Dissed

TSN.ca - NHL - Canada's Sports Leader

Hey Scott, I have been hearing lots of stuff being thrown around about how Tampa Bay gets horrible crowds and no one in Florida cares about hockey. The other day I was watching a game on Tampa's Sunshine network and its a good station, good commentators and the such but one thing I didn't get was that they kept showing rules of the game. Like when the other team pulled their goalie this "Hockey 101" thing popped up and it sayed pulling the goalie gets you another skater on the ice or something but there were others. One more thing is that my local radio station had this little prank phone call thing they did every night where they called the U.S.A. and asked them a question. Well one day I happened to be listening and they called a gas station in Tampa and asked the girl if she was happy that the lighting were in the playoffs. She had no idea who the lightning were and had no idea what he was talking about. Thats what I call Sad! Scott Semenchuk, Winnipeg,MB

Scott, I guess that's just one of the things we take for granted in Canada. The rules of hockey are just a given here, but it's just not that way in the southern States because they are relatively new to the sport. Even in a place like Washington, where NHL hockey has been around for 30 years, you'd be surprised at the explaining of rules.that still goes on. It's really just a function of the relative importance that hockey has in our respective cultures. I'll bet the people in Tampa would do a heck of job picking up zone blitzes and showing the nuances of a cover-two defence in football. - SC

:rolleyes:

And for the sake of passing on the attendence to those in Canada who only believe rumors that they are told with regards to attendence. Don't tell me no one shows up.