Hockey Traditions that Should Be Immediately Ended

[radoran]

Not a tradition but lets eliminate the salary cap. If a team has the money to spend, let them. Keep the cap floor but eliminate the ceiling.

 

Which just flies in the face of why we've lost a season and a half of hockey in the past decade.

 

It wasn't the players seeking to impose a salary cap, it was the owners who insisted the only people in the entire universe with the ability to stop them from doing something immensely stupid was the players.

 

Better yet Remove the entire Pay Scale - all hockey players receive the same base pay throughout the league.  Teams may reward with yearly performance bonuses. Players and teams can agree to sign 1, 2, or 3 year contracts. Uniformity of the league pay eliminates the need  for teams to hire capologists - (as former players really can't walk into this job following their hockey career) and makes the GM's job a hell of alot easier.

 

---- the above post has no sarcasm.  

 

I actually like this a lot - not that I think there's a snowball's chance in Hell of it actually happening.

 

But it's a heckuva lot more reasonable than eliminating the cap, which they threatened the future of the entire league to achieve...

[jammer2]

Which just flies in the face of why we've lost a season and a half of hockey in the past decade.

 

It wasn't the players seeking to impose a salary cap, it was the owners who insisted the only people in the entire universe with the ability to stop them from doing something immensely stupid was the players.

 

 

I actually like this a lot - not that I think there's a snowball's chance in Hell of it actually happening.

 

But it's a heckuva lot more reasonable than eliminating the cap, which they threatened the future of the entire league to achieve...

 

 

  Commie  

[Old School Hockey]

Which just flies in the face of why we've lost a season and a half of hockey in the past decade.

It wasn't the players seeking to impose a salary cap, it was the owners who insisted the only people in the entire universe with the ability to stop them from doing something immensely stupid was the players.

I actually like this a lot - not that I think there's a snowball's chance in Hell of it actually happening.

But it's a heckuva lot more reasonable than eliminating the cap, which they threatened the future of the entire league to achieve...

Heres something that's very funny! Leipold whinned about how he was then one out and sign two players for $200 million. Seems a bit hypocritical?

Edited May 20, 2014 by Old School Hockey

[yave1964]

Which just flies in the face of why we've lost a season and a half of hockey in the past decade.

 

It wasn't the players seeking to impose a salary cap, it was the owners who insisted the only people in the entire universe with the ability to stop them from doing something immensely stupid was the players.

 

 

I actually like this a lot - not that I think there's a snowball's chance in Hell of it actually happening.

 

But it's a heckuva lot more reasonable than eliminating the cap, which they threatened the future of the entire league to achieve...

I side with the players on this one, it is impossible for me to understand how 30 billionaires cannot control themselves to where they spend themselves into oblivion without an imposed cap.  and like Jammer said, commie, lol

[radoran]

Heres something that's very funny! Leipold whinned about how he was then one out and sign two players for $200 million. Seems a bit hypocritical?

 

More than a little. Maybe the owners weren't being totally 100% straight with their "cost containment" strategy?

 

Nah, they would never lie to us.

 

I side with the players on this one, it is impossible for me to understand how 30 billionaires cannot control themselves to where they spend themselves into oblivion without an imposed cap.  and like Jammer said, commie, lol

 

And yet those 30 billionaires decided that it made more financial sense for them to lose a season and a half of hockey to impose the salary cap.

 

That, my friend, is history.

 

[Old School Hockey]

More than a little. Maybe the owners weren't being totally 100% straight with their "cost containment" strategy?

Nah, they would never lie to us.

And yet those 30 billionaires decided that it made more financial sense for them to lose a season and a half of hockey to impose the salary cap.

That, my friend, is history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF6SNxNIV08

Try getting the owners to tell you what HRR (hockey related revenue) is.

They love hiding crap. They are including Bettman very disingenuous SOB's!

[Old School Hockey]

More than a little. Maybe the owners weren't being totally 100% straight with their "cost containment" strategy?

Nah, they would never lie to us.

And yet those 30 billionaires decided that it made more financial sense for them to lose a season and a half of hockey to impose the salary cap.

That, my friend, is history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF6SNxNIV08

Try getting the owners to tell you what HRR (hockey related revenue) is.

They love hiding crap. They are including Bettman very disingenuous SOB's!

[Old School Hockey]

Here's the owners motto!

Spend spend spend!

We need the players to give back again.

Who writes the contracts again?

[DaGreatGazoo]

He used to loaf at a bar I stopped in once or twice. The Michael he refers to was a guy who was there all the time and a friend of the family so to speak.

 

Cool..was just curious.  I don't mind him...the other guy(Steigerwalt, maybe).  I won't watch the Pens cause of him.  

[Polaris922]

Cool..was just curious. I don't mind him...the other guy(Steigerwalt, maybe). I won't watch the Pens cause of him.

Trust me I only suffer him because I have to.

[DaGreatGazoo]

Trust me I only suffer him because I have to.

 

Coatsey for the Flyers isn't any better, so I'm not just picking him cause he's related to the Pens!  

 

Hockey never ceases to amaze me with how bad their TV coverage can be--and it's across the majority of the networks.  I watch the NHL Network, which is THE FLAGSHIP of THE NHL, and I keep waiting for Bob and Doug McKenzie to show up or Wayne and Garth to appear.  It's brutal at times.  

[Polaris922]

Coatsey for the Flyers isn't any better, so I'm not just picking him cause he's related to the Pens!

Hockey never ceases to amaze me with how bad their TV coverage can be--and it's across the majority of the networks. I watch the NHL Network, which is THE FLAGSHIP of THE NHL, and I keep waiting for Bob and Doug McKenzie to show up or Wayne and Garth to appear. It's brutal at times.

I expect the announcers to be homers. I'm in favor of it really. But I don't like stupid people, and Steigerwald really pushes that envelope at times...

[MadDevil]

At times? I think you're being generous.

[J0e Th0rnton]

At times? I think you're being generous.

heh. Remember the leaf announcers back circa early 2000's?

 

Not sure if it is the same guys since I tend to avoid leaf games at all costs and tune them out, but I still remember them yelling "FEROCIOUS HIT BY ROBERTS/DOMI" on routine bump for the puck plays.

[Vanflyer]

Not sure if it is the same guys since I tend to avoid leaf games at all costs and tune them out, but I still remember them yelling "FEROCIOUS HIT BY ROBERTS/DOMI" on routine bump for the puck plays.

 

Where I come from, we call that rope-a-dope. 

[fanaticV3.0]

You are one grumpy MFer Rux. I like it.

 

I completely agree with you one 1, 2, and 3.

 

Some see #1 as good sportsmanship, but I have to agree with you it's forced and contrived. Good sportsmanship is doing it when you're not forced to.

 

I hate calamari, but I agree with you. Wasting food like that just bugs the hell out of me. U Penn has one and it is to throw toast onto the football field. I forget all the details, but I think it's every game they do it.

 

 

They were talking about #3 on WIP a few weeks ago as the Flyers were about to begin the Rangers series. Gargano and Ellis, who do a show together, were split on it. Anyone who still gets excited by this tired ass tradition is beyond sappy. Their lack of Cups in my lifetime bothers me less than how often they talk about "the good old days". It doesn't motivate anyone at all.

Edited May 21, 2014 by fanaticV3.0

[AJgoal]

3)The Kate Smith Video.

The woman is dead.  Lauren Hart does a better job, is much more attractive, and is alive.  It's 40 years ago people.  I realize we won back then, but let's how about build a team that wins the Cup so 40 years from now we can a grainy video of Lauren singing long after she's gone or too old to see or hear it.

 

I disagree. I appreciate her lineage, but I think it's time to move on from both Kate and Lauren.

[ruxpin]

I disagree. I appreciate her lineage, but I think it's time to move on from both Kate and Lauren.

Okay. I'll buy that. So long as we're burning that fricken video I'm fine with having Ashley Simpson butcher the anthem

[FD19372]

So, we had a discussion in another thread about the handshake line which brought up mention about other traditions that are silly and past their usefulness (if they ever had that).  I'll start with my list.  Feel free to add your own.

 

1) Handshake Line

It's goofy.  Hockey is the only adult sport in which this is done and there's a reason for it:  it's a contrived exercise forcing winners to lie and tell the other team they did a good job (they didn't, they lost) and for the losers to basically thank the winners for beating them.  Yeah, sportsmanship and all that rot, but when the majority of the players just wade through the line with the rote "good job, good job, good job" it's farcical.  Nothing wrong with individuals or groups of individuals being good sports and shaking hands, congratulating, etc., on their own like they do in some other sports (football, in particular), but eh, I don't like the handshake line.  It smells to me.

 

2)Throwing Octopuses on the ice

Come on.  Seriously?  A perfectly good meal and you're throwing it on the ice?   All the people unemployed in Detroit that could use the food and we're just throwing the stuff around.  Get a good deep fryer or grill and a good dipping sauce and enjoy.  Next thing you know Chicago's going to start throwing deep dish pizza and mustard.

 

3)The Kate Smith Video.

The woman is dead.  Lauren Hart does a better job, is much more attractive, and is alive.  It's 40 years ago people.  I realize we won back then, but let's how about build a team that wins the Cup so 40 years from now we can a grainy video of Lauren singing long after she's gone or too old to see or hear it.

 

4)The National Anthem(s)

You know, while I'm on the singing thing, in the same vein as the Handshake Line, why?  For whom?  First, very few are paying the slightest bit of attention.  No one really removes their hats anymore (except for Philly fans after someone scores two goals and they think it's a hat trick) or puts their hand on their hearts.  And no one waits for the song(s) to be done to start cheering and carrying on and calling for the beer guy.   Plus, hockey has become such a multi-national sport that if we're going to play anthems we should all stand there for 50 minutes until all the represented countries get to play their videos of dead women (don't laugh, the Russian video of Catherine the Great with her horse is really quite good--if a bit disturbing).

 

5)The New York Islanders

I ask you.  Why?  For whom?

 

6)Don Cherry

See #5.  The suits are disturbing and I often feel like I should squeegee my television screen when he's done.

 

7)Announcers in Pittsburgh and Columbus saying incredibly stupid crap after home team goals are scored.

Does this really work for folks out there or is just as annoying to you?  I thought it was just a Paul Steigerwald thing, but in the playoffs I had the honor of hearing the Jackets' guy doing the same thing.   So, a Penguin (or Jacket, but less likely so we'll use a Penguin) scores.  With a guttural voice that sounds like he's currently being sodomized and rather enjoying it, he says "And Nash scorrrrrrezzzz.  Stick a pencil in my butt and call it a happy meal!"    What?  Or, "And Crosby scorrrrezzz....Call my sister and tell her the condom broke!"    Seriously, though, it's almost always stupid and always unnecessary.  Be excited about a goal if you want to, but the Sid Marty Kroft drug party lines need to go.

 

Okay, that'll get off to a good start.  Go! 

I would add not calling Crosby for diving a tradition that they need to away with.  The handshake line in hockey is the classiest tradition in sports (unless your name is Milan Lucic) and should be left as is. No other professional sport does this, so I would disagree with that and anthems but I like everything else on your list.  I would also add the Chelsea Hammer song to that list being played after every Chicago goal. So damn annoying.  Also, Mike Emerick broadcasting games is another tradition NBC can stop. 

[ruxpin]

I would add not calling Crosby for diving a tradition that they need to away with. The handshake line in hockey is the classiest tradition in sports (unless your name is Milan Lucic) and should be left as is. No other professional sport does this, so I would disagree with that and anthems but I like everything else on your list. I would also add the Chelsea Hammer song to that list being played after every Chicago goal. So damn annoying. Also, Mike Emerick broadcasting games is another tradition NBC can stop.

Awesome suggestion on Emerick! Agree 5000%

Also on the Chelsea Hammer song and definitely the Crosby thing (that was funny too).

I would gently suggest that there may be a reason why hockey is the only sport that does the handshake thing.

[MadDevil]

My issue with the handshake line is that I don't think it's really that genuine. Half the players look like they just want to get it over with and leave. Sure you get some genuine exchanges between friends, former teammates, etc., but I think they're less than the players who are just going through the motions. Plus we play up the whole "rivalry" thing and how there's bad blood between teams and yet at the end of the series we want them to just switch it off in some artificial show of respect? I understand it's tradition, but I wouldn't be upset if they did away with the handshake line.

[ruxpin]

My issue with the handshake line is that I don't think it's really that genuine. Half the players look like they just want to get it over with and leave. Sure you get some genuine exchanges between friends, former teammates, etc., but I think they're less than the players who are just going through the motions. Plus we play up the whole "rivalry" thing and how there's bad blood between teams and yet at the end of the series we want them to just switch it off in some artificial show of respect? I understand it's tradition, but I wouldn't be upset if they did away with the handshake line.

 

Thank you.  All I'm saying (but I think you said it better!)

[AJgoal]

Okay. I'll buy that. So long as we're burning that fricken video I'm fine with having Ashley Simpson butcher the anthem

 

I'm not. But Lauren makes me cringe every time she sings the "Star Spangled Banner." Personally, I think there are quite a few long time anthemists that could stand to hang up the mikes in favor of new folks. Rancourt and Jimerson top the list for me, along with Lauren. However, if the alternative is this, they can all continue singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkWcNKFBKpo

[ruxpin]

I actually don't mind Lauren or Jimerson, for that matter.

But that video made me want to hurt myself. My initial post about anthems really wasn't serious but now I think they should seriously stop them immediately.

Think of the children.

Think of the small animals exposed to that on television. It's just morally wrong to give that guy in drag a microphone

[AJgoal]

Back on the topic of actual traditions, how about eliminating the tradition of giving failed NHL executives/coaches jobs as analysts? Mike Milbury's sole claim to fame is turning the Isles into such a mess that they had to turn to Garth friggin' Snow to "fix it." Does Barry Melrose ever say anything insightful? We've already beaten McGuire to death. I haven't paid enough attention to Button to know if he is useful.