The Hockey Handshake
By Chris Lucas • Apr 24th, 2008 • Category: HockeyIt has to be one of the best traditions in all of sports. It isn’t a trophy or a ring, it’s a simple gesture, a show of respect that exemplifies why hockey, despite the many jokes about fighting and goonery, is one of the greatest sports around. What am I talking about? It’s the post playoff series handshake.
No other professional sport take the time to do it. Sure some football players run to the middle of the field and exchange pleasantries with guys they know, but no other sport makes an effort to go through a line and shake each others hands - congratulating each other on a well-played series.Losing teams will actually wait for the winning team to celebrate, even in the finals to shake each others hand. It isn’t a huge kumbaya moment, all rivalries aren’t forgotten and feuds forgiven, but it is a show of respect between teams. A chance for grown men to show that sportsmanship in one of the toughest sports is still alive.
It’s a small act, but one that should be celebrated and covered as often as the fights and slap shots.
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Chris Lucas is from the Indianapolis area and is a huge sports fan. He loves everything from hockey to college basketball. He works for a cool company, keeps his own sports blog, and has another blog about his beautiful baby boy.
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The hockey handshake has created a lot of controversy in the press when players and coaches refuse to shake each others’ hands or shake at all. Think about Chris Chelios, Dino “I can’t believe I shook his freakin’ hand” Ciccarelli, or more recently Martin Brodeur. While I don’t believe it’s a good idea, some people think that the handshake should be eliminated to avoid any controversy. Do you agree with this line of thinking, or should the players start showing more respect and just shake hands?
I think it is part of the greatness…yeah there is sometimes controversy but 99% of the time it goes down without any …like I said it’s not Kumbaya but most guys get it.
It’s hard after killing each other for 7 games to not let that affect you and sometimes do or say something stupid during the handshake…but in the end its about sportsmanship and it would be another dumb move by the NHL to take it out.
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Also, the media creates most of the controversy - I bet most guys can shrug it off and probably understand why it happened. Eddi Olczyk said so much on Versus the other night…