Reasons We Love Hockey Part 116

The 116th in our 118-part series.

Blogging

What are two girls to do if they have, over the course of over a decade of hockey fandom, met only a paltry few people with whom to share their thoughts on this wonderful game? Well, in our case, we spent most of that decade-plus grumbling unhappily about the dearth of fellow hockey-enlightened people in our lives. But recently technology caught up with us — first we found the marvels of the hockey blogosphere, then we realized that one doesn’t need any kind of credentials to jump right into said blogosphere. All it takes is having a lot to say, or maybe in our case, not a lot to say but lots of words to say it with.

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Reasons We Love Hockey Part 115

The 115th in our 118-part series.

The Hockey Blogosphere

For the last 12 years or so, we’ve been living in a veritable Plato’s Cave when it comes to hockey. We’ve been watching the projections on the walls — games, playoffs, championships, highs and lows, great plays and great players, bone-headed mistakes and disastrous trades, everything that’s made up the NHL over that span — but for all we knew these events were only shadows, and nothing more. By dint of having almost no friends who like hockey, and by dint of having so little faith in the MSM’s ability to correctly and interestingly analyze the game, we’d been reduced to watching our favorite sport in a vacuum. And then a beautiful thing brought us out of the Cave and into the brave new world of engaging in and interacting with the hockey universe — the hockey blogosphere.

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Reasons We Love Hockey Part 114

The 114th in our 118-part series.

Hat tricks

We didn’t get to see tonight’s game with the Islanders, but rumor has it Gio scored a hat trick. It probably goes without saying that hat tricks? Are awesome! As Devils fans, we don’t get to see many of them, but seriously, what’s cooler? Okay, short-handed goals are cooler, but you know what we mean. Hat tricks are so we will even grudgingly admit that we like the displays at the Flyers arena of all the hats thrown for hat tricks on that ice. Of course, hat tricks are tough when you’re attending the game in person; if you are a hat-wearer, do you toss your favorite chapeau on the ice, never to be seen again? What it it’s a special, lucky hat? Is it worth it? But is it kosher to bring a reserve hat just in case? Or does that mean there’s no way one of your guys will pot three goals that night? And what if you’re sitting just a hair too far from the ice and don’t have much of a throwing arm? Where is the demarkation in the arena, beyond which it’s socially acceptable to not even attempt the toss? It’s all so rife with difficulty! But it’s still crazy cool.

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Reasons We Love Hockey Part 113

The 113th in our 118-part series.

Devils banners

Tonight we caught a glimpse of the new Devils arena under construction, and it looked decidedly like there were a few certain, special white banners with Devils logos on them hanging from the rafters already. There weren’t seats in the arena bowl yet, but there were banners! We absolutely love our team’s banners; for starters, they’re beautiful. Simple, easy-to-read, without any goofy bells and whistles that some teams like to employ when they go for the random, meaningless, “we’d like to hang something from our rafters, but we’re the Coyotes and have nothing to put up there that reflects any actual accomplishment” commemorations, the Devils’ banners are straightforward celebrations of team accomplishments. Secondly, we love the team’s approach to the banners. Obviously, the Stanley Cups get big, tasteful, elegant celebrations (in as much as any banner-raising can be tasteful and elegant), but hilariously the lesser banners — the division titles, the conference championships — are just quietly slapped up into the rafters without the slightest bit of fanfare. All those years of winning the division but not winning the Cup are like a mark of shame in the moment, but something Lou recognizes will be well worth looking back on with pride years from now, so after each Cupless year we’d show up for opening night of the next season and remark, “Huh. There’s the banner for last season, hanging up already.” But our favorite thing about the banners was the way in 2003, when we arrived for the first game of that year’s postseason, we happened to glance up at the banners and spotted something remarkable. Where previously they had been spaced in such a way that they spread across the rink with no apparent space between them, now they had been shifted. It was the early rounds still, but there was a perfect, Cup-banner sized space cleared in the middle. Lou knew. And that just cracks us up.

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Reasons We Love Hockey Part 112

The 112th in our 118-part series.

Doc Emrick

We know he’s something of a controversial figure among our less-enlightened readers, but there’s no denying that, for us, Doc Emrick simply makes hockey better. Sure, it helps that we’ve never known another regular play-by-play guy for the Devils, so hearing him do a call makes us feel more at home, but even so, the man is incomparable. He has a marvelous, welcoming voice that has none of the “well, aren’t my pipes so special” pomposity of some big-time sports broadcasters (*cough*JoeBuck*cough*), his vocabulary is colorful and creative, and his love of hockey (and knowledge of the game) just radiates off the television in waves. When you watch a game called by Doc, you know you’re getting narration from a guy who can’t think of anything he’d rather do than work a hockey game. Any hockey game. He speaks with fondness about all manner of minor-league and largely irrelevant games that he’s called over a staggeringly long career, yet still makes every game he’s calling in the present feel like it has the significance of a Stanley Cup Final. There are some broadcasters who confuse volume with excitement, or who get overly worked up over the smallest things, but Doc is always pitch-perfect in conveying the urgency (or lack thereof) at any point in a game. No one works the ebb and flow of hockey with the same honesty as Doc, who’s not afraid to pipe up about it when things are getting dull, but who is unparalleled in his ability to make the casual observer leap out of his seat when things are getting thrilling. A worked-up Doc isn’t like the broadcasters you chortle at for getting shouty; rather, you don’t even notice he’s shouting because the game just requires it. It’s only when things calm down again that you realize your heart is racing, and Doc is suddenly sounding quieter.

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Reasons We Love Hockey Part 111

The 111th in our 118-part series.

Backbreaking Saves

Last night we watched a Devils-Flyers preseason game that reminded us of one of our very favorite things in hockey: that moment when the goalie steps up and asserts himself on the game with an absolutely crushing save. It wasn’t the usual suspects in this case; Frank Doyle stoned Simon Gagne to preserve a 2-1 lead in the final minute of play. Normally it’s Brodeur we’re watching, and everyone knows Marty can’t stop Gagne to save his life, so it was an especially rare treat to witness Doyle robbing our least favorite Marty-killer.

On any given night, if your team has at least a decent goalie, you’ll see a handful of really good saves, perhaps even a few great ones. But every now and again there is that one that turns the course of the game. Sometimes it’s like Doyle’s save, in the last minute of a close game, but sometimes it’s just a randomly timed thing that’s too good a stop for the other team to overcome. It’s that moment when everyone in the arena is positive the puck is going into the net — and then somehow, amazingly, it doesn’t. If you’re at home, the crowd starts groaning with disgust, thinking the bad guys have scored, then there’s a buzz as everyone realizes what didn’t just happen and tries to grasp what actually did. And then the place goes up, cheering like mad for the goalie’s heroics. And if you’re on the road it’s a joy to watch on TV as the opponent’s fans are already getting to their feet, a goal cheer half-started, and then they have to sit back down in dazed silence as they, too, try to figure out what the hell just happened. On either side, though, the same chorus goes up, “How did that not go in?” And that’s a wonderful thing.

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Reasons We Love Hockey Part 110

The 110th of our 118-part series.

Magnetic Schedules

We are refrigerator magnet people, and we’re also big hockey fans. So there are few things on the planet that make us happier than the marriage of those two loves — the freebie magnetic schedules teams hand out at games early in the season. No fridge door or office filing cabinet is complete without one, with its bold showing off of team colors, logos and the confetti-like spread of home and away dates sprinkled over the tiny little months. So, Gentle Reader, can you see where we’re going with this? We are unlikely to attend this year’s Devils magnetic schedule giveaway night, and there’s a big empty space on our shiny new fridge door that’s just calling out for that precious magnetic dispenser of scheduling goodness. So if any of you happen to find yourselves in the possession of an spare Devils magnetic schedule or two that you’d like to see find a good home, consider sending them our way. We promise we’ll take good care of them!

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