NHL 2013 Thread

[Ahbroody]

Originally Posted by shilala

I wouldn't get in any sort of heated argument about it cause everyone's allowed to have an opinion in my book, and they're certainly allowed to keep it.
The "can you play it on a date or while you're smoking a cigar" rule is a great way to divide sports from games.
Flag football is kinda like football. You could smoke a cigar and take a date. It's still not a sport, it's a fun game. You can smoke a cigar with a date playing Yahtzee. It sure isn't a sport. You can't win unless you're good, or have "specialized skills". I know that cause Weeze whips my ass on a regular basis. It still ain't a sport.

When we apply the rule, it's applied in the purest sense. I wouldn't take a date to play men's softball. She'd get killed. I wouldn't smoke a cigar because I wouldn't be able to play. Sport.
At picnics we have pick up games of softball. Girls and kids play. Cigar smoking is not only present, it's encouraged. Game.

Ya gotta argue apples to apples, man. If ya jump all over the place I could make an argument for cake baking and putting on a robe being a sport.

Wait mens softball? . Following is all in fun.
I am guessing you play and must take it fairly seriously. I will just say having played baseball through high school. I could definitely smoke a cigar playing mens softball. I have had a few run ins with softball guy at work. If you think slow pitch softball played by men is a sport then golf should qualify. Golf definitely requires more skill then slow pitch softball.

[Bruins Fan]

Well my hold out lasted to the national anthem.

[Ahbroody]

Yeah I hear you. I was not going to get the package. My oldest boy wanted to watch some games. I folded. I wont go to any games. Errrrrrrrrr I dont think I will.

[Fredo456]

Smoked a Padron 1926 for the season opener. This cigar, that I had for the first time, was truly awesome. One of the best I ever had.

The game, however, was another story. The players were obviously very rusty. Penalties and puck fumbling were omnipresent during the first two periods, and it didn't get much better in the third. Habs lost 2-1 to the Leafs. Only 47 to go.

[Bruins Fan]

Bruins-Rangers good game, B's looked fast and sharp,and of course physical.

Great first day

[ToastedFoot]

Malkin still looks like twice the player Crosby is, and yes i'm a Pittsburgh'er, Suter makes a huge addition on face offs, we might be in the running this year, Crosby couldn't possibly pull his vagina in 48 games.......could he ??????

[cobra03]

Was on my way into work tonight listening to ESPN radio and they had a sports update in between segments. Absolutly no NHL scores or even the slightest mention of hockey at all. Good to see nothings changed.

Originally Posted by cobra03

Was on my way into work tonight listening to ESPN radio and they had a sports update in between segments. Absolutly no NHL scores or even the slightest mention of hockey at all. Good to see nothings changed.

It's ESPN. They suck balls

[BMack]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

Wait a minute. I will preface this by saying I have gotten into heated arguments about hockey being the most difficult sport to play given speed, skill, toughness required.

I have seen people play hockey drunk as hell, you could do pickup smoking a stogie, and I have seen couples playing together. While golf is not as physically demanding it is a specialized skill sport. No I dont play, but I think it is a sport as most every scrub cant go out and play effectively.

I would argue of all the sports football basketball and soccer involve the most basic of human skills running, throwing, kicking and catching. Children can do these things easily. Thats why they are thr most popular in my view. Anybody can go outside with a ball and play. Baseball requires more skill as does hockey and golf.

You can play hockey drunk as hell, and I have, but only after you have gained the ability to skate, puck handle and generally know how to play the game. ALL hockey skills are unnatural...almost all other sports have at least some natural variables, like running(compared to skating) for example. I've helped coach adults that were figure skaters learn to play hockey, they eliminated the variable of not having to learn how to skate...they still can't do anything with the puck. It takes years to be able to comfortably skate while controlling a puck at the end of a 60" long stick. I could go on but blah, blah, blah...That doesn't mean other sports aren't complex but hockey, in the depth of unnatural skills needed to play, is the most physically complex.

Anyway, LET'S GO LIGHTNING!

How many people here also play/coach ice hockey?

[ToastedFoot]

in a day and age where most every Canadian freezes their back yard, skating is as natural to them as running and throwing to us Americans. With the growing popularity of the sport here in the states most northeast states are following suit. But to say its the most difficult sport to master is nonsense. A poll was taken in the late nineties of which was the hardest single feat to master in all professional sports and hands down it was facing a major league pitcher. An orb coming at you one hundred miles an hour and breaking twelve to eighteen inches before it hits the catchers glove, you have exactly .3 seconds to make a decision on attacking. I'm no expert in the field, but I bounced around in the minors for 4 years, hands down the hardest sport to make it professionally is baseball, and that's just because of pure numbers, everyone thinks they can do it but few can excel at it.

[icehog3]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P4VlWucGiY

Originally Posted by ToastedFoot

Malkin still looks like twice the player Crosby is, and yes i'm a Pittsburgh'er, Suter makes a huge addition on face offs, we might be in the running this year, Crosby couldn't possibly pull his vagina in 48 games.......could he ??????

It's one game.....I may not be a Sidney fan, but he is world class. Just watch.

Originally Posted by BMack

How many people here also play/coach ice hockey?

I play on 3 men's league teams, one I have been playing for for over 20 years.

[BMack]

Originally Posted by ToastedFoot

in a day and age where most every Canadian freezes their back yard, skating is as natural to them as running and throwing to us Americans. With the growing popularity of the sport here in the states most northeast states are following suit. But to say its the most difficult sport to master is nonsense. A poll was taken in the late nineties of which was the hardest single feat to master in all professional sports and hands down it was facing a major league pitcher. An orb coming at you one hundred miles an hour and breaking twelve to eighteen inches before it hits the catchers glove, you have exactly .3 seconds to make a decision on attacking. I'm no expert in the field, but I bounced around in the minors for 4 years, hands down the hardest sport to make it professionally is baseball, and that's just because of pure numbers, everyone thinks they can do it but few can excel at it.

A baseball has a lot more surface area than a puck and pucks travel faster, from different angles, at varying distances and hockey players knock the puck down or deflect it on a regular basis. Then you have to deflect a puck that is potentially bouncing (with sticks/skates/legs in the way) into a net, past a goalie... or from a goalie's perspective have to stop a puck that could be coming from 180* and might be deflected at any given time.

...I know the survey, yeah, yeah, "Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do because if you fail at it 70% of the time, you're a hall of famer" but that's not true. Pitches are hit almost every time a MLB batter swings, whether it be a foul ball or a fair ball, whether it's an out or not. It was amazing last year that Stamkos scored on just under 20% of his shots...because the average goalie saves over .900 of shots faced. So that makes scoring in the NHL a fair amount harder than hitting a baseball.

If you take any random pro hockey player and have him play in a men's league baseball game he will do fine. If you put any random baseball player in a hockey game, almost none of them will be able to stand up and move without falling down, let alone play. You VASTLY over estimate the amount of people that can skate decently enough to play hockey...and like I said, just because someone can skate doesn't mean they can play hockey.

I hope that argument isn't "too spirited" but, I've grown up playing and have coached both sports..hockey is far more complex to teach or play.

Originally Posted by icehog3

I play on 3 men's league teams, one I have been playing for for over 20 years.

Geez, 20 years on one team!? That's awesome!

I played pond hockey growing up. Does that count

[E.J.]

This thread has been derailed a bit off topic, but I'll throw in my $.02. Fact is, given 500 attempts at shooting a ball in the NBA(running the court, spotting up, you know the drill), Getting a hand off to get a 1 yard gain in football, standing at the plate for 500 AB's ect.....I think I could be successful at least one time. I imagine that most people with more than decent athletic skill could do the same.

I do not think most people, even those with the ability to skate, could keep up blue line to blue line with the NHLers, let alone get a puck by an NHL goalie. Hell, in reality, most adults in the United States couldn't score on a mite team. Say that about baseball, football or basketball.

The caveat with hockey is there is offsides....and the goalie. Not to mention that when that puck gets to you(it's going to be FLYING across the ice from an NHLer, not me), there is going to be a opponent coming at you to put you on the ice in a very violent manner if you don't collect that puck and do something with it QUICKLY....bla..bla..bla... Anyway, I think I could have a chance to hit a ball, shoot a ball, run a ball in the other sports.... I don't think there is a chance in Hell that I could skate on NHL ice, it would almost seem like a feat in itself if I could go blue line to blue line and catch a puck and get it somewhere in my 500 tries, not in the net, but to another player.....tape to tape....but, no....I wouldn't bet on that happening in 500+ tries.

I don't know, people believe what they want to believe....that is where I stand.

Originally Posted by BMack

How many people here also play/coach ice hockey?

I help coach my daughters team.

Originally Posted by BMack

Geez, 20 years on one team!? That's awesome!

Agreed.....

[E.J.]

Oh...and my Avs are apparently not going to go undefeated.....

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by E.J.

Oh...and my Avs are apparently not going to go undefeated.....

Bumeer, E;J,....it's no doubt the Hawks are going 48-0!

[taltos]

Tom, Bruins/Hawks Cup?

[dvickery]

further to the "most difficult"to play well at debate...in hockey the hitting is HARDER(and at a much higher velocity) than football and there is no 5 minute break after a hit...players just get up...skate to the other end and hit again.

try this and then hit a baseball.

love hockey
derrek

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

Wait mens softball? . Following is all in fun.
I am guessing you play and must take it fairly seriously. I will just say having played baseball through high school. I could definitely smoke a cigar playing mens softball. I have had a few run ins with softball guy at work. If you think slow pitch softball played by men is a sport then golf should qualify. Golf definitely requires more skill then slow pitch softball.

No, I don't play. Just one year when I was maybe 25?
Not the point. Men's softball. Can you smoke a cigar? E.J. can, but on my team he's sitting on the bench because he's not trying enough. We'll still say Yes. Can you play with a date? No. Sport.
There's two parts: Can you take a date? Can you smoke a cigar?

I think you consider the classification as a dig or disrespect. It's not. I full well realize how hard being good at golf is. It's damn hard. But it's still a game of skill like Billiards or bowling which both require great skill to be good.
The definition of Sport:
An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.
The definition of Game:
A form of play or sport, esp. a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck.

See? You can call a sport a game, but a game isn't sport unless it involves physical exertion. That's why you'd be sitting on the bench at my softball game for not trying hard enough. I expect you to eat a great big mess of dirt at shortstop, brother.