ZenLefty, I have to ask: Is there anything zen at all about hockey?

[WilliamPitt]

That little hockey dude in your sig ain't looking too zen. In fact, he looks like he just got stuck with a two-minute minor and wants to get out of the box to lay a five-minute major on someone.

Explain to me the zen of hockey. I'm from Boston (Original 6) and might actually understand.

[Maple]

1. Everything about hockey

is zen.

You have to be Canadian to understand.

Peace.

Well...until the game. :D

[pnb]

2. Au contraire

This American understands quite well.

[JAbuchan08]

3. You don't have to be Canadian

The zen aspect of hockey is evident in all aspects of the game. The butterfly goalie, for example, must maintain balance, and avoid moving too far in any direction lest he should lose his ability to turn back the other direction.
The skaters must continually circle and stop. Although the two goals are set in opposition to one another, offense and defense are played along the length of the ice. More than any other sport, offense and defense are being played at the same time. Good defense can immediately be parlayed into good offense and vice versa.
Actually this is a bunch of bull; I'm not a student of zen, but I'd like to think hockey is compatible with it.

[VelmaD]

4. I imagine it's like baseball...

and that wonderful Yogi quote about not being able to think and hit a baseball at the same time. (Yogi was THE great Western zen master after all.)

[Avalux]

5. Take into account

everything you have to know to play hockey, then watch a master like Lemieux. Total awareness of the ice, skating finesse and puck handling skills - without even thinking about it. It's a beautiful thing.

[Maple]

6. Here's a theory for ya

American's national sport is baseball...a quiet gentlemanly rather lengthy pursuit somewhat akin to British cricket.

Yet Americans always seem to be embroiled in one sort of war or another.

Canadian's national sport is hockey...a fast violent game, usually involving blood at some point.

Yet Canada is known as 'the peaceable kingdom' and Canadians have a world wide image of being polite peacekeepers.

Coincidence? I think not. :D

[WilliamPitt]

7. I'm intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

:)

[Maple]

9. Heh

If I had one, I'd be happy to hit you up for a subscription fee. ;-)

[VelmaD]

8. For a second I was gonna disagree...

and bring up the American obsession with football. But then I reread your post and had a thought. (Who knew?) Hockey is fast and violent. Football is violent but it takes for-freakin'-ever to play the damn game. Instead of getting it all out of our systems football gives us enough time to just stew in our own prediliction toward violence. :shrug: Just a thought.

[WilliamPitt]

10. Isn't it heresy for a Texan to talk about football that way?

:)

[VelmaD]

11. Probably.

Someone will have to take me in hand and punish me for my blasphemy. :evilgrin:

Don't get me wrong. I love football. High school, college and pro. I spent part of Saturday and all day yesterday watching football. I just think the NFL (and college to an increasing degree) has too goddamn many tv timeouts. Just play the damn game already.

[Capn Sunshine]

12. as a casual observer

here in So Cal I have friends who go to the games. We have teams.I have never seen a complete hockey game.

Well, playing an organized sport on frozen water----not it's natural state of the medium----THAT's pretty Zen

The random cool skittering asteroid shaped black thing: basing an entire game on mastering the randomness of its chaotic movement as you whack away at it with a piece of wood that is worked and steamed and bent and carved away from its natural state as well, all the while while mounted upon sharpened forged metal that completely removes any feeling of contact with the playing surface and allows you to move at speeds no human unassisted could attain....

man, that's all pretty zen to me.

Speaking of which, a hockey team in the desert towns .....

the Zen just keeps on coming!