quotations about hockey
The English play hockey in any weather. Thunder, lightening, plague of locusts ... nothing can stop the hockey. Do not fight the hockey, for the hockey will win.
MAUREEN JOHNSON
The Name of the Star
Red ice sells hockey tickets.
BOB STEWART
attributed, Sports Justice: The Law and Business of Sports
Hockey would not have the same appeal if it were played on ground or grass. Ice is what gives the "coolest game on Earth," as the NHL calls it, its distinguishing characteristics.
ALAIN HACHE
The Physics of Hockey
Hockey is figure skating in a war zone.
ANONYMOUS
Do you believe in miracles? Yes!
AL MICHAELS
television broadcast of Olympic hockey game, February 24, 1980
Hockey is different from other sports. It's different from basketball, football, and golf. There are no set plays in hockey. There are no free throws or patterns that you can visualize exactly as they'll take place. Hockey is all reaction. Everything happens because of someone else's mistakes.
LUC ROBITAILLE
attributed, Hockey Tough
The scrape of the skates on the ice. The smell of musty old equipment. The black puck stains on the boards. To the uninitiated they're nothing, but to a hockey player they're home.
JEFF LEMIRE
Essex County
Were they shocked when a fist-fight followed, combined with a wrestling match down on the ice? No: hockey is a game of frictions and reactions.
STEPHEN SMITH
Puckstruck
Hockey is a fast, tough game, and my father taught me early not to take dirt from anyone.
GORDIE HOWE
My Story
There weren't any time-outs, though. Not in life, and not in hockey.
SARINA BOWEN
The Understatement of the Year
Force, not persuasion, not discussion, is the legitimate instrument for influencing and policing the hockey mind. Fighting in hockey is one of the most magnificent and eloquent displays of refinement in all of sports.
BRIAN D'AMBROSIO
Warriors on the Ice
Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapably and inhospitably cold, hockey is the chance of life, and an affirmation that despite the deathly chill of winter we are alive.
STEPHEN LEACOCK
attributed, Bibliotopia
If they don't put a stop to the fighting at ice hockey matches, we'll have to start printing more tickets.
CONN SMYTHE
attributed, Biteback Dictionary of Humorous Sporting Quotations
Hockey is warfare with water breaks. In the rink, you have over two thousand pounds of brute force clashing with whittled clubs, a rubber disc that could crush a larynx, and knives attached to feet. Let's not pretend there's anything civilized going on here.
KATE MEADER
So Over You
Hockey is ... the gateway to being a Canadian.
STEPHEN SMITH
Puckstruck
Hockey is the ultimate team game. I have worked with teams in the NHL, NFL, NBA, and major-league baseball. In my opinion, players on a good hockey team are closer and more interdependent during the game than players in any of the other major sports. Part of the reason is the nature of the game. Hockey is an intense contact sport that bonds players together. Hockey is also a high-speed, lateral-flow game. Hockey success comes from everyone working together and moving the puck from player to player. Puck movement generates scoring opportunities.
SAUL L. MILLER
Hockey Tough
Hockey is not religion, but there is no denying that it is understood as such by many Canadians.
JASON BLAKE
Canadian Hockey Literature: A Thematic Study
Hockey is murder on ice.
JIM MURRAY
attributed, Bobby Orr and Me
Hockey is like jazz in this sense--you must be able to improvise at a fast tempo.
IRA GITLER
Make the Team in Ice Hockey
The purest hockey is played on a big lake that froze all on its own, swept clean as a wineglass by the wind, and you just happened to be driving by.
STEPHEN SMITH
Puckstruck