hell of a lot but it can recover....lets just hope it doesn't happen. I think market teams that dont' have a huge hockey following would obviously hurt the most though. Basically any Canadian team and most likely MN could survive, but a team like the the Panthers who aren't really winning any hearts down there would most likely really take a huge dive.

ace81385

Hockey is the greatest sport ever. Most people are just to stupid to figure out whats goin on even though its very simple sport. I really hate when people say that its to low scoring, thats wat i mean by people being to dumb to know wat is going on. I love hockey , and football and sometimes baseball but hockey wins out. Its the best sport because its constant fast pass action, hard hitting and there are some awesome goals . The biggest problem with hockey is over expansion of the league. WHo the fuck Puts a hockey Team in Nashville or Atlanta. and its dumb that the Candien teams are bankrupt its the national sport, the real problem is they pay people in American Money and make revenue in canadian.

Soggybagel

ace, teams in Nashville or Atlanta have just as good a chance and can make good money if everythign works right and the front office is stupid. I agree though, that Canada needs hockey back. I think with the right restructuring and proper nurturing you could have a great hockey team in a lot more Canadian cities like the old days. Look at MN. They lost the North Stars which was a crime, but after campaigning got the Wild. They've been selling out like crazy. If MN can do it, I know Canada can goddamn well do it too.