Sometimes, I don't get hockey

I'm a guy. Which means that genetically, I should be totally into sports. But I'm not. I do follow hockey, but I'm sure that's only because I grew up in Canada - more specifically, Montreal.

There are things about hockey that I don't get.

Like why is North America the only place where you have to touch the puck for it to be called icing? Haven't enough folks gotten creamed over this bizarre tradition? When Don Cherry, the statesman of fighting in hockey says too many people are getting hurt from 'touch icing', it's time to get rid of it.

How does the league figure that sinking money into keeping the Phoenix Coyotes franchise alive rather than moving them to Canada is good for hockey? It's Arizona, stupid! They don't get hockey at all. The only reason they even showed up in the first place is because someone said 'Gretzky' and people had heard that name in the news before. Once folks realized Gretzky wouldn't actually be playing...... they stopped going.

How is it possible that we have teams in Nashville and Phoenix, but not in Quebec City and Winnipeg? You know what would be really cool - albeit impossible? If teams actually had players from the area the team calls home. The Montreal Canadiens should be at least 50% Quebecers. Right now there are 6 out of 25. 6 more are from the rest of Canada, 4 are Americans, there's one from Finland, two from Belarus, two Russians, three from the Czech Republic and a Slovakian. At least Toronto has 9 players from Ontario, two more from the rest of the country. It's hard to believe though, that Montreal has more Canadians than Toronto does - although now that I think about it - they are called Les Canadiens.

Just for fun I decided to tally how many Canadians and Americans there are on each team (I left the Europeans out of the equation for no reason in particular): Anaheim has 15 Canadians, 9 Americans. Atlanta has 9 Canadians, 5 Americans. Boston - 15 Canadians, 5 Americans. Buffalo - 10C, 5A. Calgary 21C, 5A. Carolina - 12C, 11A. Chicago - 15C, 3A. Colorado - 20C, 5A. Columbus - 21C, 3A. Dallas - 14C, 7A. Edmonton - 21C, 1A. Florida - 12C, 3A. Los Angeles - 11C, 9A. Minnesota - 15C, 1A. Nashville - 15C, 2A. New Jersey - 9C, 11A. Islanders - 10C, 8A. Rangers - 9C, 5A. Ottawa - 16C, 3A. Philadelphia - 16C, 4A. Phoenix - 11C, 6A. Pittsburgh - 15C, 9A.San Jose - 13C, 4A. St. Louis - 14C, 8A. Tampa Bay - 10C, 8A. Vancouver - 15C, 1A. Washington - 9C, 6A.