Posts
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G’day mates.
You may have noticed that I am not Bruce..or Tucker.
Let me introduce myself, I’m Mynx, pleased to meet you and what I am going to tell you next will hopefully allow you to forgive me and Bruce for what follows.
I AM AUSTRALIAN.
Okay, now with that out of the way, I want to talk about Hockey.
Now I know about hockey, even played it at school. Hockey 1, Hockey 2 etc, wooden sticks, hard white ball....yep, field hockey.
But what I am supposed to be talking about here is what you guys consider to be real hockey. With ice..and beer. Beer I believe is an essential component of all hockey games.
Why Ice Hockey? Well the very sexy Bruce emailed me from the rink the other day where he was watching a game and me being me, decided to adopt his team as my team.
So here I am, the totally clueless new supporter of the Griffins and the Detroit Red Wings. Don’t try to convert me, I am loyal, once I pick a team, no really, I am. Totally.
(Just don’t ask me about the AFL teams I follow...um go Essendon)
So I need to find out exactly what I am supporting.
I went to the internet and I thought I would watch the game that Bruce was watching.. sort of a buddy thing.
Nope, my laptop isn’t in Canada so I wasn’t allowed to watch free streaming of the Red Wings Vs The Maple Leafs and as much as I love my Hockey, be buggered that I am going to pay for streaming.
And we won yay. See I did pick a cool team to follow.
Off to Wiki to get some facts.
The size of the rink is 85 x 200 ft and edged in plexiglass. (I am guessing so you don’t get a player in your lap)
There are 30 member clubs in the NHL, 6 from Canada and 24 USA. The NHL started in 1917 after WW1.
You can have up to 22 players on a roster but only 6 on the ice at one time.
The whole idea is to get the puck into the opponent’s goal net. See easy.
Most common injuries are lacerations to the head scalp and face which bleed...a lot.
Fighting is not allowed officially, but is actually unofficially condoned with teams having players in the role of “enforcers”. (well that is what I read).
Ahhh the testosterone...grown men with sticks and sharp blades beating the crap out of each other while pretending it is all about putting a little round thing in a net. No wonder it is so popular.
The average NHL game lasts 2 ½ hours and is split into 3 periods with the ice cleaned between.
Plenty of time to eat junk food and drink a lot of beer.
So how am I going? Am I getting it figured out?
Onto Youtube and I get a taste of the colour, noise and excitement of a game.
Can only imagine the buzz of really being there.
Big men in helmets and padding. Oh and Google “hockey Players” for images. 2nd pic on the page I got was naked hockey. Now that could be dangerous if you fell over. Perhaps I won’t include it here.
It is fast, physical and I can certainly see why women enjoy it as much as the guys.
I did find out that we even have a Ice Hockey team, right here in my city. They are called “Adelaide Adrenaline” . Perhaps I might even have to check them out sometime.
But until then, hand me a Red Sweater, an inflatable Stanley cup, a beer and a hot dog.
And Go Redwings.
