Wednesday, May 7, 2025

After watching NHL hockey as a boy and after leaving hockey behind for a couple of decades, Mrs. Bob and I have gotten back into it thanks to it being far easier to access now (it’s included with our Max subscription service).

When I was a kid (late ’70s and early ’80s), watching hockey on television was terrible. The cameras and the TVs of the time couldn’t handle the contrast between ice and everything else. I can distinctly remember the little black and white TV we had getting all buzzy as the camera went from showing half the crowd and half the ice to all ice as it panned from one side of the arena to the next. It was closer to watching the radio than it was to watching the game on TV. Anyway, the technology is so much better now that it’s a pleasure to watch hockey.

So I want to talk about nicknames. Yep, each team has a full name: New Jersey Devils (forever will be my home team), New York Rangers (my team before the Colorado Rockies moved to become the New Jersey Devils), Seattle Kraken (best name ever!), etc. But TV announcers and fans also shorten the names so that Devils becomes Devs, Avalanche becomes Avs, Senators becomes Sens. You get the idea.

I think teams should have two shortened names to reflect how well they are playing. When they are playing well, sure, they can be called the Avs. When a team is sucking enough to get booted from the playoffs despite having a lead in the game, they are now called The Lanch. Let me give an example. The Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars went to game seven in the series and despite being up 2-0 in the third period, the Avalanche lost the game 4-2 and ended their season. The following morning I explained to Mrs. Bob, “They really Lanched it.” Likewise the Devs? They Viled their series. Now, you’ll have to adapt this as it doesn’t always work. What always works, you ask? You can always, always, always say, no matter the circumstances, “The Islanders suck.”