Kerig's Korner Tuesday, April 27, 2004: As I prepare for upcoming trips (surfing in Baja next week, and Israel this summer to shoot three more episodes of Byrning Borders ... Click on that 6/1/2003-6/30/2003 link over there on the right hand side of the page for archives of the last Byrning Borders shoot, in Beirut), I've been hooked on hockey. Specifically, to the second round contest between the Colorado Avalanche and the San Jose Sharks. Here's my opinion after watching the April 26 Sharks/Avs contest in Denver:The NHL deserves what it gets. Instead of shaping hockey to spotlight its superstar players it has consistently worked against the athletes who bring people through the turnstile. In order to allow more franchises into the league, and to give teams in weaker economic zones a chance to compete, it has instituted rules and policies that favor systems over stars. The Forsbergs of the league are called by a more stringent set of rules than the Fibgers. Who's Fibiger? Exactly*.And then there's all the glorious stuff that they just let happen. Clutch and grab instead of pass and shoot. The No Heroes League's policy is to let the impairment go, penalize the retaliation. Side with the grinders who goad the hockey gods.You reap what you sow; the NHL has sprouted a crop of dumbed-down, assembly line hockey plants. The New Jersey Devils, the Minnesota Wild, the San Jose Sharks? Mechanized powerhouses of the left wing lock, the center ice trap. Flow-less hockey. Pedestrian puck. I'd rather watch paint dry."Play not to lose and wait for your chance" is the motto. Brings to mind a Thoreau quote: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind." Nail on the head, Henry David (you know the guy played some stick on frozen Walden Pond). Thing is, despairing men (meaning all of us, at some time or another) don't tune in for more despair. Doesn't Gary Bettman know we want escape and brilliance, not boredom?Staring slack-jawed at the screen as the skilled Avs got out-machined by the lockstep Sharks was nothing less than the de-magic-ification of what heretofore had been a brilliant ballet of verve and velocity. So, let me be the first to offer a toast and bon voyage to the world's best hockey player, Peter Forsberg, as he leaves this pathetic league in favor of playing in a place where the game is still good. Foppa knows, deep in his heart, what we are only just waking up to: the NHL is dead.The impending doom of the salary cap that will further strain out and dilute hockey's talent only bodes well for what's long overdue: The dissolution of the No High-scorers League. Maybe after its gone can another league -- a league where players can play and the clutch-and-grabbers will turn to pro wrestling where they belong -- put down roots.Meantime, I only wonder what hockey package I have to sign up for to watch MoDo in the elite Swedish League.* Jesse Fibiger,San Jose D-man/goon. Bill // 8:23 AM ______________________
As I prepare for upcoming trips (surfing in Baja next week, and Israel this summer to shoot three more episodes of Byrning Borders ... Click on that 6/1/2003-6/30/2003 link over there on the right hand side of the page for archives of the last Byrning Borders shoot, in Beirut), I've been hooked on hockey. Specifically, to the second round contest between the Colorado Avalanche and the San Jose Sharks. Here's my opinion after watching the April 26 Sharks/Avs contest in Denver:The NHL deserves what it gets. Instead of shaping hockey to spotlight its superstar players it has consistently worked against the athletes who bring people through the turnstile. In order to allow more franchises into the league, and to give teams in weaker economic zones a chance to compete, it has instituted rules and policies that favor systems over stars. The Forsbergs of the league are called by a more stringent set of rules than the Fibgers. Who's Fibiger? Exactly*.And then there's all the glorious stuff that they just let happen. Clutch and grab instead of pass and shoot. The No Heroes League's policy is to let the impairment go, penalize the retaliation. Side with the grinders who goad the hockey gods.You reap what you sow; the NHL has sprouted a crop of dumbed-down, assembly line hockey plants. The New Jersey Devils, the Minnesota Wild, the San Jose Sharks? Mechanized powerhouses of the left wing lock, the center ice trap. Flow-less hockey. Pedestrian puck. I'd rather watch paint dry."Play not to lose and wait for your chance" is the motto. Brings to mind a Thoreau quote: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind." Nail on the head, Henry David (you know the guy played some stick on frozen Walden Pond). Thing is, despairing men (meaning all of us, at some time or another) don't tune in for more despair. Doesn't Gary Bettman know we want escape and brilliance, not boredom?Staring slack-jawed at the screen as the skilled Avs got out-machined by the lockstep Sharks was nothing less than the de-magic-ification of what heretofore had been a brilliant ballet of verve and velocity. So, let me be the first to offer a toast and bon voyage to the world's best hockey player, Peter Forsberg, as he leaves this pathetic league in favor of playing in a place where the game is still good. Foppa knows, deep in his heart, what we are only just waking up to: the NHL is dead.The impending doom of the salary cap that will further strain out and dilute hockey's talent only bodes well for what's long overdue: The dissolution of the No High-scorers League. Maybe after its gone can another league -- a league where players can play and the clutch-and-grabbers will turn to pro wrestling where they belong -- put down roots.Meantime, I only wonder what hockey package I have to sign up for to watch MoDo in the elite Swedish League.* Jesse Fibiger,San Jose D-man/goon. Bill // 8:23 AM
