From the “funnier in our imaginations than in reality department” comes this story from TSN: the Calgary Flames are devoting some chunks of practice time to proper fighting techniques.
While the report describes it as a “rare sight,” it sounds mundane enough ... really just a crash course for non-fighters in not getting completely pummeled.
“As we did in the past years, we’re just trying to teach the kids to defend themselves,” Head coach Bob Hartley told TSN. “That’s what we’re trying to teach our young players.”
Looking at this fairly is a lot less fun than letting our snark/imaginations run wild, though.
Such a story just begs people to tweet, “Shouldn’t the Flames spend time learning how to play hockey instead?”
The Flames have other things to work on, one would think: http://t.co/tyqLzsxe1o
— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) September 25, 2014
Pugilism enthusiast Brian Burke is an executive in the Flames organization, which only adds fuel to the mockery fire (see: this post’s zany headline).
This AP photo of Brian McGrattan at training camp provides an ideal “artist’s rendering” of what fighting training looks like in some of our heads:
It’s mostly not that big of a thing, although for the people who are still wondering how an NHL team can justify paying limited fighter Deryk Engelland nearly $3 million per season, it’s not exactly the most encouraging nugget, either.
Still, at least we can all be amused by that McGrattan photo ...