Ice hockey in Oklahoma is slightly different. A bunch of us went to see the Oklahoma City Blazers a few days ago. It was the first time that I have ever sat through an entire hockey game. Despite the alluring bluish streak of the puck in televised NHL games, the game didn't hold much appeal. In the stadium, things were different. My normally taciturn wife was yelling; I was sitting forward in my seat (okay, in part because the seats were uncomfortable). We loved it so much that we might even go again.
However, the whole experience started out pretty bad. Five minutes into the game, two players starting going at it. They grabbed each other around the shoulders and jousted away for several minutes. Their teammates stood a few yards away and non-chalantly leaned on their hockey sticks. The umpires stood a little closer but watched the wrestling match with inclined heads. Meanwhile, the crowd was cheering.
Luckily, all the hotheads wore themselves out in the first period. Still, I wish those ludicrous jousting matches had not happened. And if I catch that Environment Canada fellow again, I'll tell him that out here in Oklahoma, we have boxing matches even with twelve players and four umpires on the rink.
