It's the umpteenth day of the NHL lockout, and I've honestly found that I don't miss it very much. It's not even the college, OHL, KHL, and other European league hockey that sustains me. It's actually your standard house-league youth hockey that is saving the sport for me. Go to your local rink, and you'll see something you've never seen before. There's a uniquely great play and a uniquely muffed play in every game, sometimes by the same kid on the same drive to the net. It's free, and it's awesome.
And if you're patient, you might see something like
this game. Kids dropping gloves? Check. Punch and equipment throwing goalies? Sure. Coincidental penalties? In spades. In fact, this game somehow reaches the point at which there aren't enough kids on the bench to put a full side on the ice. The penalty boxes are a Russian clown car.
It's not good hockey, but it's an apt rebuttal to the critics of cage beds.
1 comment:
My second-favorite part of the clip, after the overstuffed penalty box of course, is the ease with which the refs separate kids simply by placing a hand on the kid's chest and extending the arm.
Also, if that's going on on the ice you have to wonder what's going on in the stands, given the reputation of (some, not all) hockey parents. Present company obviously excluded.
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