>Sylvain.....
>
>>LOL! He's talking about hockey.
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>I had that much! :)
>
>>Satan: name of a player (dont remember his first name)
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>That is where he lost me!
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>Oh well you know that most of us southern boy don't know nothing about them thar northern sissy sports! < VBG > :)

If you get a chance, go to a game in person before calling it a sissy sport. I know you were joking, but it is the most gruelling sport I have ever seen. There is also a quantum leap in watching the game in person compared to watching on TV. TV can not do the sport justice. Until the Stars moved to Dallas from Minnesota, I did not follow the NHL. Now there has been an explosion of hocky all over the south, and I would bet there is a hockey team very near to where you live. If not, there will be shortly since Atlanta got a franchise. Even New Mexico, Louisiana and Mississippi have minor league teams.

The NHL is also the hardest championship to win of any sport anywhere. A team has to win 4 consecutive 7-game series over a 2 month period after playing an 82 game season over 6 months in order to win the Stanley Cup. This also means the shortest off-season [less than 3 months] of any pro sport.

I used to be a big-time baseball [MLB] and football [NFL] fan, but those 2 sports pale in comparison to the action and excitement of hockey. I have never seen a player in any other sport suck it up and play on a blown out knee [torn MCL], another with 2 torn groins and a sprained knee, and yet another with a fractured wrist. All 3 played to the sweet end for the Dallas Stars in the 1999 Finals to help the Stars win the Cup. The players? Benoit Hogue, Brett Hull and Mike Modano. This is also typical of most players on all the teams during playoff runs because chances to win the championship is so very rare and fleeting.