Jolly hockey sticks, indeed

[klwilliams]

Tonight Chaz and I went to see a San Jose Sharks hockey game with a couple of friends of ours. One of them plays on a women's amateur league, so we've been to see her and her team play a couple of times. While she is one of the best players on her team, the pace of those games has been slow enough that we've had a chance to learn a little bit about the game and how it's played. The Sharks were...better. faster. dare I say it, stronger. What a fun game to watch. They played the Canadian team the Flames. We stood at attention through "Oh, Canada" *and* "The Star Spangled Banner". The Flames got the first point when they only had four players, I guess because the Sharks were asleep. However, the Sharks came back to win 2-1, after some fast and furious skating.

Chaz wore a big smile all through the game. They stopped for commercials, and during breaks played games for prizes, with fans doing the playing. Musical chairs with soft blow up furniture, on ice, anyone? Chaz was heard to say, repeatedly, "We don't do that in England." We had a great time.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

In most parts of the US, non-ice hockey is specified as "field hockey," and "hockey" means, well, the real hockey. :)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Ah. Chalk up yet another divide in our common language!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Do men play field hockey, where you are? Because in the US my experience of field hockey is that it is exclusively East Coast, upper class, and female.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Yes, my Dad was a goalie for years for his local amateur team (and secretary for the league).

At most secondary schools, girls will learn (field) hockey and netball. Boys will learn rugby and football (soccer).
At ours, once you reached 14 you could choose a bit more what you learned. Boys could learn hockey and many of them did. They were usually surprised to discover that brute strength wasn't enough.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I had this experience in American high school gym class. I come from a hockey culture and was living in a non-hockey culture, and I am not that big and a nerd. And so people tended to be completely (figuratively) knocked over when I was quite good at floor hockey, because hey! I was not the burly jock! What gives?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

It's not a majority, as-seen-on-tv sport, certainly. It's played at my local university by both men's and women's teams (but may still be exclusively upper class).

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

That was my experience, too. In fact, at Mount Holyoke (women's college) the intramural field hockey team wore the traditional skirts as part of their uniforms, even if the team included men.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I had a cheerful conversation about hockey with a guy in Toronto, and we were ten minutes in before we realised that we were talking about completely different sports...