The Tradition Begins now!

They say it takes twenty one days to form a habit. Good or bad. I am the parent of two young boys. One age seven and the other one is four. My seven year old played hockey last year. He decided not to play this year. He however is a big hockey fan. We watch hockey on TV when ever it is on. He is always asking to stay up to watch the game. His regular bedtime is 8pm. This does not do him very well. He gets to watch the first period and the second period usually starts right when it is his bedtime. My wife and I are not interested in having him stay up late on school nights when there is a game on T.V. I have done what many Canadians have done before my. They turned to Hockey night in Canada for help. The great thing about Hockey night in Canada is that it happens on a Saturday. Not a school night. This allows me to let my son stay up late passed his bedtime to watch the hockey game. I remember spending many a Saturday nights watching hockey with my dad and older brother. This is turning into more fun than I thought it would be for me. My son gets very involved in watching the game and we enjoy a couple of hours spending time together.
What I do not understand is the NHL thought process here. Hockey night in Canada has become a tradition in Canada over the past fifty or sixty years. The funny thing about traditions is that they have to start somewhere. I am pretty sure that CBC did not choose to put hockey on Saturday night in Canada because they thought it was going to become this great tradition fifty years down the road. They put hockey on T.V. on Saturday because that is when the league was playing the games. Why is the NHL reluctant to put Hockey on the American channels on Saturday night? They say that no one will watch it on Saturdays in the US. I have relative in living in Seattle. There is nothing on TV in the US on Saturday night. This would be a great opportunity for the NHL to develop a new generation of fans in the US. They keep talking about trying to grow the game in the US. I am a hockey fan today because of the many Saturday nights spent watching hockey as a kid. When my son reaches the age of seventeen he will have spent ten years watching hockey on Saturdays. By then he will be a hockey fan for life. In three years he will be a fan for life. I am sure if the NHL did the same thing in the US ten or fifteen years from now, the kids watching the games with there dads or parents will be fans for life. If the NHL wants to grow the game in the US do not reinvent the puck copy it. Put a game on a national network on Saturday night in the US. Make the broadcast kid friendly so they tell there parent that is what they should be watching.
Wake up and smell the coffee Gary.

Puckhead

The Tradition Begins now!

They say it takes twenty one days to form a habit. Good or bad. I am the parent of two young boys. One age seven and the other one is four. My seven year old played hockey last year. He decided not to play this year. He however is a big hockey fan. We watch hockey on TV when ever it is on. He is always asking to stay up to watch the game. His regular bedtime is 8pm. This does not do him very well. He gets to watch the first period and the second period usually starts right when it is his bedtime. My wife and I are not interested in having him stay up late on school nights when there is a game on T.V. I have done what many Canadians have done before my. They turned to Hockey night in Canada for help. The great thing about Hockey night in Canada is that it happens on a Saturday. Not a school night. This allows me to let my son stay up late passed his bedtime to watch the hockey game. I remember spending many a Saturday nights watching hockey with my dad and older brother. This is turning into more fun than I thought it would be for me. My son gets very involved in watching the game and we enjoy a couple of hours spending time together.
What I do not understand is the NHL thought process here. Hockey night in Canada has become a tradition in Canada over the past fifty or sixty years. The funny thing about traditions is that they have to start somewhere. I am pretty sure that CBC did not choose to put hockey on Saturday night in Canada because they thought it was going to become this great tradition fifty years down the road. They put hockey on T.V. on Saturday because that is when the league was playing the games. Why is the NHL reluctant to put Hockey on the American channels on Saturday night? They say that no one will watch it on Saturdays in the US. I have relative in living in Seattle. There is nothing on TV in the US on Saturday night. This would be a great opportunity for the NHL to develop a new generation of fans in the US. They keep talking about trying to grow the game in the US. I am a hockey fan today because of the many Saturday nights spent watching hockey as a kid. When my son reaches the age of seventeen he will have spent ten years watching hockey on Saturdays. By then he will be a hockey fan for life. In three years he will be a fan for life. I am sure if the NHL did the same thing in the US ten or fifteen years from now, the kids watching the games with there dads or parents will be fans for life. If the NHL wants to grow the game in the US do not reinvent the puck copy it. Put a game on a national network on Saturday night in the US. Make the broadcast kid friendly so they tell there parent that is what they should be watching.
Wake up and smell the coffee Gary.

Puckhead

Effort Effort Effort Effort!!

So the Canucks played the Preds last night. It was a pretty good game. I was very impressed with Naslund. He has been taking a hit in the Vancouver media about his effort lately. Naslund was the best player on the ice for the Canucks for the first period last night. He had lots of energy and was creating a lot of offensive chances. He made a good pass to Bulis for the first goal. This pass is more an indication of what is different about his game. He was pack deep at his own blue line. The first Canuck back to get a pass from Krajicek and quickly turned it up ice to Bulis. The shot Bulis took probably should not have gone in. That does not matter. It did and Naslund was the reason for this goal being scored. The rest of the team fed off his energy level again and went on to play a great game against the Preds.
Great Job Markus.

I am taking my puck and going home!!!!

I am tired of hearing the Vancouver radio stations talk about the lack of performance from Markus Naslund. I have noticed a number of games this year when Naslund made a huge difference in the game. Not on the score board but by his effort. The one game that comes to mind for me is the quote, “statement game “ against Calgary before Christmas. Naslund made a bad play defensively and Lombardi scored a goal to put Calgary up one nothing. The very next shift Naslund made a great pass to set up Ohlund for a goal. The next en minutes of that game Markus was the hardest working player on the ice. The Canucks took that effort and carried it through the rest of the game for the win. The radio stations give Kesler a break for being paid 1.9m and saying it is not his fault he is getting that money. They are right. It is also not Markus’s fault for the amount of money he gets. Management signed him to that contract because they felt he was worth that money.
Then management went and changed the make up of the team and expects Markus to produce exactly the way he did before. I want to give Naslund the biggest credit for leading by example during this process. Many players with less class than Markus would complain publicly about the ice time or the wingers they are playing with.
(When I watched hockey during the eighties Jimmy Carson was traded to the Oilers. He did not like that situation and he walked out on the team asking for a trade. The headlines in the papers read “ I am taking my puck and going home”)
Markus has been a team player from day one. That is what being a captain is all about. Taking the good with the bad when it comes. Leading by example and doing whatever it takes to win. I hope I am watching Naslund raise the cup as the first European captain to do so. I am sure that would shut everyone up. If they don’t like it maybe they could trade Naslund for Samsonov in Montreal. Not.

Puckhead