Ladies and gentlemen I have a frank admission to make; football is rubbish. Do not get me wrong I do not mean the sport played by children the length and breadth of Britain, I mean the joke of a professional game where immature, cheating prima donnas get paid millions for very little effort. I am sure that as a youngster, a number of you, myself included, thought that being a footballer would be great; the glory, the pride, the addulation from fans. Sadly, that is not the case for the average professional. Even rugby is becoming a sport for pansies, players who would make a tackle as long as their hair doesn't get messed up. Cricket now is a game for lazy, money grabbing men, dodgy billionaires and ofcourse WAGs. If only there was a sport that still to this day encapsulated the values of sport. Well, look no further......
If fast paced games, high levels of skill, no cheating and no (absolutely none) WAG culture then the Good Old Hockey Game is the one for you. Ice hockey holds all the traditional values that sport used to hold dear. The most importat one being that you give 100% effort every time you are on the ice, first minute or last it doesn't matter, this may seem as a given but how many times have you seen Christiano Ronaldo standing still with hands on hips? You certainly wouldn't catch Alexander Ovechkin doing that! I realise that Ovechkin is not necessarily the greatest household name so let me explain: Ovechkin is hockey's answer to Ronaldo similar in age, highly skilled, deadly scorer and highly paid. That is where the similarities end as Ovechkin is also a hard worker, a humble man and, quite frankly, ugly as sin. Discredit the final (irrelevent) point and you have effectively the perfect sportsman, or at least you would were it any other sport. Ice hockey is littered with these players; Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk, Nickals Lidstrom, Joe Thornton, Vincent Lecavelier... I could go on but you get the point.
In the NHL top players are not driven by how much money they can earn throuhout a carreer, it's about success; Nicklas Lidstrom is regarded as one of the greatest defenders the sport has ever seen and when his contract was up for negotiation he requested the same wage he already had even though his talent dictated that he should earn more, why? In the NHL there is a salary cap and by taking a lower wage his team the Detroit Red Wings could sign better players with the left over salary (also he is hardly on the breadline with his $7 million per annum) but this has had a knock on effect when his team mates have come to renewing contracts they will take less than the market would dictate and so stay with a winning team. I don't recall Chelsea players doing this. The salary cap is an excellent addition to the NHL from a fans point of view as you know the players that earn the top money deserve it and wage is based very much on talent.
Critics may argue that the roughness of the game and the fact that fighting is legal means that this game is purely for brutes with low IQs. This, however, could not be further from the truth, the hard hits and mass brawls add to the excitment of the game! Fighting is seen as making a statement, for protecting your teammates and ofcourse getting the crowd involved. Ice hockey is an entertaining show for all, it has everything every a modern sport needs. So ladies and gentlemen, if you're looking for fun put the football down and run... to the nearest ice rink.
Critics may argue that the roughness of the game and the fact that fighting is legal means that this game is purely for brutes with low IQs. This, however, could not be further from the truth, the hard hits and mass brawls add to the excitment of the game! Fighting is seen as making a statement, for protecting your teammates and ofcourse getting the crowd involved. Ice hockey is an entertaining show for all, it has everything every a modern sport needs. So ladies and gentlemen, if you're looking for fun put the football down and run... to the nearest ice rink.
