Don't cheat yourself: Watch hockey playoffs
Posted: Monday, April 07, 2008 6:35 PM
Do yourself a favor this weekend. Watch a Stanley Cup playoff game. There’s nothing like it in sports, and if you brush it off with a sneer and a “who cares about hockey?” you’re only cheating yourself.
You’ve got two to choose from on NBC, Nashville at the mighty Red Wings, the Cup favorites, at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Philadelphia at Washington, the home of the amazing left wing, Alexander Ovechkin, at 2 p.m. on Sunday. There are also games on VERSUS during the week, if you get that obscure cable network.
It really doesn’t matter who’s playing, though. That’s the beauty of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Unlike football and basketball, there’s no chalk in hockey, no prohibitive favorite, no top team that isn’t going to lose a first-round playoff. Eight seeds beat one seeds in the NBA once in a lifetime. In hockey, while it doesn’t happen all the time, it happens frequently enough to let the sport’s fans know that there’s no sure thing in this, the fastest team sport there is.
That stops a lot of potential fans before they even give it a chance. “I can’t see the puck,” is the common refrain of non-fans. Hockey fans know that’s bogus. Even if you’ve got an old tube with a snowy picture, you can follow the action even if the puck sometimes disappears in the blur of action. Just follow the players and you’ll find the puck.
And listen to the play-by-play, especially if
Mike “Doc” Emrick is behind the mic. Even if you hate hockey worse than cats hate bubble baths, do yourself a favor and listen to him call a game. There is no one better at play-by-play in any sport than Emrick. There’s also not a better human being than he.
He’s got a perfect voice, crisp and penetrating. Unlike just about anyone else out there, he speaks actual English with proper grammar and everything. (The “Doc” is not an honorific; he’s got an actual Ph.d. from Bowling Green.)
No sport is more challenging to call, because no sport goes for minutes on end without a break in the action and no sport changes the cast of characters on the ice on the fly every 30-45 seconds. If you can’t see the puck, don’t worry, Doc will tell you where it is. He’ll tell you which player with an unpronounceable name has it and which player with an equally tongue-twisting name he passes it to. And in the middle of the call, he’ll slip in bits biographical tidbits and the occasional pun. Listen to him for a game and then tell me there’s anybody better in any other sport.
And while you’re getting a lesson in how play-by-play should be done, just watch what the players are doing. Again, forget the puck. Just watch the speeds that Olympic sprinters can’t hit in their dreams. Watch the hits as players are mashed into the walls. Watch guys throw themselves in front of slap shots rocketing in at 100 mph.
In the playoffs, you won’t get many fights unless an early game is out of hand late in the action. But do yourself another favor and don’t whine about the fighting. It’s part of the game, and the guys beating each other up are paid to do just that. Anyway, it’s hard to actually beat anyone up when you’re on skates. And remember, in hockey, two guys square off. It’s not like baseball, where everybody piles onto the field and gets in a mindless scrum. It’s two guys in a schoolyard rumble on ice. They’re willing participants. Let them have their fun without going all holier-than-thou on hockey.
With or without the fights, hockey has more of everything than any other sports. It’s got power plays, sometimes with five skaters going against three. It’s got constant action. It’s got hitting. It’s got tons of shots on goals and incredible displays of reflexes and athleticism by the padded guys in goal. It’s got hand-eye coordination, blinding speed, and it’s all on a surface as hard as concrete.
No matter how you think you feel about the sport, give a Stanley Cup playoff game a chance. Watch it from start to finish, really watch it. Pick a team to root for – it’s always better to have favorite dog in the fight -- forget the puck and watch the players, listen to the call, take it in.
You might just like it.
