hockey talk

we've been to a couple hockey games this season, which is a couple more than we usually go to. it's not that we don't like hockey, we just don't usually think about going. we like sports and we watch a lot of sports on teevee, but we don't have season tickets to any sports. anyway, that's not really the point. the point is - hockey.

hockey is graceful and powerful at the same time. the graceful part is big strong men skating fast, backwards, who stop on a dime and change direction. sometimes the way they are skating together makes it look like a choreographed piece. srsly. in soccer, we call it jockeying on defense - moving backwards, switching weight from side to side, staying between your man and the goal. i don't know what they call it in hockey but it's the same thing only really fast and smooth and with two guys moving the same way at the same time, it looks like a couples skate.

then they cram their opponent into the wall and jerk off his helmet and sock him in the face. that's the powerful part. hah! of course fighting is not the only powerful part. the superfast skating and the slapshots are certainly powerful.

one of the really interesting things to me is how the players move when they are basically sprinting down the ice holding their sticks. watch sometime and you'll see that the way their upper bodies move makes their hands turn over so the stick flashes back-front-back-front. then think about a relay runner holding a baton - it's a totally different motion. a runner's arms pump up & down, a hockey player's side to side. that completely fascinates me and i really need to know that you GET THIS. tell me you GET THIS!