Thread: Any Hockey Fans Out There????

Originally Posted by NittanyGator

I coach 4 hockey teams during the season, and play on 2 adult league teams. I'm on the ice 9 or 10 times a week. Now it's been nothing since like February. Went from 6 days a week to nothing. Finally was able to get my 10U team on the ice Tuesday night. It was so nice to skate again with the boys, even to smell the rink.

Ah yes, the sweet, sweet smell of blood, sweat and tears. I envy you getting to skate that much and play hockey AT ALL.

FINALLY some hockey to watch. Come on August 1st!

Originally Posted by BobH

Naw, the real miracle on ice was this https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia....-hockey-series .

Bob

Couldn't agree more, the reality about the other miracle on ice that most American talk about is that all the good players were allready in the NHL and unable to play....

Maybe I'm kind of a 'Humbug' but I'm one of the old guard who still believes that the Olympics should be ONLY FOR AMATEUR ATHLETES!

I never watched a single game of the USA's so called 'Dream Team'--

To me it all boils down to Money! And the Olympic Committee wants more of it and will do whatever it takes to bring it in.

I realize that some countries were entering so called 'Armatures' who they paid to only work on their sport but still overall most countries were on the up and up/at least as far as my limited knowledge is aware of.

I really doubt in modern times there was such a thing as an amateur athlete. The competition is so great that a full time athlete has to be supported somehow. To compete in the Olympics you must be doing it full time to build and keep an edge. If you are paid to do it or subsidised in another manner makes you a pro.

Bob

It has never really truly been all amateur but the 1980 USA team was a bunch of college kids, many of whom were headed for the NHL. But let's not forget the USSR team beat the snot out of the NHL allstar team.

To be honest I never understood why it was so important that they be amateur athletes. If the idea was to see the best athletes a country had. If the were truly the best they would probably do it professionally wouldn't they. That's aside from the fact that they would have to be sponsored one way or the other as Bob said so isn't it just semantics?
Edit: The big thing I think is an issue is performance enhancing drugs. That really is a big deal no matter how you slice it. It's there has to be a baseline and I think that just has to be off the table completely. It's a shame that that has become such a big part of so many sports. I knew a guy years ago who was a professional bodybuilder. He told me there are two kinds of bodybuilders that do steroids: the kind who say they do and the kind who say they don't.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

It has never really truly been all amateur but the 1980 USA team was a bunch of college kids, many of whom were headed for the NHL. But let's not forget the USSR team beat the snot out of the NHL allstar team.

Tell that to Jim Thorpe--his Olympic Medals were stripped from him because he's played two summers as a semi pro baseball player before he competed in the Olympics. Playing baseball had nothing to do with the events he won in the Olympics. 30 years after he'd passed away his Olympic Medals were reinstated to him.

I'm sure he really appreciated the gesture. I hope it gave his family some comfort.

I would be very interesting if people like Thorpe or Jesse Owen's could see today's Olympics and let us know their thoughts.

I'm not disputing what you're saying really Roy. I guess my point is even as far back as the ancients people have idolized athletes. Fame is a funny thing. If you're famous you don't need money because people trip over themselves to give you things. This is very ironic too because people of great fame could afford to pay for the things people try to give them. Great athletes have always had benefactors. I'm not saying that there are not some who play by the rules. In fact I think the majority of people probably always have but there have also always been cheaters.

So it's The Kraken huh?

About time they got "Kraken" picking a name. It's only been a year and a half?