02-20-2005, 03:05 AM
Was reading Two Solitudes today, and found this passage:
"Those had been good days before everything got complicated by the war. He liked the french style of hockey, a team with small, stick-handling forwards (Denis Savard) and defensemen built like beer barrels. Every year a few new boys would come into the league from the smaller towns, and before the season began he and the other owners, with the manager and trainer, would sit in fur coats in the empty rink, windows open to let the water freeze, and size up the new boys. All those youngsters has retired as veterans long ago. He remembered the big times in the dressingroom on the nights when the season ended. The brewery sent over a barrel of beer and they broached it together, the beer tasting exactly right in the fuggy room with the smell of sweat and liniment, and the boys horsing around, and then everyone relaxed on the benches and beginning to boast. It had seemed a good world when hockey was important in it." (Two Solitudes, pg 71-72)
Thought this passage was relavent to what's going on in the NHL today.
I will never forget those school nights when I was 7-8 years old that my dad used to take me to Chicago stadium to watch the Hawks play the Wings. That was a time, in the late 80's when a ticket was $15, and the stands were filled with guys from Shiller Park, Schaumberg, Hanover Park, Des Plaines, Lake Villa, Elgin. Dudes that worked at the airport, mail men, mechanics, butchers, barbers, people that keep this society running took their kids to this game.
One of the saddest nights of my life was back in 93 when I was in high school and my dad and I went on our annual Hawks / Wings outing. It was my first trip to the "new stadium". The place was not Chicago Stadium. It had NONE of the mystique that the old barn did. The stanley cups, the history of Bobby Hull, Makita, Glenn Hull, The Campbell Conference, the Norris Division, not to mention the 5 Democratic National Conventions held there. As we watched the game, I noticed (regardless of my 15 yr old naivity) a change in the game. The "UC" (what a corporate sell out!) was filled with luxury sky boxes and "white collar" fans. The "old guard", the blue collar guys from the middle class communities of Chi-town were conspicuously absent. As was the beauty and mystery of the game. The worst part, was when we left. As we went to the car, there she was. Chicago stadium, half destroyed by the wrecking ball. But half of her was still standing and I could see inside. Must be the same sort of feeling that those guys get when they go down and see the titanic. As I looked inside, I saw the beautiful majestic old barn of my youth. The place that my father had taken me in my younger days. Now on the verge of becoming a total memory. A few days hence, she would be wiped off the face of chi-town for good. Leaving in her glorious place a shine to corporate prostition. I felt as if the sanctity of my youth and my chicagoland heritage had been raped.
Perhaps I was just getting older, and the awe of my youth wearing thin, but I really think the game has deviated from the principles it was built upon; those principles that Mr. Maclennan so eloquently highlights above.
Who the hell knows what to do? Even a town like Detroit that calls itself "hockey town" was totally devoid of any of the atmosphere of the game I knew as a youth. When I was there a few years back (actually for game during the 02 stanley vs the Whalers; I refuse to acknowledge any team south of the Mason-Dixon line) and the crowd was disappointing. Bunch of white collar yuppies from grosse point. Easy Detroiters. I was born in Motown, Motown proper. Cadiuex and Mack, Eastside represent beyatch!. But even in a town that alledgedly celebrates the sport, I found the spirit of hockey sorely lacking.
Perhaps an abbreviated season can still be salvaged. But to what avail? The owners and money hungry players have already alienated the fans of the game. Not to mention all the secondary industries that have been hurt by this; the hotels, restaurants, apparel stores / companies.
To hell with them all. The game in its current state is a total mockery of the values the game was founded on.
In conclusion, I say, wack-out 26 of the teams, and split their players amongst the Leafs, Hawks, Wings, Canadiens, Bruins, Rangers; and shit, to even out the desparity between US and Canuck teams ( I mean, I think there will be enough talent to go around), lets keep the Sens (nice rivalry for those in the TO), and hell, lets bring back the Nordiques (bitchenest uniform in all of pro sports ever)!
Mick
"Those had been good days before everything got complicated by the war. He liked the french style of hockey, a team with small, stick-handling forwards (Denis Savard) and defensemen built like beer barrels. Every year a few new boys would come into the league from the smaller towns, and before the season began he and the other owners, with the manager and trainer, would sit in fur coats in the empty rink, windows open to let the water freeze, and size up the new boys. All those youngsters has retired as veterans long ago. He remembered the big times in the dressingroom on the nights when the season ended. The brewery sent over a barrel of beer and they broached it together, the beer tasting exactly right in the fuggy room with the smell of sweat and liniment, and the boys horsing around, and then everyone relaxed on the benches and beginning to boast. It had seemed a good world when hockey was important in it." (Two Solitudes, pg 71-72)
Thought this passage was relavent to what's going on in the NHL today.
I will never forget those school nights when I was 7-8 years old that my dad used to take me to Chicago stadium to watch the Hawks play the Wings. That was a time, in the late 80's when a ticket was $15, and the stands were filled with guys from Shiller Park, Schaumberg, Hanover Park, Des Plaines, Lake Villa, Elgin. Dudes that worked at the airport, mail men, mechanics, butchers, barbers, people that keep this society running took their kids to this game.
One of the saddest nights of my life was back in 93 when I was in high school and my dad and I went on our annual Hawks / Wings outing. It was my first trip to the "new stadium". The place was not Chicago Stadium. It had NONE of the mystique that the old barn did. The stanley cups, the history of Bobby Hull, Makita, Glenn Hull, The Campbell Conference, the Norris Division, not to mention the 5 Democratic National Conventions held there. As we watched the game, I noticed (regardless of my 15 yr old naivity) a change in the game. The "UC" (what a corporate sell out!) was filled with luxury sky boxes and "white collar" fans. The "old guard", the blue collar guys from the middle class communities of Chi-town were conspicuously absent. As was the beauty and mystery of the game. The worst part, was when we left. As we went to the car, there she was. Chicago stadium, half destroyed by the wrecking ball. But half of her was still standing and I could see inside. Must be the same sort of feeling that those guys get when they go down and see the titanic. As I looked inside, I saw the beautiful majestic old barn of my youth. The place that my father had taken me in my younger days. Now on the verge of becoming a total memory. A few days hence, she would be wiped off the face of chi-town for good. Leaving in her glorious place a shine to corporate prostition. I felt as if the sanctity of my youth and my chicagoland heritage had been raped.
Perhaps I was just getting older, and the awe of my youth wearing thin, but I really think the game has deviated from the principles it was built upon; those principles that Mr. Maclennan so eloquently highlights above.
Who the hell knows what to do? Even a town like Detroit that calls itself "hockey town" was totally devoid of any of the atmosphere of the game I knew as a youth. When I was there a few years back (actually for game during the 02 stanley vs the Whalers; I refuse to acknowledge any team south of the Mason-Dixon line) and the crowd was disappointing. Bunch of white collar yuppies from grosse point. Easy Detroiters. I was born in Motown, Motown proper. Cadiuex and Mack, Eastside represent beyatch!. But even in a town that alledgedly celebrates the sport, I found the spirit of hockey sorely lacking.
Perhaps an abbreviated season can still be salvaged. But to what avail? The owners and money hungry players have already alienated the fans of the game. Not to mention all the secondary industries that have been hurt by this; the hotels, restaurants, apparel stores / companies.
To hell with them all. The game in its current state is a total mockery of the values the game was founded on.
In conclusion, I say, wack-out 26 of the teams, and split their players amongst the Leafs, Hawks, Wings, Canadiens, Bruins, Rangers; and shit, to even out the desparity between US and Canuck teams ( I mean, I think there will be enough talent to go around), lets keep the Sens (nice rivalry for those in the TO), and hell, lets bring back the Nordiques (bitchenest uniform in all of pro sports ever)!
Mick