What about the Stanley Cup… Hockey has real athletes who compete for the sake of competing. Not prima donnas who take 2 weeks off with a hand nail. These guys are strong(try skating with 2 200+ players hanging on you) yet they have speed, quickness and agility.
Not to mention having to handle a puck and make split-second decisions while trying to not get your ass laid out by some big ass mofo.
I agree. Before bodybuilding I played hockey for 12 years of my life and it is by far the most skillful and exciting game to play and watch. I think the Stanley Cup Playoffs are the best sporting games to watch. You never see anyone punk out…it’s all about heart.
“Hockey has real athletes who compete for the sake of competing.” WHAT???
Finally, someone on here admits it! I too have been playing hockey for a long time and know what kind of athleticism it takes to be a top notch hockey player. Hockey players have to possess everything in order to be successful: speed, agility, strength, hand-eye coordination out the wazoo, as well as intangibles like heart and determination and BALLS! Hockey is a sport like no other. Players play with sprains, bruises, cuts, separtaed shoulders, pulled muscles broken bones. To illustrate this: Chris Chelios played a couple seasons on a knee that had little or no ACL left(while still being one of the best defensemen in the league), Dan Hinote finshed broke his fibia in early in game 5 of the Western Conference finals and finished the game that went into overtime. Bobby Orr played an entire playoffs on an ankle that was literally broken into pieces which lead to an earlier retirement than he planned. I could go on and on but you get the drift. Players get hit in face with sticks and pucks, suffer gashes or swollen faces and still finish the game(i.e. O’Neil for the Hurricanes) and guys get huge gashes ont heir faces and leave to get stitched up and come right back out and maybe miss one shift or 2 if its bad.
ANy hockey player will tell you this that they play through anything, I know I have(partially torn ACL, pulled groin, etc.) Hockey players are the toughest and most athletic, if you dont agree then you obviously havent played competitive hockey before.
For my money, wrestlers are the “toughest and most athletic” by far.
I too played hockey for 12+ years before bodybuilding. will always be my #1 love. i actually like the “tradition” of being tough. i remember going down to block a shot, which hit me someplace where i have no pads, and as bad as it hurt, there was no way in hell i would let anyone know b/c we had guys playing in worse pain than i was it. also, i have to admit, its pretty cool bleeding all over the ice, and missing maybe 1 shift max while the trainer stiches/tapes your cut.
In ice hockey one has to master 2 sports in one: First, one
has to be an expert ice skater; this requires a superior level
of skill!
Then there is the hockey aspect of the sport: shooting the slapshot, snapshot, wristshot and backhander.
Passing: pinpoint accuracy, touch, the ability to anticipate where your teammate and opponent will be before they do!
Next, there's the endurance factor: some top NHL defensemen wind-up playing over half the game!
Lastly, the brute force and violent aspect of the game one has to be able to deal with...(Yes, there is violence in hockey!)
Your hockey nut, Joey Z.
Hockey is a good sport, but the NHL doesn’t exactly compete for the sake of competing. they compete for a paycheck. I don’t, however, agree with making or allowing players to play on broken bones or serious injuries. (please note - I said serious - this is not baseball here) I suck at skating, so it’s really fun to watch them almost dance on the ice.
On another note: WTF? It's JUNE for heaven's sake. Why are they still playing? Shouldn't the field be narrowed dwn a bit so the playoffs don'e last for months????
Bite your tongue… You obviously arent a real fan to say the playoffs last too long. Please refrain from ever making any comments regarding hockey again 
No, we want the season to last as long as possible so we’re not reduced to watching things like basketball or baseball or(God forbid) World Cup soccer.
Michelle - You will hear hear hockey devotees exclaim
“Hockey has real athletes who compete for the sake of
competing…”
The reason maybe that the vast majority of NHL stars have a rich tradition of competing in international tournaments during the off season. (E.g. the legendary Canada Cup Series of the early to mid 70's, as well as the infamous World Cup Championships in the 90's, just to mention a few) These NHL'ers not only play for pride and country but also front large sums of $money$ (out of pocket) in order to do so - all the while risking major injury that could possibly jeopardize multi-million-dollar contracts. In these tournaments they play as if their lives depended on it! Incredible - eh!?
Just thought you might like to know!?
In the playoffs hockey players are not playing for a paycheck, since their contracts end at conclusion of the regular season. Hence, they technically aren’t being paid during the two-month war of attrition that is the Stanley Cup playoffs. Good playoff performances do have monetary rewards in coming seasons, however.
I think we argue for the sake of arguing…I think we should get paid for this. It requires a hell of alot of energy to acomplish…not much.
Oh please… you mean to tell me that a hockey player is not under any obligation to play in the playoffs??? bull. He would never have a job the next year.
Michelle, Michelle, Michelle! You really have no clue about what your are talking about or referring to. I am saying this as humbly and kindly as possible mind you.
Hockey players’ contracts are fullfilled at the end of the regular season, meaning that no matter if your team makes the playoffs or not you get paid that 1 million dollars. Yes they all have incentive laiden contracts where better performance equals higher pay. But so do B-ball and baseball players and football players. With the exclusion of the last sport(for the most part) in the other 2 sports it is obvious that there is not the same level of intensity or physical exertion throughout the regualr season. But back to my point, Once the season is over and say you do make the playoffs, yes you play because you are on the team and if you win it all you get a little monetary reward(for most of the players it is just 40k or less so others have it in their contract that they get much much more if they win the cup). Otherwise there is no incentive to go out there and be the best and perform the best since no matter how many goals or points you rack up, you get no extra money.
Hockey players are a rare breed, they dream of playing in the NHL and not for the same reasons as football, basketball and baseball players do(money is the only thing they want), we hockey players dream of playing in the NHL to win the most sacred trophy of all trophies: The Stanley Cup. (if you ask why it is so sacred, please go outside right now and hang yourself or jump off a cliff since you obviously have no idea about sports then, thats only iff you dont understand). Because it has the most history of any trophy, its the biggest I believe and the most pristine. Hockey players kill each other and play through amazing pain just to have the chance to help one’s team win. Look at the other night game 5 of the Cup Finals, Westland for the Hurricanes gets belted in the mouth witha crosscheck need 5 stitches to close the gash on his mouth and I am sure he at least chipped some teeth there, and came back 10 minutes later. He is no big name, no real play maker on the Hurricane team(what is he a 4th maybe 3rd liner, i think but I’m not sure). But yet he came back to help his team in anyway he could, he doesnt play that much in the first place but he did get back out on the ice after the vicious hit and tried his best to help fight a losing cause.
Now if you cannot understand why hockey is what we all have been talking about, please just reply back saying: " Guys I guess I just dont get it, Im just a girl who never played or understood this sport everyone calls hockey. I will now refrain from ever posting anything pertaining to hockey ever again since I only infuriate everyone for my lack of common knowledge." You could throw in a sorry to if you would like(I’m sure we would all appreciate that).
Grizza
P.S. THe NHL playoffs are going on into June because in case you lived under a rock the was something called the ‘Olympics’ that happened this year. Yeah the NHL took a 2 to 3 week break for its players to go and play for their countries and risk millions of dollars if they were to get injured. I’m sure you just missed that whole hockey thing here with the olympics or maybe you did see the olympics and just missed all the intense hockey so you could watch celebrity boxing on Fox. Sorry guess you missed it.
Ok, I’m sorry, but this is true for ALL sports. Hockey players don’t play for a paycheck, they play because they love playing, they just happen to get paid for their hard work. Believe me, if you think they didn’t bust their balls to get where they are at you are sadly mistaken.
laugh ok, Ok, OK! my humblest apologies to all of the rabid hockey fans out there who I dared to offend by suggesting that hockey players actually might be the same breed as gag baseball or bigger gag football players. It sounds like they actually might be on par with rugby players grin
I was unaware that the entire NHL stopped because of the olympics. I watched quite a bit of olympic hockey actually, but did n't know that they stopped NHL play. I guess that just makes sense since 90% of the players were in Salt Lake.
hehe michelle you are forgiven. ok i am a bodybuilder now, 100% dedication, FORMER hockey player of 12 years (to a high, competitive level.) ok if i had a choice between having a 3some with britney and christina, or winning the stanley cup…ok well i would…geez i didnt realize the decision would be this hard…um…ok i stopped letting my dick think for me and i would…shit i cant decide (hopefully this gives some incentive to how sacred Lord Stanley’s Cup is)
The Stanley Cup playoffs always seem to go into June, whether it is an Olympic year or not. I just figure they like to extend the season because the arenas these boys play in rake in a lot of bucks for those play-off games. The more bucks they rake in, the more the home team has to “buy” players for the next season. It makes sense. It really is strange to watch hockey, however, when it is so nice outside already. It just “feels” wrong somehow.
Now, while I enjoy watching hockey, and while I agree that hockey players are highly skilled, I don’t feel that all of the NHL players are hired because of their stellar skating and puck-handling skills. I do believe that some are hired because of their fighting skills. These are the thugs on ice who can skate, yes, but are not the high scorers or the goalies or the best defensemen. They are the goons who police this game. It is this aspect of hockey, loved by so many, that really makes me sick. Olympic hockey was so much more fun to watch for the actual skills displayed because there was less goonery (is that a word?) on the ice. The bashing, slashing, mashing, clutching and grabbing that goes on continuously really takes away from the skill required in this sport. I can’t think of any other highly skilled sport that continues to allow its highly-skilled and highly-paid players to be so beat up on a regular basis (except maybe wrestling and rugby). In my opinion, it is unnecessary and totally detracts from the sport. And I’m not talking about normal, regular checking here. P.S. On a side note–I hate Hasek. Despite his talent and skill as a goalie, he is very unsportsmanlike and a real baby.