What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I mean, hockey fights are pretty ridiculous and performative from a physics standpoint. Neither fighter can effectively plant themselves, so punches will push them apart faster than cause damage. They have to hold onto each other to even have a chance at not looking like complete fools. There’s also the ritual of it as both have to agree to dump the protection of their helmets and not use their sticks and skates that actually could cause harm.

It’s silly all the way down but at least inspired the way-better-than-it-ought-to-be film Goon.

You're actually penalized now for removing your helmet in the NHL. Since visors are also mandatory it makes for even sloppier fighting.

Not sure about AHL/ECHL or juniors though.

By the way, "The Code" is a pretty interesting book that I would definitely recommend.

I grew up in a hockey family and I've given up watching with the exception of Olympic games. With the wider rink and the complete removal of the violence (both due to rules/culture AND that wider rink where clutch and grab doesn't pay) it's really a pretty desireable product. A grand, flowing game with just a ton of speed in the play.

As designed NHL hockey with its Trap and its Dump and Run is kind of a sub-par product. They can fix it, they don't choose to. As it stands it's just not very compelling television.

Oh, and I've seen a BUNCH of games live. Getting a seat down by the boards even once is worth the ticket price. You can't appreciate the speed and chaos until you're close enough to smell the mildew.

They've fixed some of it over the past 10-15 years, Sag. But it relies on more consistent rules interpretations from the refs about holding and grabbing. That's just a bad, subjective place to be.

Yeah, it's not about the refereeing, it's about the very-positive payback that comes from junking up the flow. You can try all you like to legislate it away, but it's just not going to work.

Bring up a game on an Olympic rink and look at the difference in the play. You can't box out at the blue line because the rink is too wide to do it. It's no longer a best-practice, so it goes away. You get players cycling through the slot because there's room to do it, and movement pays positive results. None of that is available in the NHL because they play on smaller rinks. No one wants to increase the size because of the cost of building new rinks or removing seats so the league is stuck with junk-ball. (Junk-puck I guess.)

Goaltender pads are the next topic, but this is a TV shows thread, not a hockey thread.

I prefer my hockey old-time, like in Slap Shot.

Truth Seekers on amazon prime. This is the latest (I think) Nick Frost/Simon Pegg project, fronted almost entirely by Nick Frost (Pegg shows up but looks terribly thin, has he been ill?). It has all the sly wit and charm of their previous collabs but also has a fair amount of surprisingly chilling horror elements and a really layered mythology mashing up supernatural/sci-fi/and aaaaliens maybe??? Still got more to go so it may fall flat but so far the heady combo of Frost and Malcom McDowell is rich. Samson Kayo is new to me but is a great foil to Frost.

My older kids (MCU diehards) and I have been talking about how atrocious THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER series is.

The action set pieces are practically insulting in terms of their logic/physics, and THIS IS A COMIC BOOK SHOW. Examples:
Episode 1: Falcon's robot laser cuts a door in a flying plane, which no one notices, and then the door blows out--but nothing else blows out, like it wasn't pressurized, which is fine, it was flying low, but they'd showed a bunch of folks chatting conversationally in the plane prior, which is not a thing you do when your depressurized plane is flying at 350 mph.
Episode 3: Bucky chases a truck convoy, runs past the first truck (? okaaay, maybe because he saw a possible hostage in there?) jumps into that trailer, which the lagging truck doesn't react to (?), gets punched out of it, into the lagging truck, which the lagging truck driver ALSO doesn't react to? Ok, maybe they knew he was there, and this is all the plan? And then no one notices a helicopter fifty feet away? And mind, they are driving on some Autobahn or whatever, and other cars are still around? And eventually Bucky gets punched (again) and lands on a car that was maybe 30' behind these two tractor-trailers with various people punching each other on top of them and flying around and a helicopter is 50' away and WHAT THE FUCK?! It doesn't make any sense. It's basically "Ow My Balls" level writing.
Episode 3: The jailbreak: How did Bucky get that keycard to Zemo in his cell? Just... what? What? New Cap throwing the shield--it's not magic, he's not a supersoldier, how is he throwing it like that? It doesn't read as real, and there's no reason it shouldn't, as would be the case with Thor's Hammer or a supersoldier tossing it. He's just a dude.

Speaking of the writing: It's high school level fanboy bullshit. They take ten seconds to say things that should take two seconds (Sharon wants a pardon! Do you want a pardon? Yes, I want a pardon. I can get you a pardon! You can get me a pardon? Yes, I can. Can you. Yes. A pardon. Yes. Let's do a deal: I will get you a pardon.), and two seconds to say the most important motive arc in the show (If Cap was wrong about Falcon, then maybe he was wrong about Bucky/WS). Every time they try to express something about America and its issues with race (like the bank scene), they ruin with something nonsensical like "Can I get a selfie with your arms out?" (after he took a selfie already?) Falcon has his arms out? What? Literally what?

My son can't get over the close-up dutch angle nonsense during Bucky's therapy sessions. And the music. Just ridiculously over the top.

The whole thing is trash, and it's so galling in the wake of WANDAVISION.

I thought there was going to be a deeper follow up on the Bucky reveal to Falcon and it was a bit disappointing that there wasn't.

The bank scene was, though. was done pretty well. The loan officer both recognizing Falcon, but denying them a loan while claiming it is because of a bullshit reason, but it can't be because you're black since I am a big fan. That seems really on point for the state of things. The loan office see no issue with asking things of Falcon, but can't/won't get Falcon's family the thing they want. I don't expect Shakespeare, but I think the point was made in that scene with a bit if a heavy hand.

Cap's shield physics = internal gyroscopes and micro thrusters....and magnets, always magnets.

jpat wrote: I prefer my hockey old-time, like in Slap Shot.

Slap Shot is the stereotype that's been hung around the neck of hockey for 40+ years.

Although to be honest, hockey nerds just wrap their arms around the whole fighting schtick. A podcast hosted by a couple of guys I generally respect fell off a cliff talking about hockey, spending a huge amount of the episode wallowing in the violence.

I guess this why I don't watch hockey anymore. I don't have the patience for the delays in the play.

Year Fights per games played
2012 0.110
2013 0.087
2017 0.075
2020 0.060

Sagrilarus wrote: I guess this why I don't watch hockey anymore. I don't have the patience for the delays in the play.

I bet you love watching football games then, between the refs wanting to confirm a catch, and the coaches challenges. I know I do.

Seriously, I'm a grouchy old fart when it comes to instant replay in officiating. This has even crept into those NCAA volleyball games I mentioned earlier. Coaches now have two(?) replay challenges per set ('game', don't ask me why) to ask for a video review. The video in the Absorbine Junior College vs. Pep Boys Tech game can be pretty terrible, and the challenges are usually looking to see if the Middle Blocker touched the ball with her pinky on a block that didn't happen as the ball flew out of bounds. Good luck getting objective truth out of that. Most of the coaches I saw just used it as another timeout, except that it's usually longer than a regular timeout and might actually get you a point.

Fans want instant replay until they don't. First they will complain that a ref doesn't see a foul, but then they will also complain about the delays of instant replay. I ref roller derby, so I am inclined to give ref some leeway when calling stuff during a game. Sometimes the angle isn't there and you only see the outcome and shouldn't call anything.

I like the fact there is instant replay in sports like tennis. I think that tracking tech could be very helpful in other sports, like tracking player's feet in football. I dislike judgement penalties since rarely do two people enforce the same infraction in the same manner. I see it in derby where there is room for refs to make the game about them and call all sorts of tickytac stuff.

Unfortunately, until refs can be replaced by an AI that can enforce infractions, instant replay is a necessary evil. It would help immensely to tighten up the ruleset to allow for less gray area. Fans would still complain. It is easier to blame a ref than your fave team for bad play. I'm saying this as a Lions fan by the way.

Just for the record I never ever wanted video replay decisions in anything.

I didn't realize Falcon and Winter Soldier was a six-episode show. Seems about right for a little side story. I'm mostly in it to watch WS kicking ass anyways and haven't been disappointed. Those Wakandan women are also not to be fucked with.