The internet is full of stupid people.
.. Which I sometimes seem to forget.
First things first: I'm BAAAACK. That is, I have a working computer again, and should once again be able to update at least somewhat regularly. And of course also, yey for NHL getting it's ass in the gear again. Still going to miss Demers though. Why oh why must he play for the Sharks?
Anyhoo, I can't wait to mess up my sleeping patterns by waking up at three am. / staying up until seven am. to watch games, right when I had managed to turn it around to something somewhat normal resembling. But more on the NHL some other day.
Because I went to watch my SM-Liiga team play on Thursday, and I have FEELINGS about the game and I need to get them out. But before I get to the game itself, here's watch been happening with them since I last updated. EVERYONE IS INJURED. That pretty much covers it. If I remember correctly, at the last count, we had I think six or seven forwards out, and as for our defense: since the start of this year we have been able to put six Ds in the roster in idek, one or two games? Rest of the time the whole has been plucked by playing one of our forwards, Joonas Komulainen, who isn't even 170cm in height, so yeah, really tiny, and also did I mention it a fucking FORWARD!
And then they're our goalies. As for them, the situation took a turn for the absurd right before christmas, when our backup got put on IR. Our starter had already been out for almost a month at that time. Meaning that the team didn't have a goalie, expect for a 17 year old junior, who has yet to play a single SM-Liiga game, and a third stringer on loan from the team at the bottom of the standings (who btw, could've gotten called back up by his team, since their start up goalie had been injured as well.)
So I guess you could say, that the last couple of weeks have been somewhat stressful. Luckily, the loaned goalie got to stay with us for as long as we needed him, and both of our own goalies returned to action this week. Still, the amount of bad luck this team has had is really getting out of hand.
But anyway, back to the game on Thursday. My boys won 3-0 after a game of not the worlds most skillful hockey ever. But then again, considering the amount of penalties as special situations in the game, (in total, the teams gathered 59 penalty minutes, 12 of which were for Kärpät.) Of the second period, just five minutes were five-on-five. Mostly the reason for it all being this situation:
Now, as a background, Ohtamaa, the Kärppä player who ends up getting pummeled to the ice, had hit Kantola, the Ilves player doing the pummeling, way back when in October and landed him on IR for more than a month, mostly because of bad luck. This was the first time the two players had met since.
At the time this incident happened the second period had been going on just over two minutes, and Kärpät were up by one. The result of if: Kantola earned himself 2+2+5+20 (hooking and tripping calls, if I remember correctly, a major for the fight, and automatic game misconduct because of it), meaning that his team had were killing off nine minutes of penalties, and were out their number one center. Who, btw, is currently on temporary suspension, while the disciplinary board makes their decision (meaning four or more games, any less and the league disciplinarian would've already ruled on it.)
The level of stupidness: I'd say even trolls would be capable of more brain functions than Kantola at the time..
But somehow some people managed to be even more stupid.
Including yours truly, the truth be told, because I really should know better than to go anywhere near hockey message boards, when it comes to anything even remotely controversial happening on the ice.
But anyway, I did, and here's the problem I had with the tone of the conversation: a) What kind of crazy person thinks it's reasonable to be asking a person to get up and hit back when they are already down and someone keeps hitting them? Or that taking a defensive posture in that situation (which, btw, is as much about instincts as it anything else) is somehow cowardly?
b) Since when has it been a requirement for players to drop their gloves every single time someone asks them to? Kärpät were already playing with just five Ds, and had Ohtamaa taken Kantola up on the offer, they would've been down to four (and Komu, but let's not go there), since fighting means an automatic game misconduct in any situations in SM-Liiga. And seeing as how the game was 1-0, with 38 minutes left to play, why on earth would've Ohtamaa started fighting then? Or why should he have?
(Then there's the whole issue of how I much I despise the culture of feminizing players or actions that are viewed as non-desirable, and how that one of the biggest problems I have with hockey culture on general, but I'm trying to not get in to that any deeper right now, because if I did, this post would at least double in length.)
But any case, the rest of the game was enjoyable enough - mostly because yey, we won - but at the same time, it was once again a somewhat bittersweet reminder on how much it suck to cheer for a team when you only ever get to see them in away games. Which made me decide, that come playoff time, if Kärpät manage to make it, I'll be making a trip to Oulu to see them play at home, come hell or high water. Sure, it's over three hours in train, one way, and I'll have to spend close to a hundred euros, on just the travel alone, and also, I have no place to stay up there, but somehow, I'm going to make it work.
Also, for something completely different: the Doctor Who Christmas Special was damn near close to perfection and Clara has the potential of becoming the best Companion since Rose. More on that to follow, for now: Is it April yet?
Oh, and plus: I borrowed the Batman: Arkham City from a friend. So far I'm loving it.
First things first: I'm BAAAACK. That is, I have a working computer again, and should once again be able to update at least somewhat regularly. And of course also, yey for NHL getting it's ass in the gear again. Still going to miss Demers though. Why oh why must he play for the Sharks?
Anyhoo, I can't wait to mess up my sleeping patterns by waking up at three am. / staying up until seven am. to watch games, right when I had managed to turn it around to something somewhat normal resembling. But more on the NHL some other day.
Because I went to watch my SM-Liiga team play on Thursday, and I have FEELINGS about the game and I need to get them out. But before I get to the game itself, here's watch been happening with them since I last updated. EVERYONE IS INJURED. That pretty much covers it. If I remember correctly, at the last count, we had I think six or seven forwards out, and as for our defense: since the start of this year we have been able to put six Ds in the roster in idek, one or two games? Rest of the time the whole has been plucked by playing one of our forwards, Joonas Komulainen, who isn't even 170cm in height, so yeah, really tiny, and also did I mention it a fucking FORWARD!
And then they're our goalies. As for them, the situation took a turn for the absurd right before christmas, when our backup got put on IR. Our starter had already been out for almost a month at that time. Meaning that the team didn't have a goalie, expect for a 17 year old junior, who has yet to play a single SM-Liiga game, and a third stringer on loan from the team at the bottom of the standings (who btw, could've gotten called back up by his team, since their start up goalie had been injured as well.)
So I guess you could say, that the last couple of weeks have been somewhat stressful. Luckily, the loaned goalie got to stay with us for as long as we needed him, and both of our own goalies returned to action this week. Still, the amount of bad luck this team has had is really getting out of hand.
But anyway, back to the game on Thursday. My boys won 3-0 after a game of not the worlds most skillful hockey ever. But then again, considering the amount of penalties as special situations in the game, (in total, the teams gathered 59 penalty minutes, 12 of which were for Kärpät.) Of the second period, just five minutes were five-on-five. Mostly the reason for it all being this situation:
Click to viewNow, as a background, Ohtamaa, the Kärppä player who ends up getting pummeled to the ice, had hit Kantola, the Ilves player doing the pummeling, way back when in October and landed him on IR for more than a month, mostly because of bad luck. This was the first time the two players had met since.
At the time this incident happened the second period had been going on just over two minutes, and Kärpät were up by one. The result of if: Kantola earned himself 2+2+5+20 (hooking and tripping calls, if I remember correctly, a major for the fight, and automatic game misconduct because of it), meaning that his team had were killing off nine minutes of penalties, and were out their number one center. Who, btw, is currently on temporary suspension, while the disciplinary board makes their decision (meaning four or more games, any less and the league disciplinarian would've already ruled on it.)
The level of stupidness: I'd say even trolls would be capable of more brain functions than Kantola at the time..
But somehow some people managed to be even more stupid.
Including yours truly, the truth be told, because I really should know better than to go anywhere near hockey message boards, when it comes to anything even remotely controversial happening on the ice.
But anyway, I did, and here's the problem I had with the tone of the conversation: a) What kind of crazy person thinks it's reasonable to be asking a person to get up and hit back when they are already down and someone keeps hitting them? Or that taking a defensive posture in that situation (which, btw, is as much about instincts as it anything else) is somehow cowardly?
b) Since when has it been a requirement for players to drop their gloves every single time someone asks them to? Kärpät were already playing with just five Ds, and had Ohtamaa taken Kantola up on the offer, they would've been down to four (and Komu, but let's not go there), since fighting means an automatic game misconduct in any situations in SM-Liiga. And seeing as how the game was 1-0, with 38 minutes left to play, why on earth would've Ohtamaa started fighting then? Or why should he have?
(Then there's the whole issue of how I much I despise the culture of feminizing players or actions that are viewed as non-desirable, and how that one of the biggest problems I have with hockey culture on general, but I'm trying to not get in to that any deeper right now, because if I did, this post would at least double in length.)
But any case, the rest of the game was enjoyable enough - mostly because yey, we won - but at the same time, it was once again a somewhat bittersweet reminder on how much it suck to cheer for a team when you only ever get to see them in away games. Which made me decide, that come playoff time, if Kärpät manage to make it, I'll be making a trip to Oulu to see them play at home, come hell or high water. Sure, it's over three hours in train, one way, and I'll have to spend close to a hundred euros, on just the travel alone, and also, I have no place to stay up there, but somehow, I'm going to make it work.
Also, for something completely different: the Doctor Who Christmas Special was damn near close to perfection and Clara has the potential of becoming the best Companion since Rose. More on that to follow, for now: Is it April yet?
Oh, and plus: I borrowed the Batman: Arkham City from a friend. So far I'm loving it.