Hats off

I've seen hat-tricks scored before in soccer and in field hockey but never before have I seen a hat-trick goal which is followed by spectators throwing their hats onto the playing surface.

Well, until now.

Last night Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put three past Robert Luongo and the fans reacted by chucking their own hats onto the ice. While I thought it was a tad bizarre at first it was also kind of fantastic - it's finding out about these quaint traditions that makes watching a different sport even more endearing. I don't think it's something that would happen in soccer - firstly because us English are far too tight to throw our own hats away (is there some poor guy who has to collect the hats and return them to their owners?) and secondly because if one of the hats struck a player they'd go down like they'd been shot in the face. We've all seen THAT Rivaldo video on YouTube - if not go check it out. You'll probably find it by googling 'Rivaldo' and 'Cheat'.

So that's one thing I've enjoyed about NHL this week, even if it did somewhat interfere with play. Last night Vancouver completed their four-game road trip with a win at the Oilers and are now 2-1-2 for the season (check me out using the stats). Exactly the same start as last season I'm told and a run which has seen them face the Red Wings, Penguins and Flyers - all expected to make the post-season. Having watched a few games now I've started to form a few opinions on certain players. Two of my favourites thus far are Keith Ballard and Cody Hodgson. Ballard, because he seems like a battler, scored a classy goal in the season opener and made Darcy Horichuk eat his words to the press by sticking him on the floor after five seconds. Hodgson meanwhile is an exciting prospect who I understand has had a slow start to his career with the Canucks, suffering from injury and spending time out at an affiliate. He certainly doesn't look out of place on the ice now and will hopefully play a big part as the season progresses.

Another player it is impossible to notice is Robert Luongo, mainly because whenever the Canucks are playing he's trending on Twitter. There are two obvious camps, the 'LUONGO MUST DIE' cyber warriors, and the 'hey, lay off Lou' supporters. It's obviously early in the season and even I can tell he's had a couple of moments - there's been a few times when he's on his belly and does resemble a beached whale. However it is way too early in the season to not be backing a goalie who, so I believe, performed excellently during last year's regular season even if he did lose form in the seven-game Stanley Cup series against the Bruins. I was pleased he was involved in his first win in Edmonton, hopefully that will instill some confidence and lead to some of the haters backing down. Or at least waiting until a month into the season before calling for his head!

The European Blackout of the NHL has finally lifted, although the network which has the rights in the UK is Premier Sports - which I've never heard of, doesn't come under my regular 'Sports' package and costs £8 a month extra. Early reviews of their coverage are pretty poor so I'm thinking I'm going to stick with catching up with games after they happen - seeing as I'm sleeping while most of the games are going on anyway. You have to think the NHL kind of missed the point by staging a couple of games in Europe at the start of the season but failed to televise them to anyone in Europe. Whether the blame lies with AMI/Medge who bought the rights or the NHL itself for choosing them to sell to is one of opinion, but I would much prefer to get my fix via ESPN, Sky Sports or one of our free to air terrestrial channels who have a fair bit more experience of sports broadcasting. It would appear that the ridiculousness of TV rights is one thing soccer and hockey have in common!