Kamis, 19 Februari 2009

Thinking out loud


A few beer league games ago I took a lousy D to D pass from Scotty at our blueline and put my pass into the skates of my center as he was curling up through the neutral zone. It was ugly. My first night with the swimsuit edition was less messy.

In another beer league game I was playing center and when the puck was dropped I got manhandled by the opposing pivot and lost the draw without even getting my stick near the puck. If you googled “most brutal face off” you’d get a picture of my helpless ass and a link to the story about that chimp attack in Stamford.

I think being a lousy hockey player helps my appreciation for the sport. The fact that I’ve played a lifetime of hockey at such a mediocre level enhances my admiration for the guys who can do what most call “the little things” on the ice. Do most NHL fans get a stiffy when guys go tape to tape with a backhand saucer. Do most NHL fans spend hours talking over beers about taking passes off the dasher. Fans like us at the 2Man, who know we can’t pull that shit on a regular basis, eat that up. Can a person fully comprehend how great some of the moves that players routinely make if you’ve never put on skates and failed at pulling over those moves? Do people who’ve never played hockey ever really understand how dirty the toe drag bar and in goal is?

Like I worship Eddie Van Halen and recognize that some of the shit he does with a guitar is crazy but having never learned guitar am I missing something? If I actually played a guitar would I appreciate a band like Hoobastank? I choose Hoobastank because that was the first awful band that came into my head. Seriously, would I have some respect for Hoobastank if I learned chords when I was a kid?

By now the blogger world is going crazy over Ovy’s goal last night, as it should be. That goal is a great example of insane athleticism that anyone can appreciate. But even the dirty little low blocker side snipe that players so easily pull is an example of how talented NHLers are. That goal is so automatic, so animal yet it looks easy when a guy like Kovalev (back when he was welcome in the Canadians locker room) rips it for a goal. Does the non-hockey playing public know how nasty that goal really is?

Our buddy, Bruins blogger Cornelius, just got a pair of skates for Christmas. He has season tickets at the TD Garden and is learning to skate. Soon he’ll be mixing it up at a beer league with guys early in their hockey careers. He loves the Bruins now but I think after trying to speed past a defenseman or sauce a pass through traffic that he’ll truly appreciate how nasty guys like Phil Kessel and Marc Savard really are.

I’m just thinking out loud on this one. Is it Friday yet?

-Nemmy

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