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| Hockey: as Canadian as the maple leaf |
One of the first things we tried to figure out when we were moving to Canada was: how would we watch soccer games in a country people play hockey, curling, whatever, except soccer? As we already told you in another post, we could watch the World Cup because our first landlord was great and selected the cabin with the soccer channels for us. It was better not to watch the World Cup L but, anyways, as soon as the tournament ended, we thought: now, how could we watch the games of the team we cheer for?
Not a big problem… We figured out a way to do that, but as long as our team was not doing well (actually they were and are doing horrible), we started looking for other sports! Curling, football, basketball, baseball… So boring! Hockey? So weird. But, as long as our Brazilian soccer team was becoming worse every single day, we decided to give up of soccer and give that weird and frozen hockey a chance! And, hey, what a nice sport! And: soooo Canadian!
We have looked for historical information about the sport and have talked to our Canadian friends to know more about the best player ever, the best team ever, and so on. Also, we selected our NHL team to cheer for: Vancouver Canucks, of course! This week, after the installation of our cable TV, Patricia and I watched our first game live: Vancouver Canucks vs San Jose Sharks. They did great: 6 x 1!
Unfortunately, it is impossible to watch Luongo and his teammates live at the arena in Vancouver because it is so expensive. However, we are planning to watch our first game on the rink this week, when Nanaimo Clippers will play. Affordable and pleasant!
Oh, before finish this post I would ask some hockey expert to answer a question that nobody could answer us so far: when can the players fight and when should the referees depart the fray?
Players can fight at anytime. If a fight breaks out during play then the whistle blows and the play stops.
ReplyDeleteIt is actually the responsibility of the linesmen, not the referees, to break up the fights and this is done at their discretion, usually at a lull in the action or when the fight goes to the ground. They generally avoid stopping fight when lots of punches are being thrown since the fans watching that part and the linesmen don't want to be on the receiving end of an errant punch.
Wow, many thanks, Anonymous! I think it is reasonable that the linesmen don't break up the fights when the players are punching each other! Definitely, it would not be a good idea! Thanks again for the explanation!
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