What is Your Worst Hockey Memory?
Posted by Mother Pucker on January 27th, 2009After watching the absolute destruction that took place tonight at Rexall between the Sabres and Oilers, I started to wonder what my worst hockey memory was.
Obviously this game was disgusting as the Oilers were blown out 10-2 by the Sabres, but I don’t think that it was my worst hockey memory because it is just one of the 82 regular season games.
The ones that come to mind are when Gretzky was traded from Edmonton to the LA Kings, and the next one is when Messier was traded to the NY Rangers. Both trades were shocking, and I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news.
Another one is when Canada lost to Hasek and company in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano. I told my friends that I would eat my hat if Canada didn’t take home gold, so needless to say I had to try and take a few bites of the thinnest hat I could find.
So how about you? What is your worst hockey memory?
By far: Marc-Andre Fleury letting that weird goal in at the Halifax World Junior Tournament. Of course, he choked almost the year after, but doing it in home turf, in an arena he’d won in before in the QMJHL, really hurt.
Change “he choked almost the year after” to “he choked, almost the same way, the year after”.
Being a Leaf fan there are soooo many…some that stick though are:
Roenick knocking out the Leafs after Tucker creamed Kapanen, just such a high to such a low.
When the “no skate in the crease rule” was in there was a goal scored by Toronto where the goalie was basically not in the net the Leafs scored but a player skated by the crease and the goal was dis-allowed, hard to explain but I was pissed at hockey in general for such a stupid rule.
Gilmour getting traded away in 1997, I was wearing my jersey that day and everything
Justin
The Hockey Card Show
Steve Smith bouncing the puck off Grant Fuhr’s pads and into his own net so effing Calgary could beat the Oil in the 1986 Smythe Division finals.
Even losing Game 7 to Carolina in the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals was less painful than that!
Here are a few of the responses I got on twitter:
@PeterCzosek @motherpucker worst memory was when Brett hull had his foot in the crease and they gave him the Stanley Cup in Buffalo.
@Crashbox @motherpucker “What is your worst hockey memory?” that’s easy…”No Goal” bad officials cost the Sabres a game 7 and a shot at the Cup
@fleurydelis @motherpucker most of 2003-04, lockout, game 6 of the 2008 cup final, thinking the pens were moving to KC, crosby getting hurt last year
@hockeyisgood @motherpucker i have a bad hockey memory with an ex girlfriend…i took her to an ahl game and she cried when they started fighting
watching my son’s squirt team lose a tournament bronze medal game in 3 OTs in lake placid, after hearing all week “miracles happen here.” but it only bothered him for about 3 hours, and then he was onto something else.
1993, first game of Pee Wee hockey, Long Island, The Rinx, in net.
I was playing on the top team in the division, someone on the other team dumps the puck into our zone from the opposite circle; I skate to the blue line to stop the puck, trip, puck slides between my legs, fall, turn, and watch the puck slowly slide into the net.
I was wondering when invisible cloaks were to be invented at that very moment.
Definitely back in ’07 when the Dallas Stars played the Edmonton Oilers. Bet you know this one. Patrick Stefan has a breakaway to an empty net and goes to seal the game for the Stars. But no, he misses the net completely because of some weird bounce with the puck. Then of course, Hemsky takes it all the way back down and scores on Turco to send the game into overtime.
Ridiculous.
Thank GOD Dallas won in overtime.
That would have made me beyond angry.
Missing an empty net when skating up to it casually is one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to you in a hockey game. Especially when it’s your fault it went to overtime.
Having my best friend call me from inside the coliseum as I was leaving it when Jason Blake hit the boards and fell to the ice as if he was dead. The sound of her voice, the radio description of the scene, and me not in there made me sick to my stomach. I thought he was dead. She thought he was dead. I feared his career was over.
We forget how dangerous the sport we love actually is. Wins and losses are meaningless when compared to the loss of a life.
Every time a player hits the ice and doesn’t get up, I hold my breath. THOSE are the worst moments in hockey.
Here are a few that come to mind (I’m an Islanders fan)…
– Being swept in ’94 by the Rangers. I believe the total goals for the series were something like 22-3. Watching the Rangers hoist the Cup six weeks later didn’t help much.
– Jose Theodore’s goal against the Islanders in January 2000. OK, it’s cool to see a goalie score a goal, and it’s even cooler to see it live, but against your hapless team, it hurts a bit.
– The day the 2004-05 NHL season was officially canceled. I always lived and died by the Islanders, but after the lockout, you realize it’s not just about wins and losses. As bad as it gets here on the Island, I’m just glad there’s still hockey to be played.
Watching Canada lose to the Czechs was bad in 1998, but watching the womens’ team lose the gold medal game was almost worse.
My personal worst hockey memory though? I was at a stick and puck session at the local rink, was about to take a wrist shot but overstepped the puck directly so when I started to take the shot I pulled my shoulder, then was off balance and fell right onto my (unpadded – I was only wearing track pants) kneecaps. I was pretty much done after that.
This was in August, and the shoulder is still being worked on for various reasons. Not good.
When Roloson went down 1st game of the Stanley Cup Finals against Carolina and Conklin fumbled the puck allowing Brind’Amour to score.
Whoa, there’s another Jason up in the comments who also played goal.
Worst Memory Playing: Traveling to Toronto from Michigan for my first tournament there, age 10 or so, and getting destroyed in every game by teams of kids who looked to be about 4 years older than us.
Worst NHL memories:
-Seeing Jiri Fischer collapse on the Red Wings’ bench, never to play again due to a heart condition
-The Sharks beating the Wings in the first round of the playoffs in 1994. Game 7 was tied up 2-2 and 21-year-old rookie Chris Osgood tried to clear the puck out of the zone, had it intercepted and couldn’t get back in net before a SJ defenseman pumped it in. The kicker was when they shoved the cameras in Osgood’s face after the game and you could tell he was or had been crying.
April 24, 1996… the day after the Jets played their last home game.
Yzerman’s slapper from the blue line on Casey in Game 7 of the 1996 playoffs. That replay is played everytime anyone talks about Yzerman or about the playoffs.
To this day, it breaks my heart. I will never forgive Nick Kypreos for running over Fuhr the series before.
Dane-
I understand your pain, but I was at that game and that is one of my BEST hockey memories.
My first hockey memory is my worst hockey memory (and set me up for a lifetime of being a Flyers fan!!) 1987 Stanley Cup finals. I remember being a little one, a horde of people in our room every night since we were the only ones with Prism, and J.J. Daigneault scoring in OT of game 6. Then game 7 happened and that’s been the story of my life ever since.
The WORST memory was Trevor Linden getting traded because of the asshat Mike Keenan.
Second worst… 1994. My beloved Canucks fell to the goddamn Rangers in 7 games.
I still hate the Rangers.
But not as much as I hate Mike Keenan.
As a Ranger fan, most of the time from when I was born till the spring of ’94 was all bad
As of recent memory the Worst Memory was seeing the Rangers trade Brian Leetch.
and
Jeff Bukeboom ending his career to Johnson of the Kings due to a cheap shot and the fact that the man can’t take a hit.
[...] week I polled the readers for their worst hockey memories, and the number of responses was quite surprising. Now, just to prove that we aren’t a bunch [...]