I miss the old NHL

[Fanboy]

I really miss the old NHL from the 80', 90's and early 2000's.  I miss the big body checks, the fights, now it's all about speed.  You touch another player with your stick and it's hooking or obstruction or you hit someone and it's an illegal hit.  I miss the days of big thundering checks like Scott Stevens (incidentally I met him once and got a chance to skate and shoot the puck around at a scrimmage game with him)  Yes Stevens ended the careers of Lindros and Kariya but those were amazing clean hits, you don't see that anymore.  There is nothing better then seeing an open ice check, the days of Wendell Clark rumbling over people, the big fights of Brashear or Domi or Odjick.  Those days are long gone.

 

When I watch a game now it's one team skating up the ice, tick tack toe passing then back the other way same thing, back and forth, it's almost like watching a basketball game, nobody hits, there are no fights, it's like the players are not playing with any emotion or passion.  Sure the game is faster but the scoring hasn't really increased, games are still 4-2, 6-4, 2-0, we had those same scores back during the clutch and grab and trap zone defense days, but back then we had big hits, big fights, there was nothing like watching Eric Lindros steamroll over the defense or Keith Tkachuk score 50 goals and have 200 PIM in a season.  Those big battles between Colorado and Detroit, those days are gone.  The sad thing is nobody is even putting up 50 goal season anymore unless it's Ovechkin.

 

So we made the games faster but I don't think they are anymore exciting then back 10-30 years ago.  Like clipping, what the hell kind of penalty is that??  And the constant video reviews and being thrown out of the faceoff circle, is this what has replaced big hits and fights now??

 

I'm slowly losing interest in hockey.  I watch now, these kids dangle around with their fancy moves, if Scott Stevens was still in the league those tiny little skaters would be smashed through the boards, guys like William Nylander, Johnny Goudreu, Mitch Marner, these guys wouldn't even be playing back then because they would be off on stretchers after one period.

 

Hockey has changed, but I don't think for the better, maybe for the soft bleeding hearts it's great but I miss the days of Lindros, Primeau, Shanahan, Pronger when real men battled on the ice not just zipped up and down the ice.

[JR Ewing]

I loved all of that old stuff, too, but there's probably not much chance of things going back. We don't have all of the info yet, but what we're learning re: head injuries doesn't really match up with a return to a lot fighting, especially between super heavyweights.

 

[Fanboy]

I know, things never go back, they just change, that is why I have gotten more into baseball in the last 4 years.  I always liked baseball but now I follow every game.

 

The good thing in baseball is that the game hasn't changed too much, I miss the home plate collisions and sometimes they have too many reviews of plays but generally speaking the game is still the same it was 100 years ago.

[ruxpin]

1 hour ago, Fanboy said:

I know, things never go back, they just change, that is why I have gotten more into baseball in the last 4 years.  I always liked baseball but now I follow every game.

 

The good thing in baseball is that the game hasn't changed too much, I miss the home plate collisions and sometimes they have too many reviews of plays but generally speaking the game is still the same it was 100 years ago.

 

Except for the American League travesty that is the designated hitter.

 

I used to be a big baseball fan as a kid and teen, and even through college.   As a kid and teen, I was that nerd who sat on a Sunday afternoon with a scorecard and kept score, collected baseball cards, yadda yadda.

 

They lost me with the 1994 strike, and I never really went back.  I enjoyed the Phillies' teams circa 2006-2010 but rarely, if ever, watched a 9-inning game (if I did, it was playoffs or world series).

 

I still enjoy a game, but it's almost exclusively the Little League World Series games (I live about a mile from the park).  It's just a lot more...pure?

 

But I do get what you're saying.  Other than the DH, it's much easier to compare stats, etc., because they mean the same thing now as they did 10, 20, 30, 100 years ago.   The length of the season has changed some, and the wild card and number of divisions changed and the steroid era skewed some things, but it's still largely the same rules.  Unlike hockey where you have a handful of new, changes, or deleted rules every single year and even those that are the same are called differently.   And this year you have a half-circle crease, next year some other bizarre lines, the next some of the lines are gone, now we have a trapezoid.  You can't pass over two lines, now you can, now we do this weird crap with icing, now we have a shootout, now we have 4 players in over time, no make that 3, now there's two and a puppy....

 

Baseball is definitely more consistent and changes, when they happen, are seismic. 

[Kings Redeem LA]

I like things from all the different hockey eras. 

 

I think the modern game's mostly great. But the 

refs could do a better job about calling obvious penalties and 

holding off on whistling ticky-tack or phantom stuff. Having 

one less ref on the ice could help things too: that kind of crowding 

mixed with today's speed doesn't always work well. Did the NHL 

really need four refs in action during the All Star Game?! 

 

I love baseball too but the screen clutter with that sport--

permanent strike-zone graphic, Tweets, permanent TV logo, scrolling bottom screen, 

etc.--often makes the game unwatchable for me.

It's interesting watching old recordings from most any sport:
only score and time displayed continuously with the occasional

temporary popup graphic. Much preferred. 

 

 

[timelydew]

On ‎2018‎-‎02‎-‎10 at 4:58 PM, thenewestlights said:

I like things from all the different hockey eras. 

 

I think the modern game's mostly great. But the 

refs could do a better job about calling obvious penalties and 

holding off on whistling ticky-tack or phantom stuff. Having 

one less ref on the ice could help things too: that kind of crowding 

mixed with today's speed doesn't always work well. Did the NHL 

really need four refs in action during the All Star Game?! 

 

I love baseball too but the screen clutter with that sport--

permanent strike-zone graphic, Tweets, permanent TV logo, scrolling bottom screen, 

etc.--often makes the game unwatchable for me.

It's interesting watching old recordings from most any sport:
only score and time displayed continuously with the occasional

temporary popup graphic. Much preferred. 

 

 

I've been grousing about screen clutter for years. Good to see someone agrees. If I'm not mistaken, this started with cable news post 9/11, and it ended up seeping into live sports coverage later on.

[WordsOfWisdom]

On 12/29/2017 at 2:24 PM, Fanboy said:

I really miss the old NHL from the 80', 90's and early 2000's.  I miss the big body checks, the fights, now it's all about speed.  You touch another player with your stick and it's hooking or obstruction or you hit someone and it's an illegal hit.  I miss the days of big thundering checks like Scott Stevens

 

The fights were always a side show and probably did more to hurt the reputation of the NHL as a serious sports league than help it, but I do miss the body checks. I want to see players getting hit through the glass, into the partitions, into the bench, etc.  You know what the NHL is today? It's Russ Courtnall. Moves very fast but nothing ever happens. It's just skating.

 

It's as though the hitting vanished completely. Nobody hits anybody any more, unless teammates accidentally collide.

 

 

 

 

[Kings Redeem LA]

19 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

The fights were always a side show and probably did more to hurt the reputation of the NHL as a serious sports league than help it, but I do miss the body checks. I want to see players getting hit through the glass, into the partitions, into the bench, etc.  You know what the NHL is today? It's Russ Courtnall. Moves very fast but nothing ever happens. It's just skating.

 

It's as though the hitting vanished completely. Nobody hits anybody any more, unless teammates accidentally collide.

 

 

 

 

 

It'd be a sad day if I ever watched a game and saw there were more 

teammate collisions than good clean tough hits.   

 

I still see quality physicality in the game but I get the takes that see 

today's game as less rough, less tough than earlier eras.     

 

 

[jammer2]

 I hated Scott Stevens, but I respected him. Felt the same about a lot of the old tough players of the last generation. Ken Denyenko never got talked about enough, tough as nails, that man. I actually miss some of the clutching and grabbing......it was a time where you had to have the will and drive to fight off the hold, or you were rendered useless. 

 

 You know what I miss. A player taking a WICKED hit and nobody drops the gloves. No silly scrum, you simply take the number and wait for a chance for REAL payback....karma baby. These days, you touch a player and the whole team is delirious. Even the stars get involved, some of them looking like 7 year old girls in the schoolyard. 

 

 The thing you can never take back is our current day evolving understanding of concussions. That assures the OLD SCHOOL league we all knew and loved will never, ever be back. No Probert, no Grim Reaper, No Domi.....NO FUN AND yeah, I know, these guys all have families to go home to...

 

 Another thing I REALLY miss, no helmets. I even miss Ron Duguay....ok...taking it to far!!

 

 EDIT #2....the new rules make it harder to impose your will on the other team, it can be done with speed, but any little additional physicality gets whistled.  Imposing your will was the main way cups were won. Either with skill, speed, hard work or brawn. Yet another way Gary has changed the game we all love. 

[MadDevil]

I do miss the blood feud rivalries. I know it sounds kind of barbaric now that we know the long term damage head trauma can cause, but I miss the Devils/Rangers or Devils/Flyers games turning into bloodbaths at times. That level of pure hatred between teams doesn't really exist anymore. I was just going through some highlights from 2012 and watched the game where the Devils and Rangers had three separate fights off the opening faceoff and Torts and DeBoer were yelling at each other. I miss that kind of stuff.

[Kings Redeem LA]

@MadDevil : Even though fights aren't my bag o' chips, I do enjoy, did enjoy, 

genuine rivalries: Boston v. Montreal, The Battle of Alberta, etc. 

Not the kind of manufactured crapola that the league and NBCSN 

sometimes try to pass off on Wednesday nights. I recall laughing 

way back when about some games, wondering if they were gonna make it 

even five minutes before a riot squad would need to be called in.  

 

@jammer2 : that's a good call about overreacting. Gets me remembering 

all the recent-era times when an opposing player barely touches a goalie accidentally 

and the goalie's teammates overreact, making the moment, the game, 

drag on unnecessarily through superfluous headlocks and facewashes.      

 

Revenge in the flow of a game impresses me more than clockin some dude in the face: 

lay a good clean productive hit on someone who deserves it; or take the approach that 

Mike Bossy did, getting hungrier for goals, and getting them,

after somebody pisses ya off.  >       

[mojo1917]

On 3/2/2018 at 5:59 PM, jammer2 said:

You know what I miss. A player taking a WICKED hit and nobody drops the gloves. No silly scrum, you simply take the number and wait for a chance for REAL payback....karma baby.

This, So this.

[blocker]

@jammer2 You know what I miss. A player taking a WICKED hit and nobody drops the gloves.

 

Amen.   Something ***** about getting all-hissy fit over a check.  

[Pucked in the head]

Old time hockey eeh?  Nothing like it! Those brutal hits, the brawls, yeah those were the days....

[JR Ewing]

One thing I miss: the ref (singular) actually blowing the whistle when the players have trapped the puck along the boards.

 

[terry01]

Loving this thread! 

[ruxpin]

On 3/5/2018 at 4:25 PM, blocker said:

@jammer2 You know what I miss. A player taking a WICKED hit and nobody drops the gloves.

 

Amen.   Something ***** about getting all-hissy fit over a check.

 

I miss similar.   But I miss them dropping the gloves just because the ice is white.

[ruxpin]

On 2/10/2018 at 3:58 PM, thenewestlights said:

I love baseball too but the screen clutter with that sport--

permanent strike-zone graphic, Tweets, permanent TV logo, scrolling bottom screen, 

etc.--often makes the game unwatchable for me.

 

I completely agree!

 

Quote

It's interesting watching old recordings from most any sport:
only score and time displayed continuously with the occasional

temporary popup graphic. Much preferred.

 

Do you go back to the days --probably 70s and 80s -- when you turned it on mid-game and had to wait for them to go to commercial to put the score up?   No nothing in terms of graphics.   I don't really want to go back to when the game had to be halted for a dinosaur to pass, but to the time you describe (in terms of onscreen graphics) would be nice.    Hockey isn't actually too bad with it typically (I suppose it depends upon who's broadcasting), but I completely agree about baseball.

[ruxpin]

On 2/24/2018 at 12:19 AM, timelydew said:

I've been grousing about screen clutter for years. Good to see someone agrees. If I'm not mistaken, this started with cable news post 9/11, and it ended up seeping into live sports coverage later on.

 

I think you're probably close to accurate as far as the clutter.   I think the constant onscreen score and time (which I do like) started with the World Cup in ...well, I forget the year but it was early 90s.   Maybe 92(ish)?

[ruxpin]

On 2/27/2018 at 12:32 AM, WordsOfWisdom said:

The fights were always a side show and probably did more to hurt the reputation of the NHL as a serious sports league than help it, but I do miss the body checks. I want to see players getting hit through the glass, into the partitions, into the bench, etc.  You know what the NHL is today? It's Russ Courtnall. Moves very fast but nothing ever happens. It's just skating.

 

It's as though the hitting vanished completely. Nobody hits anybody any more, unless teammates accidentally collide

 

That first line is certainly true, but God, I miss it.   You're right, though, that the sport was never going to grow if they kept the fighting the way it was.

 

I also think the last line is largely true and I think I miss that the most.  I miss the ferocity and the emotion.   Everyone yammers "skill, skill skill!"   I get that.  There's something to that, I suppose.   But sometimes I think they should just get rid of the nets and the scoreboard and go to a panel of judges and just wear weird costumes.  Or a Wild uniform.

[ruxpin]

On 3/2/2018 at 5:59 PM, jammer2 said:

 I hated Scott Stevens, but I respected him. Felt the same about a lot of the old tough players of the last generation. Ken Denyenko never got talked about enough, tough as nails, that man. I actually miss some of the clutching and grabbing......it was a time where you had to have the will and drive to fight off the hold, or you were rendered useless. 

 

 You know what I miss. A player taking a WICKED hit and nobody drops the gloves. No silly scrum, you simply take the number and wait for a chance for REAL payback....karma baby. These days, you touch a player and the whole team is delirious. Even the stars get involved, some of them looking like 7 year old girls in the schoolyard. 

 

 The thing you can never take back is our current day evolving understanding of concussions. That assures the OLD SCHOOL league we all knew and loved will never, ever be back. No Probert, no Grim Reaper, No Domi.....NO FUN AND yeah, I know, these guys all have families to go home to...

 

 Another thing I REALLY miss, no helmets. I even miss Ron Duguay....ok...taking it to far!!

 

 EDIT #2....the new rules make it harder to impose your will on the other team, it can be done with speed, but any little additional physicality gets whistled.  Imposing your will was the main way cups were won. Either with skill, speed, hard work or brawn. Yet another way Gary has changed the game we all love. 

 

This.  This post all day and every day.

[jammer2]

5 hours ago, ruxpin said:

 

This.  This post all day and every day.

 

 I dunno about anybody else, but *my* NHL has blood, grit and men behaving like savage animals. Those 80's game from the old Norris Division (dubbed the black and blue division for a reason) was total fun. You had Probert, the Grim Reaper, Tony Twist on the Blues....that was some serious fun. Those guys kicked the living snot out of each other on a nightly basis....it was beautiful to watch. 

[ruxpin]

54 minutes ago, jammer2 said:

 

 I dunno about anybody else, but *my* NHL has blood, grit and men behaving like savage animals. Those 80's game from the old Norris Division (dubbed the black and blue division for a reason) was total fun. You had Probert, the Grim Reaper, Tony Twist on the Blues....that was some serious fun. Those guys kicked the living snot out of each other on a nightly basis....it was beautiful to watch. 

The only down side was that division totally sucked. 

 

But in general, yeah, good era. 

[jammer2]

1 minute ago, ruxpin said:

The only down side was that division totally sucked. 

 

But in general, yeah, good era. 

 

 Plus, you had Toronto in that division, which entered Domi into the equation. That division made violence into a new art form or at least built off the Flyers blueprint. 

[JR Ewing]

Great era of hockey. Lots of fun for fans, and a lot of guys made money who wouldn't get a chance for a payday now. I absolutely loved watching the blood feuds.

 

Oh. And those players are dying. They keep dying really really young; far sooner than they should be dying.