Hockey Talk

This summer I read a hockey blog (can't remember which one) talking about how many games some of the juniors play. The author made a case about how people sometimes complain about hockey players sounding "dumb" in interviews and how that's not a surprise when these young guys are playing a zillion games a year, really, how are they supposed to talk about anything else besides the usual hockey cliches?

I found this interesting, in part I think because I'd never really thought of that particular argument before. And apparently it stuck with me, because a month or so later it's still thought provoking. What got me thinking about it again was listening to some player interviews today. And I thought it would be nice if interviewers asked more non-hockey questions. Or at least broader hockey questions. This might help generate less cliche-ridden answers. I mean really, how many answers are there to "what do you need to do to score out there tonight?" "Well, we've just got to put the puck in the net" (no shit, that's the definition of scoring) "I think we need to fight harder for the puck" (no doubt, hard to score without it) "We need to create some more chances" (again, no shit)...

If the interviewer asked things more 'hockey-related', say "what do you do to get ready for a game" - I'd probably be more intrigued.

And we're out of time. Thanks for joining us tonight on Hockey Talk.