I'd watch more hockey if it weren't so dumb
 

the NBA is full of thugs

100+ penalty minutes were given out because of these shenanigans and the first several minutes of the match were two goalies hitting the puck back and forth to each other, apparently.

hockey fans telling me that the nba is full of thugs is as frequent and on the same level as baseball fans telling me soccer is boring

have a hard time believing a predominately white sport could ever be dumb. but i'll take you're word

a lot of pro games don't ******* fights.

holding the perspective that fighting makes the game stupid is just like saying that the NBA is nothing but thugs.

I don't think he was saying solely because of fighting, but just one of x number reasons why it's dumb.

Sometimes it's pretty exciting, but it does seem like a crap shoot. Just hit it towards the goalie and hope for the best.

yeah and if you have the best goalie well it doesn't matter how shit your team is newjerseydevils

hockey is wonderful. fighting in the nhl is dumb. it will probably be gone relatively soon.

i'm not saying it's necessarily the same level of dumb but i would guess you wouldn't accept someone dismissing soccer entirely because of the egregious flopping.

there's a lot more made of it than is really necessary

same could be said for fighting. again, i am not defending it because it is stupid, needless violence. but at least it's consensual and shit.

one of the many reasons playoff hockey is so much better than regular season hockey is that no one wastes time with any of this shit

something like what happened in canucks/flames almost never happens (maybe once every three seasons? i dunno). and substantial penalties were actually given out.

just saying it's not a reason to dismiss the sport as a whole.

there is a vicious double standard about thugs though viz a viz the nba

oh i won't dispute that at all.

in hockey they're called goons, and it's almost some sort of fucked up badge of honor.

don't get me started on the reaction to richard sherman's interview. fuuucccckkkk. go seahawks.

relevant: http://regressing.deadspin.com/the-w...098319/@kylenw

secretly i kind of wish the nba had legal fighting

some of my favorite moments are when it happens

christie jawing rick fox
van gundy vs. zo's leg

but those are just angry dudes in the heat of competition and rick fox really sucks not a tactic or a way to waste time or entertainment whatever it is in hockey

I just don't understand how there's a sport that's not MMA, boxing etc where you can throw a punch and not get kicked out for the rest of the game. like it's weird to me that the object is to get the puck in the goal as many times as possible, and fist fights are considered so much a part of the strategy that players are given roles like "enforcer" and "pest". it seems so stupid and auxiliary to me because the gameplay itself ends to be really exciting and a great deal of skill is involved. the wall checking and all that also seems unneccisarily brutish.

this all seems pretty arbitrary. and when someone is against the wall and needs to be checked....

again, i think the fighting is dumb. but it's really rather tame 99% of the time.

hockey and american football are going to be full contact i mean that's just what they are, if they were low contact then they'd be something else

and while we're on it, how about this faux outrage over richard sherman's postgame interview. you have an audience of people who think football isn't violent enough complaining about trash talk. it's as if people think that just because these guys are professionals that they shouldn't be emotional. that final play was incredible and i can't imagine the intensity that both teams were experiencing in that moment.

what i'm saying is tom brady can eat shit all day with his perfectly aligned teeth. "we win with graciousness". fuck you.

just more humble than the other guy man

the most humblest of folks, just the best at being humble is all

well i'm a pacifist and violence is stupid and i'd actually rather watch rugby because they don't have to wear pads like the girly men of the nfl.

richard sherman is a great example of how people will call any black man everything but nigger, but that's what they're getting at

well yeah that goes without saying.

why's he gotta be so uppity.

my support for richard sherman now overwhelms my hatred of pete carroll

soccer is boring though

look at pictures of nfl players from the 70s/early 80s. those were some straight up goons

these guys are out there skating at 30 to 35 mph on blades with sticks in their hands. The fisticuffs keeps them honest and less likely to use their sticks while skating to retaliate when pissed off about something.

God I feel dirty saying this, but what TOC ^ said.

Historically fighting allowed players to settle differences without using the weapons they're carrying around. Like Eulogy said, it's being phased out with the new emphasis on decreasing traumatic brain injuries. Starting this season, rookies in the NHL have to wear a half shield. This alone discourages fighting. I think within a few seasons fighting will result in a game misconduct and within ten years will result in a several game suspension.