Hockey.

[WoW News]

WoW News
Wow Insider
MMO-Champion
World of Raids

Resources
Wowhead
Wowwiki
Lootrank
Kaliban's Class Loot lists
WoW Armory
Gem Finder Filterable List

Strategies
BossKillers
World of Strats

More links here!

[Mirth]

So. I always rag on O's love of hockey, never having liked the sport myself. But the other day, I had left the TV on espn for a laker game and when I turned it on there was a hockey game. I watched some.

Hey, this is actually fairly interesting. Damn it moves fast though. That was what turned me off at first, a little to fast paced to keep my interest. But I saw lots of cool moves and some truly athletic players.

I didn't understand the deal with the lines though. I guess that there are times when certain players aren't allowed to go past a certain point?

I'm trying to figure this all out and thinking. "I can see why some people like this." Then some guy got crosschecked and a fight broke out. Probably happens once and a while right?...then....the announcer started calling the fight...."OH jacobson has probably got a good 20 pounds on johnson! OH! He got him good with a left cross there!"

 

[arras]

Welcome to the dark side   Our Capitals are doing pretty well (for a Washington DC team) and their games are generally always pretty good.

The lines (O can probably do a better job of this than I can, but we'll see what I remember)

the blue line in the middle - that's center ice, the 50 yard line.  The game pretty much starts there as do all the periods

the red lines - basically they're markers that mark how far you can pass the puck ahead of your team.  If you shoot the puck ahead of the red line, but no one's there to receive it (goalie doesn't count), it's called icing and the refs stop the play.  You need to have at least 2 other players from your team in passing range when you cross the red line into enemy territory.

I think....

[Zedicus]

I can't seem to get into Hockey but hten again I don't really follow any sport.  I will say though that Hockey is by far my favorite sport to see live so if you have both the choice and the chance take advantage of it.  Most recently I got to see what should have been a great game Bruins/Flyers in Boston but alas it was a let down.  Sadly the Bruins got thier buts handed to them at home and didn't even have the decency to have a single fight (gloves never even dropped).

On the up side I did get to see it from the bank's box at mid ice.  Now I'm just hoping the Caps do well in the post season again this year since I'll have access to tickets at the Verizon Center and we couldn't give them away last year.

[Zenthalas]

I've never really been a sports fan, but hockey was the sport that was easiest to watch because it wasn't so damn slow.

Yeah, there are a number of placement penalties depending on who controls the puck and where teammates are located.  It's a little bit to absorb in the beginning.

Fighting does happen quite a bit.  Definitely one of the bigger draws to the sport.

Hockey players are probably some of the most brutalized athletes, and they don't make near the kind of cash a football or baseball player makes.  I mean, how many sports do you play where a frozen piece of rubber could crush your throat flying at 100 MPH?  Yeah, they earn their money.

[arras]

yeah, most of those guys don't make anywhere near the kinds of salaries football, baseball or basketball players do.  On the plus side, just about every hockey player has an insanely hot girlfriend

[Ataq]

Then every few years you get one of these:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/dT4PenDwiPo&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/dT4PenDwiPo&rel=1</a>

[arras]

Yeah, that injury ranks as one of the top 5 or 10 all time sports injuries.  Right next to Namath's, I think.

I forget when it was, probably around the same time, but a player got knocked down and kicked in the stomach - not quite as severe, but still pretty bad

[O-W]

This thread gets a  from me!

I am quite a hockey junkey.  Its my other major time sink than WoW

Regarding lines:

Red line at centre is for the faceoffs to start each period or after goals (akin to the tip off to start a basketball for Mirth).  It is also important in...

Icing:  If an offensive player shoots the puck from their end of half (red line) and it goes all the way to the boards behind the other teams goalie without touching any players, icing is called if the opposition skaters (re: non goalie) touches the puck first.  After the icing call, the faceoff is back in the zone of the team that committed the icing (and as of recently they added that the team that iced the puck can't change its players, where the other team can).


The blue lines at roughly the 1/3 mark are there for offside calls.  Players can't cross the other teams blue line before the puck does or it is called icing.  The point is, so that teams don't camp forwards up by the other teams goaltender looking to cherry pick.

They used to have no two-line passes allowed, but scrapped that when they tweaked a couple of rules to get more offensive.


There are lines down by the goaltenders - they are mostly there for deciding a goal (entire puck has to cross the line).

Regarding fighting, I either like it or hate it depending on the situation.

I really don't the like the staged fights, when each team sends out a tough guy and they fight just to get their teams pumped up or out of some hockey code.

I am fine with fighting if it is situational.  Some a-hole levels your star player with a big or dirty hit, then yeah go at him and fight him. It shows passion and the heat of the moment.  The other kind, just that you're a meat head.

The season tends to run a bit long, but playoff hockey is a thing of beauty.  When teams play a 7 game series they tend to get a bit of a hate on

[Cuddles]

Although I'm definitely not a huge hockey fan, I did know all of these rules...

EA Sports Hockey for Sega back in the early 90's was probably my most played game for a couple years.  Learned all those rules from the video game. 

Speaking of that game, all you had to do was pick the Red Wings if you wanted to win.  Yzerman and Federov were unstoppable!  Lol!

[Alle]

Hockey rocks! It's also fun to play - sort of like AC-style mage PVP in RL. Football was fun to play as a kid but is incredibly boring to watch because it's too slow.