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Well this evening I attended my first ever ice hockey match! It is incredibly fast paced, adrenaline filled and, as the title suggest, violent and one punch up, 8 goals and one strecher incident later, I would definitely go again!
Quite a few scuffles going on on-pitch/on-ice and it seems completely within the rules to shove your opponent at any and every given opportunity! Not surprisingly towards the end one guy got hit (though the game is so fast we couldnt tell how/where) ripped off his gloves, grabbed his face and hit the deck. He lay still on the ground for a while and had to be stretchered off, but I am glad to say his legs were moving and he hopefully was not dead, as one of the little boys of my friend kept asking "Daddy is he dead? I think he is dead! Daddy he is not moving!"
There was also an almighty punch up with 4 minutes to go. Again, no idea how/what happened... may have been chatting at the time... was unable to really work out who annoyed who but they both pulled their gloves off and were going for each other... tho as they were wearing helmets, I imagine they did more damage to their own fists than the others face. The referees even stood back for a while but eventually with help from some other players they managed to separate them and sent them to the penalty box.
I looked the "penalty box" up on Wikipedia, where I find most of my information.
I also found out that:
"Ice hockey is a full contact sport and carries a high risk of injury.[30] (Really!!) Not only are the players moving at around 20-30 miles an hour (around 30 - 45 km/h), (told you it was quick!) quite a bit of the game revolves around the physical contact between the players. Skate blades, hockey sticks, shoulders, hips, and hockey pucks all contribute. The number of injuries is quite high[citation needed] (noted!) and includes lacerations, concussions, contusions, ligament tears,broken bones, hyperextensions, and muscle strains."
also
"In men's hockey, but not in women's, a player may use his hip or shoulder to hit another player if the player has the puck or is the last to have touched it."
So basically you can get beaten up at any time, even if you no longer have the puck!
The most impressive thing must be that if someone took them out, the players were back on their skates within seconds... so very different to your average footballer! These guys are tough! (sorry Rooney :D)
You can also get sweets and hotdogs at the game and the atmosphere was great, loud music and loud drums for support, so I would defintely recommend going to anyone who gets the opportunity!
I am now going to wikipedia fatal ice hockey incidents...
À la prochaine!
x
p.s. Caen lost 6 - 2
- comments
Heidi xx WOW Steph, and i though Rugby was tough.?! Sounds like a fab evening tho. Cant imagin Guernsey ever having an Ice Hockey team to take to the olympics, can you, imagin the winging and wineing going on from them - my goodness, it would be like a WI. Youv'e convinced me, our next weekend away is planned then - Caen with Ice Hockey and hot dogs., Mmmm. xx
Stuart I think I might start playing, sounds like a fun game