Stress does not play hockey

Fans come to hockey to hurt. Some - patriotism ("a team we can’t live without"), others - art (handsome goals of great masters), others - the stress inherent in the genre of reality shows. If your beloved squad loses, if there are few great ones, and fun during breaks is tired, then it's time for the critical mass of adrenaline to emerge. An honest fight with mutual consent is a good remedy for boredom, the most terrible disease of modern hockey.

Hockey in America, at first glance, has lately been two opposite roads. On the one hand, hooks and a foul are mercilessly eradicated. On the other hand, the number of fights is growing (almost double compared to the previous season). But in reality, there is only one way - the struggle for spectator interest, that is, for additional profit.

Clumsy thugs who are putting blocks and pushing the board are increasingly less in demand. More and more, along with skillful forwards, are universal fighters who are able to fall in love with the public and, if necessary, perform a fist club in addition to the main job. A rare self-respecting NHL club does not have a “bad guy” in the state of tafgai, a master of ice battles. After all, an extra thousand or two spectators come to stare at him every evening.

North American tough guys are divided into "bodyguards" and "police". The first, as a rule, come in the composition with superstars, not giving those offense. The latter take the lead. Pure “policemen” as a species gradually disappear - people don’t root for those who spend two or three minutes on ice on a match. They are replaced by tough guys playing, which are much more popular than the players of the third and fourth fives.

These guys are fighting beautifully. According to the unspoken "code of the cop," they simultaneously with their opponent discard their helmets and gloves. The simultaneity of the ritual is obligatory, since the concept also includes the concept of “provocateur”. He is entitled to a special punishment, which will leave the team in the minority, therefore, cannot be welcomed.

In the AHL, the story is even more fun. The philosophy of the local hockey players is simple: since you haven’t made it to the main team, you can frolic soberly. No one will persuade, force to work in training there. Manager's situation and so happy. Americans are used to making money on everything. And if strict rules are introduced, as elsewhere, this will only alienate viewers. They come to see the show. And what if not fights, the most striking sight in semi-professional hockey? Therefore, in the AHL there are a lot of clashes, rudeness and rudeness.

Former Moscow Dynamo Mikhail GRABOVSKY , sent to the American Hockey League through Montreal, can’t be called a tough guy. However, it was there, in Hamilton, that the Belarusian legionnaire had to try on the skin of a bulldog.

- Each team has a “policeman” aimed at a fight, - says the Belarusian legionary. - I saw a skirmish, threw off my gloves - and into battle. But self-respecting tuffs usually agree. With anyone they don’t start, they are looking for worthy rivals. Come on Come on! And away we go. Sometimes you stand on the face-off and understand: the change failed. A few seconds pass, and the stands choke with delight: "Come on! Come on!"

We have one full-time cop in our team. But this does not mean that others are too lazy to fight. Everyone finds out the relationship at the slightest opportunity. They can have three by three, and five by five, and even goalkeepers are sometimes pulled in. At first it was unusual and unpleasant. And now, without a surge of emotions, it is difficult to imagine a match. Especially when the game is sticky and tedious. But this is rare here. As they give on the head - you wake up immediately.

- Did you fight yourself?

“I'm not a brawler.” But where are you going? Pai-boys have no place here. Once he was on the shift, suddenly the judge whistled. Turn around: four to five! Naturally, he returned, balanced - grabbed the opponent by the hand, tied, and stood until it was all over. A couple of times they stood up for me. Once, against the rules, they were pushed aboard. I’m lying down, and above me, my defender is bashing in the full program of the offender.

- What is the difference between fights in the AHL, NHL and Super League?

- In the AHL more is allowed. The judges are used to it. If a player discards gloves, he will never be removed until the end of the match. Five minutes of a fine, and that’s it. There are brawls, after which they are not removed at all. And in Russia, half a team would be punished immediately. In the AHL, a fight is constantly waiting. If it’s started, it’s never taken apart before falling onto the ice. And in Russia, perhaps, they would have played such hockey. But the judges are trying to prevent a brawl in advance.

In the NHL there is less rudeness. There are adults who understand what they are doing. But there are enough “cops”. There is such Aaron Downey in Montreal. Before the games, he goes to the gym. They say to him: "What are you doing? You can’t." To which he replies: "You play fifteen minutes, and I play two. I need a barbell to stretch." He came out in the first game and snapped off in full. In the second - concussion ...

- Which of the fights do you remember more?

- Oddly enough, not the local one, but the one that happened in Minsk five years ago. Then Belarus as a youth played with Poland. With the Poles there was always a tense relationship on the ice. After that match, all-for-all started. Twenty minutes kneading. There are three judges, and more than forty fighters. Then they thought: they began to take one brawler from each team to the locker room. I still have the video. I'm afraid to show here ...

Despite the lack of stationary hockey schools in America (they are being replaced by specialized camps that travel like big tops), they learn to stand up for themselves on ice there purposefully from childhood. Many Russian youths who have visited such Canadian camps say that they sometimes touch the puck much later than other people's faces. The coaches teach how to pull a t-shirt over the opponent’s head and where to hide his from the same trick, get acquainted with the “policeman’s code”, analyze the mistakes of the “cops” on video ...

Hockey in the broadest sense is not conceivable without stress, for it is a spectacle that America has been teaching to create since early childhood. Those who do not fight are either incredibly talented or are training in the backyard of their home ...

Now in the Moscow “Dynamo” stands Mike Bishay. The one who, in 2002, in the Edmonton match against Atlanta, became the protagonist of the famous wall-to-wall fight. In the heat of excitement, the rivals threw the Canadian on their bench, but even there the “oilman” did not give up, but made a real commotion. Michael relishes relishing that episode:

“A wonderful mess,” Bishai recalls. - I’m not a tough guy, but when everyone is fighting, I can’t stand by, I’ll definitely get involved. I didn’t even understand how I ended up on someone else’s bench. Someone dragged me there, but they regretted it ...

- Perhaps this is the very moment after which you wake up famous?

- Yes, we have become celebrities. We spent a week on the box spinning. And in general, a good experience. I’m sure it will come in handy.

- Which of the Russian tough guys can you single out?

- Kasparaitis is a wonderful guy! And Nazarov is good!

Surprisingly, we have new rules in the sourdough with the old school until hockey is taken to the “big road”. There were many brawls and provocations, real fist fights - one, two, and miscalculated. The author this season counted only three, and the Canadian Reid Simpson set the tone in two. People came to the leadership of FHR, for whom at one time to arrange a brawl on ice was akin to losing a Komsomol ticket. It was not their fault that hockey in communist times was an ideology, not a business. However, the new rules in Russia began to be interpreted unambiguously - as a return to the Soviet. And not a step to the side!

Less and less moments force viewers to experience a surge of emotions, the very stress for which a significant part of the fans come to the stands. As a result, the stands on hockey became half empty. And on the box, on the contrary, are crowded. Fortunately, Russian guys dominate there. And this trend is unlikely to be reversed, while the leadership of hockey clubs believes that the budget is made by the sponsor, and not the quality of the spectacle. While the priority is ideology, but not the interests of society.

"Russia against rudeness, Russia for the result." Perhaps most will find this road right. But there is another way: "The game is for the fan, and the result will come by itself." To fit in the Russian size Canadian truths, long comprehended by the founders of the great game ...

Nikita BEREZHKOV