The Filthy Mitts

Yeet, everyone stereotypes hockey as a sport that fights and hits ALL the time. This is completely incorrect. Yes, AT TIMES players will fight to get the team amped, but there isn't a fight every period of every game. They are occasional, but they aren't frequent at all. Hitting on the other hand is just a big part of the game, and it's inevitable to see a hockey game without a few big hits. This is what makes the game exciting and fun to watch (other than the sheer speed of it). It's faster than football and it's been proven that hockey hits are 17% harder than NFL hits.

Video taken from Youtube

See, hits like these make people think hockey is a barbaric sport and the people playing it are just trying to kill people. This is so wrong. Hockey takes many more things to succeed than physicality and size. The parts of hockey people usually don't see are the stick-handling, shooting, passing and other things that go into the sport.

One of my fav parts of the game is the stick-handling portion of it. If you play hockey, there are many different terms used for this segment of the game. "Oh dude, filthy mitts bruh" or "Damn you dangled the sh*t out of that kid"are both terms you would hear during a game of hockey. Over the years, I have continually gotten better at stick-handling and "dangling". To be completely honest, I used to be complete garbage at stick-handling, although I'm not saying I'm any good now.

So ya, I'm not very good, but I'm progressing! In the NHL, there are a few players that are just incredible with stick-handling and dangling. Honestly, how do they even eat with those hands (meaning they're filthy, meaning they're really good and fast). There are two main players in the NHL whose mitts are just insane. 

Player #1: Patrick Kane, playing for the Chicago Blackhawks. He's not the largest player in the NHL, but let me tell you: his mitts are crazy. They're soooo fast and agile that all you see is the blur of his stick as he dangles a defender and goes cheddar on the goalie. Right when the APX2 stick was coming out, Bauer put out a little commercial showing how great the stick was. P. Kane stick handles through other pucks, never touching one. It looks easy, but one touch of another puck is disastrous. Check it out.

Dang... Got this from Youtube once again.

Player #2: Pavel Datsyuk, playing for the Detroit Red Wings. This player has been playing longer than P. Kane but from my perspective, they're pretty equal in skill. Again, all defensemen goin' up against Datsyuk might as well be cones because they just get dangled: hard. This guy's mitts are insane. In this vid he plays keep away with a reporter who used to play hockey. This is funny to watch to be honest.

Youtube once again....

Ya, so basically hockey isn't just based off of hitting and fighting. There are a bunch of things that go into hockey, not just physicality. So maybe in a future post I'll talk about shooting or strategies. Alright well, I need to go nap so, see you all later!