The NHL Isn’t Fun

Don’t get me wrong, the NHL is the best pro-sports league in the world for the best game in the world. Nothing compares to the speed, intensity, and action that hockey provides to its fans. However, with that said I do think that we can all agree on one thing, the NHL isn’t any fun when you compare it to other sports. In fact, I’m here to show how the NHL goes out of its way to make the league lame and boring.   

In the 2008-09 season, Alex Ovechkin had reached 50 goals for the third time in four seasons. He was on fire, and was (and still is) the best goal scorer in the NHL. After scoring his 50th, Ovi made sure to show everybody how his stick was on fire. I thought this goal celebration was fantastic, others did not. Here are some quotes from people around the league:

Rick Tocchet: 

Ryan Malone: 

Don’t get me started on what Don Cherry has to say about Alex Ovechkin. 

As soon as it happened, you knew a lot of people were going to hate it. Why? Cause people hate fun. Twitter sure blew up about it and even better, here’s Don Cherry’s reaction to the celebration. 

“If any time you want to make our highlights at the start [of the show], just act like an idiot like this.” Cherry went on to say: “When you do that, all you do is turn guys against you. “Don’t act like that, kids. Not only did he hurt himself, he hurt Edmonton, too.”

Granted a lot of the hatred toward Yakupov and his celebration came from media creation, there were many players and hockey personnel tweeting about their disgust.  

PK is arguably the most entertaining player in the NHL. He brings excitement and energy that you don’t find in a lot of other players. 

We all know about the triple low five that Carey Price and P.K. Subban used to do after every win. It made them happy, it made fans happy, and it made me happy. However, it didn’t take long for Michel Therrien to put his foot down and ban the triple low five. This is what Therrien had to say about it:

In other words, kill the camaraderie, stop smiling, don’t laugh, and, by all means, stop having so much fun. Personally, I would love my [removed: franchise] players to have a bit of fun on the ice, especially after a win. 

Side note about Subban: I heard this quote from Sportsnet during the Free Agent Frenzy. As a devil’s advocate, I suppose I can understand the fact that it’s frustrating losing game after game while having one player continuously being positive about the situation. But as a non-devils advocate thought, this quote is so wrong. 

Other notable situations include the whole John Scott All Star Game fiasco, the Thomas Hertl breakaway goal where Adam Oates told him not to “disrespect the league”, and of course, the banning of throwing rats on the ice in Florida mid-game. 

All I’m saying is that I look at other sports, and see baseball players being lit on fire in the dugout, or putting a bubblegum on a teammates hat, and football coaches getting Gatorade dumped on them. Might be nice to see some more fun things happening in the NHL without hockey “culture” ruining it. 

This week the boys are joined by the one and only Ryder from Hot 107! Ryder regales us with his humble radio beginnings, talks about the time he saw his first pair of boobs, shares some of his best radio moments and there’s even a little Oilers talk squeezed into the mix before another invaluable round of Ask The Idiots!

As always you can follow North x NorthGretz on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Google Play!