Michael Leboff: Poetry, For Real
Organized chaos on ice.That is hockey. It is a sport that only condones fighting with a slap on the wrist and a five minute breather.
Hockey trumps because it shouldn’t work. It doesn’t make sense. It sounds like a game from a kid’s imagination, which is why it shouldn’t surprise you that it unfolds in such majestic fashion.
When hockey is happening it connects somewhere deep. It engrosses you and keeps you from the opening whistle until the game ends.
Other sports rely heavily on individual effort, hockey just asks for effort.
You can’t take a second to think in hockey, cause if you do you’re going to be flat on your back trying to figure out how you got there.
It is faster, it is grittier, and it has an immeasurable impact. It is physical and violent in the best way possible. You are held accountable for every action, there are consequences.
And it has basketball beat where it matters the most, in its heart. Need proof of this? Just take a look at this play from the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals. Let me set the scene for you, Paul Kariya, the captain and heart & soul of his upstart Mighty Ducks, gets absolutely leveled by Scott Stevens, the best bodychecker the game has ever seen. The second Stevens connects with Kariya its lights out. But no so fast. Kariya comes back to life in one of the most surreal scenes in hockey history. Have a look:
Poetry.
