Bring Back Old Time Hockey!

Getting tired of seeing this garbage in hockey:



Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins absolutely devastated the Bruins Marc Savard. If you're not a hockey fan, you need only know that this crap has been going on WAY too much in the last few years.

It's time for this game to change.

It's quite clear, even though the culprit claims he thought it was a "shoulder to shoulder" clean hit... it's obvious watching the replay that he was just trying to clip him on the way by. He wasn't trying to throw a clean body check. If he was... he would have been looking at his target as he was hitting him. Instead, this clown was trying to catch him with a shoulder.

It happens all too often in today's hockey. The "brains" behind that game have ruined it. Rule changes like the instigating rule to eliminate those fighting... and with the way they call holding and hooking like they're being paid a commission for penalty calls, you may as well not bother trying to play defence in your own zone because anything more than simply trying to poke the puck off your opponent's stick as he skates around you is going to send you to the box.

It's time to bring back "Old Time Hockey." Stuff like this didn't happen then. Why? Because fighting in hockey was not only NOT frowned upon... it was encouraged. And every team had their one player who's only purpose on the team was to kick the crap out of people. He was... "OUR GOON."

When you got angry at someone from the other team... you both squared off and settled your differences and moved on. Nowadays, you can't bodycheck a guy, and you can't fight a guy without getting an extra penalty... so when a little animosity developed between two warriors the only way it can be settled is to try and catch him on a cheap one behind the play when no one is looking. Or if you really loose your cool... smash your stick over his head, face or some other extremity.

And what's the penalty for doing so? In this case... NOTHING. No call on the play. But if you get caught... you serve a couple minutes and you're back on the ice.

Back in the days of old time hockey there was another type of penalty. You see, most team's best player was linemates with "OUR GOON". So if anyone tried to do anything to "OUR STAR," he made sure that the perp left the ice needing a mop pail behind him. As a result of this threat... crap like this didn't happen as much in the first place. Because people knew the consequences would be far worse than two minutes by yourself to feel shame.

I'm saddened by the fact that not only did Matt Cooke not get mauled for his cheapshot... but he was physically able to still stand on the ice running his mouth off to the rest of the Bruins players the entire time Savard laid motionless on the ice. In the days of old time hockey, his mouth full of freshly removed teeth would have made this most challenging.

For the anti-fighting crowd out there... let me just say this: I'd rather have two individuals willingly FACE EACH OTHER (None of this cowardly blindsided garbage) and attempt to hurt each other for 20 seconds, only to have the linesmen step between them before any real damage is done (MOST OF THE TIME)... than someone cross-checking someone in the face or knocking them six ways from Sunday on a blind-sided head shot.

Better yet... let's go even a few years back to my dad's "Old Time Hockey." When there wasn't "GOONS." There were "Total Package" guys like Gordie Howe. He didn't need a goon on his line. He scored goals, set up goals and if things got out of hand, he'd drop the gloves and knock them around himself. That... was a hockey player. Matt Cooke isn't a hockey player.

Good rant huh?

DAR