is it still a game or is the fun gone

[dmbenough2Bagoalie]

I've seen alot of great hockey players and something i have noticed about these players is that there not having fun anymore.

I remember playing on the out door rinks or skating after hours doing anything i could to be on the ice and people used to call us RINK RATS. Now alot of people seem to be only about the buisness of the game. Maybe the prospect of college is to tempting for some girls and once that prospects there they stop playing for the fun and for there teamates but instead to look good. i just have to wonder do you folks still think it is a fun game or is it just buisness.

[hockeya1a]

I've seen alot of great hockey players and something i have noticed about these players is that there not having fun anymore.

I remember playing on the out door rinks or skating after hours doing anything i could to be on the ice and people used to call us RINK RATS. Now alot of people seem to be only about the buisness of the game. Maybe the prospect of college is to tempting for some girls and once that prospects there they stop playing for the fun and for there teamates but instead to look good. i just have to wonder do you folks still think it is a fun game or is it just buisness.

I believe it has leaned very much to the buisness side.
I have watched a lot of games where one or two girls on the ice all of the time and it is not because they dont have enough girls it is because they want the stats to look good, or better than the rest. and yes usually they are the better players but I believe the coaches are doing the team a dis favor because when those players are gone who will carry the load.

[Gump Worsley]

It's to bad but I would have to agree that most people don't have the fun they used to when they play. I remember outdoor rinks and sunday night pick up games. As a coach i don't see that much anymore in fact a person would be hard pressed to even see a full rink durring open hockey thats something that you wouldn't see 5 to 10 years ago. I hope that this trend turns around.

[MNHockeyFan]

It's to bad but I would have to agree that most people don't have the fun they used to when they play. I remember outdoor rinks and sunday night pick up games. As a coach i don't see that much anymore in fact a person would be hard pressed to even see a full rink durring open hockey thats something that you wouldn't see 5 to 10 years ago. I hope that this trend turns around.

Part of the reason for this I think is that most youth traveling teams and high school teams have so many practices and games during the week, compared to the "good old days", plus many of them continue to play hockey during the spring/summer/fall months, attend camps, etc. that they get plenty of hockey in (at least for them) throughout the course of the year. In the "olden days" hockey was truly a seasonal sport, and especially at the youth level you didn't have a practice or a game scheduled almost every day. So you went outside and played with your friends, oftentimes for many hours on end.

But I think today, for those kids who rarely get outside just to have some fun, with no coaches or parents supervising things, are really missing out. Not just because of the fun factor but also the creativity aspect - outdoor rink rats tend to develop (that over-used term) "hockey sense" and pick up other skills just because they will try all kinds of things they wouldn't otherwise experiment with during structured practices. Indoor ice is expensive and coaches want to be organized and not waste time, so the practices end up emphasizing repetition by going through various pre-conceived drills. With these a lot of kids learn how to look good while running through them with their coach looking on, but I think often at the expense of becoming more creative and learning how to react to different situations. These inhibitions go away outdoors where kids feel they can do just about anything (experiment), and if they make mistakes there will be no consequences whatsoever. And in the process they have a lot more fun by simply playing what afterall IS just a game.

[winnings not 4 everyone]

If a good coach knows what he's doing, hockey will be fun whether organized or "just for fun". What do you mean by organized? What about teams that have a coach but has no idea what to do with them? Would that be considered "organized" hockey or just a shinny game with a coach? Oh, and by the way, you're name still reflects the word "dumb" in it.

[dmbenough2Bagoalie]

By organized i mean a team that is registered and plays in a league.

By shinny i mean exactly what it is deffined as (in the United States and Canada, an informal game)

More or less a pick up game with no refs coaches or true teams except for the ones picked at the start of the game at that time.

example Oganized ( WHS Girls high school hockey team)

example shinny ( throw your sticks in the middle)

[xwildfan]

The top players that we are familar with still play a lot of pick-up hockey. And they seem to enjoy this type of hockey the most, by far. The players don't have to worry about silly coaches getting on them about making a mistake or not being in the exact position of the "system hockey" that some of these geniuses seem to like. The players know when they have made a mistake; but so many coaches seem to go overboard when a mistake is made. A bad pass isn't a crisis; mistakes aren't the end of the world. And the harshest critics are the parents. Listening to some of these folks, you would think they were all ex-NHL players. An old-timer friend of ours who played for the Gophers and Olympic team had it right regarding the parents. The kids would be better off if the parents weren't allowed to watch the games.