Chiefs Planet night at the Mavs

[Big Dog]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Yeah, he's been going all year... I expect it'll be more of a social gathering than anything else, but I'm happy to teach and/or talk about the smallest details of the game if anyone cares. I've heard these games are more about entertainment (read: fighting) than actual hockey, so I'm interested to see the quality of hockey.

Interestingly enough (for me) it's not really about the fighting. Many a game goes by without a fight. (Now that I have said that, there will be an unprecedented bench clearing brawl that night) I don't have the experience to know what constitutes high skill hockey. For instance, I can see when someone misses a pass or takes a wide shot, but have no idea how these errors compare to the 'best' players.

What I do love though is the fact these players clearly are doing what they enjoy and putting out 100% most all the time. In that respect it is kind of like a college atmosphere...these players aren't "cakn"...and their drive and love of the sport are clearly evident to me.

Now that being said, I like a good fight as much as the next guy.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Big Dog

Interestingly enough (for me) it's not really about the fighting. Many a game goes by without a fight. (Now that I have said that, there will be an unprecedented bench clearing brawl that night) I don't have the experience to know what constitutes high skill hockey. For instance, I can see when someone misses a pass or takes a wide shot, but have no idea how these errors compare to the 'best' players.

What I do love though is the fact these players clearly are doing what they enjoy and putting out 100% most all the time. In that respect it is kind of like a college atmosphere...these players aren't "cakn"...and their drive and love of the sport are clearly evident to me.

Now that being said, I like a good fight as much as the next guy.

An occasional fight is fun, but it takes away from the game after a while.

I love college hockey, for the effort and imperfections... like Fish said, it shows you how good the players are at the NHL level, and there are also scoring chances and other things that you normally wouldn't see in the NHL. A big difference is the positioning of the defenders... when you go from watching an NHL game to a college game, it's like an NHL defender never makes a mistake and is everywhere at once, where as in college you'll get chances to easily skate into the slot and catch defenders out of position. It's not as clamped down as the NHL, which can make it more entertaining.

I'm going to a UNO game in Omaha the night before, so it'll be interesting to compare the two.