Future of Hockey

Much debate has gone into hockey’s future. What should NHL hockey look like going forward. The athletes  are faster, stronger, and more fit. The rink is the same size. Concussions are on the rise.  The debate regarding the type of game – balance between physical play and skill play. All of this is fodder for the many hockey fans. I have been a fan all of my life. It is a flow sport that has a physicality that is unlike any other sport. I am not a hockey expert, nor do I care to engage in many of the debate mentioned. However, if I could play Commissioner for a day, I would change one rule regarding body checking.

Hockey is the only sport that allows direct contact to an opponent who does not have the puck. I know that there are rules to prevent obstruction, that is not the contact that I am referring to. How many times do you watch a player in hockey make a pass and then prepare himself for a second or two and then get hit. The old “finish your check” theory. This mentality makes very little sense within the context of the sport. I would go further to say that it is hurting the sport of hockey.

I am all for violent contact to dislodge a player from a puck. It usually means that an opponent has removed the space from the offensive player and used a hit to take possession of the puck. What I think kills the game of hockey is the contact that is allowed once a player releases possession of the puck. It allows less talented and slower players to have too great a role in the game. Especially during the playoffs. NHL hockey playoffs has become more about surviving injuries than celebrating the skill of the players. It is a bizarre component of the game. Just imagine a football quarterback making a pass and then worry about the late hits that come after the pass. Or a soccer player who make a pass and then prepares himself for a slide tack afterwards. In the other sports this is scene a serious foul. Not in hockey.

In fact, after watching how Boston bullied their way to the finals. NHL teams are loading up on aggressive hitters who are not fast enough to get to players with the puck but are allowed to finish checks on players that are no longer involved in the game.

Want to remove head shots, want to protect your elite players, want the game filled with talented players, then change your game. Make the adjustments that football and soccer have to protect the skill in the game.

If a hockey player hits another player when that player does not have possession of the puck then it should be a penalty. Simple as that. The game would change for the better. I watch football and soccer and celebrate how their sports are better today then they were in the past. Hockey needs to change.

Tiger Woods … Really

Tiger Woods is the best golf player of all-time. It is difficult to dispute this fact. Television ratings go through the roof when he is playing a tournament. He is on pace to slaughter golf records. Is he one of the best athletes of all-time? Not a chance.

Golf is what I call a tier 3 sport. Tier 1 sports involve athletic movement with a chance that someone could take away your space – Basketball, Soccer, Hockey, Football, Rugby …  Tier 2 sports involve althletic movement with a net that separates you – Tennis, Volleyball … (In other words, someone can’t body check you into next year). Tier 3 sports involve athletic ability that out of shape, non-contact, please no cameras athletes participate in.  By the way, Tier 4 sports are sports that are played by non-human participants – Horse Racing, Car racing …

The second point is that Golf is an elitist sport. Less than 1% of the people on this Earth are able to play this sport. Tiger is the best of less than 1%.  It is a sport that is for the privileged, similar to the America’s cup and tennis. Tiger is great golfer, but great athlete is really stretching it. Golf is an athletic joke that allows aging people the ability to tap into their youth. I get really tired of ESPN and other media centers praising him in the same breath as Ali or Jordan or Gretzky or Pele.  All of those sports are Tier 1 sports.

Fifa World Cup Cure

I love the World Cup. There is no other sporting event that compares. It one of the few spectacles that gathers together the entire world. Why? The reality of the sport is that most of us were able to get a soccer ball and go and play regardless of wealth. It is accessible to us like no other sport. Poor or rich nations can field a team (Ghana). It is the World’s game and anyone that taints the game is for the most part self-centered and self-serving. There are many Americans who don’t understand the appeal of the game and in the same breath adore Baseball – a sport that is the equivalent speed of cricket. We in North America need to understand that we are not the center of the universe and that the rest of the world embrace soccer as the premier sport in the world.

Saying all of that, I believe that Fifa needs to address the issues of diving and penalty kicks. Here are my suggestions for rule changes:

Diving:
During the game: Any time a referee calls for a stretcher, the player who is escorted of the field must remain there for at least 10 minutes. This way the team is short handed.

After the game: During game play it is difficult for referees to catch all of the diving; therefore, they should video review every game and if a player is caught diving than they must be banned from playing the next 2-4 games. Also, the diving player will be fined an incremental amount of money depending on the amount of times they are caught diving.

Penalty Kicks:

In my opinion penalty kicks do not belong in the World Cup. Countries like England, France, and Argentina should not be sent home based on penalty kicks. There is no need to have them. Overtime should be extended until someone scores. What is the problem with this? Players will eventually get tired and mistakes will happen. I have no idea why penalty kicks neeeded to decide the world cup final. I would have enjoyed watching more minutes.

Now that I have solved the World Cup issues, I must try to address my own 🙂

Vancouver Olympics

Vancouver is will be the hosts of the 2010 olympics. The city is excited and ready to put on a show. The history of Vancouver is full of examples of how the wealthy in the city have controlled city growth and development.

The rapid transit system is a prime example of the above statement. The city has decided to create a tunnel through Cambie street – the border between East and West Ends of Vancouver. Cambie was a compromise to what should have been the logical route – Arbutus corridor and what is clearly a mistake. Arbutus has a rail line already in place and thus the cost of the construction would be considerably less. The problem is that the most priviledged in Vancouver live in that area and they control city politicians and their decisions. So why is this on my blog? Who cares?
What is comical is how the wealthiest areas of Vancouver want the economic benefits as long as does not intefere with their backyards. Take West Vancouver for example. It is a beautiful area that holds many wealthy people. They are upset that a highway will be built to Whistler and that it will not be a tunnel. It will upset the environment of the area – trees, views, etc … Ironic, that on the day the olympic flag was being raised, a silent protest was taking place – not for peace and hunger but for a highway.

Just like the Arbutus corridor, the highway issue in West Vancouver is getting much of the focus because it the rich who do not want their space messed with. They have the political influence and propoganda tools (media, lawyers …) at their disposal.

It is really good to see that Translink (Transit authorities) are holding strong on the decision to build the road through the trees and not under a tunnel. Don’t get fooled into believing that the reason the West Vancouver people want a tunnel is because of environmental reasons – plain and simply the don’t want it in their backyard. In an ironic twist of fate, the costs of the Cambie rapid transit line will prevent a tunnel in West Vancouver because of economics.

It is about time that some of the elite in Vancouver got a bit of what the rest of the city has to sacrifice for this olympics.

Yep Seahawks got ripped off

The day after the superbowl and I can state that Seattle deserves what it gets. The day after its’ football team got screwed by the NFL and the officials, the headlines in the local newspapers mention very little about what I think is the most blatent attempt to fix a game that I have witnessed. There should be an investigation into this game. Seattle is an easy and obvious target. The old boys in the NFL ensured that the new guy on the block was not going to get an easy victory. The bottom line is that Seattle was the best team on the field. They were ripped off. The officials need to be made accountable. The NFL’s integrity is in question.

List of questionable calls:

Jackson touchdown

Holding on Jackson 30 yard reception

Steelers touchdown that wasn’t

Holding call on Stevens reception at the 1 yard line

Hassleback fumble called on the field (actually overturned)

Hassleback tackle