[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Eric

I think that hockey is not all that much of a dirty game ... Remember when in football, the shoulder charge was legal? You gotta remember the Cup Final in '58 ... that controversial Nat Lofthouse goal, when he bundled Harry Gregg (and the ball) into the net? Most of the checking you see in hockey is quite legal stuff ... may look brutal, but if a guy has the puck, the shoulder charge is ok ... if he has the puck, and he has his head down, he will get creamed ... Wendel Clark once hit an L. A. defender, Bell, I think, so hard that he knocked him unconscious. No penalty. And no fights broke out. In football there is too much chippy stuff going on ... a lot of it the refs don't see ... it's that kind of dirty play that causes fights in hockey ... if a player is a victim of dirty play and the ref doesn't see it, he takes matters into his own hands, drops his gloves, and comes up swinging ... as a result, in hockey, you get far fewer of those dirty little plays.

By the way ... my bet is looking good ... L.A. won the second game, again in OT ... that means they head back to their own barn leading the best of seven 2-0 ... but that doesn't mean it's over ... the fat lady ain't singing yet.

Well back in the good old days men played football and if there was 1 yellow card (or in those days they just booked um) it was rare as for sending off it had to be attempted murder, but when clubs think nothing of pay £30 million for a player and they are so delicate ( you can knock um over with a stick of rhubarb) teams try to wrap players in cotton wool and refs are frightened of upsetting top managers and their Prima Donna's its no longer a sport its just a money making exercise