Aaah, The Good Ol' Days

Its hardly a surprise to anyone with even a fading sports interest that the NHL is having a rough time of it these days. While the league and the press are quick to point the finger at skyrocketing player salaries quickly approaching those given to professionals in the far more followed professional Football, Baseball, and Basketball leagues as well as advanced defensive schemes which have made the low scoring sport even more so ... I've always thought the downfall came with the desire to advance the leagues draw South, and make the sport more mainstream by eliminating what made it, and makes NASCAR and Wrestling, so exciting ... the element of fighting and blood and danger and spectacular crashes. As I will get to later, this is really showing a misunderstanding of the southern markets.

Whenever I mention this to the modern day metrosexual hockey dads here in DC, they of course mock me and look at me as if I am some kind of bufoon. Of course, most of them seem too often to be wearing their wives panties and hoping for a more peaceful kind of sport ... along the lines of soccer, for their children to play. Instead of brutish hockey players, this new generation of wimpy sports parents seem to want figure skaters.

The action last night in Edmonton was a welcome respite from the new whussy league. It had it all, especially a bench clearing brawl which saw the goalies going at each other and Oiler rookie Mike Bishai, who is now the front runner for tough guy of the year, throwing punches all by his lonesome from INSIDE the Thrasher's bench!!!!


Here's how the story played out in the hometown papers:

"We just started wrestling around and I felt a little tug on my jersey and I ended up head over heels into their bench," said Bishai, who was subjected to jabs from the stick of Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre and overhands from Aubin.

"I tried to get up as quick as I could, then kind of paused, wondering what's going to happen. The adrenaline takes over," said Bishai. "I didn't know if I was going to take one from the side or the back. It happened so fast. I didn't even know what was going on."

The rookie stood his ground and delivered a few strikes of his own.

"We had a bad angle on the Bishai incident, but we saw it on the replay," said Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish. "It was pretty impressive. As many years as I've been in the game, I've never seen a guy fighting while standing up in the opposition's bench. That's like diving into somebody else's foxhole.

"Then the goaltenders went ... It was a wild one. Maybe the perfect time for a game like that for us. We came out of the (all-star) break and played really well -- and a brawl like that always brings a team together."



Of course, the best hockey games I ever saw was when I lived in Knoxvegas. The Knoxville Cherokees, a bottom of the barrell minor league team played in the old civic center always had a great squad of goons to entertain the home town fans. The best fight, of course, was in the winter of 1991 when an opponents player, upset at the taunting he recieved from the guy sitting in front of me, hopped out of the rink and proceeded to fight him in the stands. The Cherokees, as quick to defend their fans as their players, qucikly dragged the offending opponent back into the rink and a great fight ensued.

Hockey Was Great In The Day. Here's to you Mr. Bishai. Beers on me next time your in DC.