2008-2009 National Hockey League thread

Guys iceskating with boxing gloves and sticks...what could go wrong?

 

So, I went to last Saturday's New York Rangers-Pittsburgh Penguins match at Madison Square Gardens. I arrived wishing the penguins well, as I like Sidney Crosby and see Markus Naslund as a traitor to my Canucks' cause.

Alright, you had the vendors and the silly big fingers which a number of my party bought, but there was none of the atmosphere of a football match. The arena was empty until about two minutes before the face-off, and although the National Anthem (which I consider to be an abhorration in an already awful genre of music) got the crowd going a little, it struck me that none of the twelve men on the ice during it were actually American.

It started well though. You could see the puck, a luxury not always afforded by television broadcasts, but there was less fighting and agression than I was promised, and the fact that any shot on goal is saved by the 'goaltender', who covers a good 90% of the goal, means that you're never really on the edge of your seat.

I put the lack of any real atmosphere down to three things:

a) There aren't any away fans. Pittsburgh is not a million miles away from NYC, yet I saw about 20 Penguin fans. When they scored first, there was no celebration anywhere and no announcement. My friend actually looked up at the end of the first period and said 'when did they score?'- he did it again after their second.

b) There's a 20 minute intermission between each period. That's ludicrous, especially when you can go and buy food and drink and still be in view of the rink. As soon as it gets going, it's stopped again. Admittedly they have some semi-entertaining intermission entertainment, such as three blokes in over-sized hockey costumes slipping their way around an on-rink obstacle course, but it didn't seem right.

c) There's one chant- 'LET'S GO RANGERS'. And even that is spoon-fed ot the crowd via the big screen thing overhanging the rink. There's no spontinaety, no clever quips. Until us Brits arrived.

As I knew a bit about the sport I was less amazed at certain aspects than my uninitiated compatriots. For example, with the score at 2-1 late in the third period I knew that sooner or later the Rangers would pull their goalie (who has legend status despite being cack), but it still excited me to see this put in practice.

So, the actual game. Penguins scored first, and then second. Putting the score at 2-0 at the end of the second period- the Rangers were booed off and it didn't look likely that they'd do anything of note in the third. The Penguins were far more fluid going forward, and Crosby ran the show. In the third period, however, my allegiences changed. I found out from the pair of Yanks in front that Crosby is the ice hockey equivalent of Cristiano Ronaldo. Although I admired his skill, I remembered all those close-minded football fans who adore the other Ronaldo and immediately decided that he was my new mortal enemy.

We also got some banter going with our surrounding New York natives. They loved our football and rugby based chants and shouts, although they were really nothing special. We got the whole block singing: 'They're white, they're black, we hate those penguin ****s'. Not poet-laureate standard stuff, but a darn sight better than the co-ordinated **** that the crowd were blurting out until then. As well as the flowing banter, the Rangers started to come alive, scoring about ten minutes into the final period and then, having pulled their goalie, with 8 seconds of the match left. We went mental, high fiving and bear hugging the blue collar yanks in front of us- they were quite surprised at our gruffness and lack of any noticable class.

The game went through overtime and into penalty shots, a scenario that due to the earlier-mentioned goalie:goal space ratio is not very high scoring. It finished 1-0 to the Rangers, and we were all very happy having gotten into it over the final half an hour. We chatted with our new friends on the way out and piled into an unliscensed limo that we found hanging around back to the YMCA Vanderbilt.

Overall, it was a good experience, though I'm not sure I'd have got the same buzz if I was a regular hockey fan, since that night 6 days ago the Rangers have had another two fixtures, which seems like overkill to me. But having watched some of the World Series during dinner on another night, I appreicate the opportunity to get excited by American sport.

Well done Fitz, your boys done good.

 

Very nice write-up.

It sounds like a pretty typical American sporting experience. US fans are not anywhere near as invested in person in the games they watch.

It's kind of odd how expressive we are in many ways but just not at the arena or stadium.

One of the things that separates the rabid fans from the hand sitters onners that attend is a little $omething I like to call dollar$. It is pretty expensive to go to a game.

As far as travelling goes, it really isn't a part of the culture because of distance. Even though Pittsburgh isn't that far, Atlanta or Chicago or Edmonton is, so you just don't think of it as something you can do. Rightly or wrongly.

 

Well my SJ Sharks have started where they left off so I don't doubt they'll breeze through regular season only to lose in the first round of playoffs.

 

NHL is only covered when they've either scored or by demoted to the AHL.