The Devil's Hockey Dictionary - Part 2

Your translation guide to "Hockey speak" - what do "Hockey people" really mean?

My inspiration - Ambrose Bierce’s master work (a personal copy of mine pictured here)

Several observed ‘Occurrences’ over many years…

In Part 1 (available below) you saw such gems as:

“The Devils Hockey Dictionary” - Part 1

“Plays the game the right way.” - born in Canada.

“Selfish” - a player (usually European born) who scores a minimum 35 goals and 75 points for at least 5 straight seasons. Expect this player to be traded frequently in transactions that likely include the seller getting back players who “play the game the right way”.

“Can’t trust him in the critical areas” - Russian.

This is part 2 of several in my continuing work, “The Devil’s Hockey Dictionary”, a caustic and satirical tome patterned after the great Ambrose Bierce’s master work. Bierce started his writing career as a “printer’s devil” - an assistant in a print shop, and wrote several short stories and longer works during his life amid the United States Civil War.

I’ve taken inspiration from ‘Devil’s’ for my own ‘Devil’s’, as I have organized words and phrases over the years to pass them on to you - to get a better feel for the meaning behind the “hockey speak” from “hockey men”.

In Part 2 - we’ll define “Hockey Man/Men/People”, “Director of Broadcast”, “Arrogant”, “Hockey Play” and MORE!

Let’s GO!!

“Hockey Man” - someone who works in and around hockey, who was born in Canada, or has adopted the Canadian hockey way of life, who believes that: the game of hockey belongs to Canada and Canada only, that bottom six forwards are more important than top-end skill, that non-North American born players should dumb their games down in order to embrace “playing the game the right way.” “Hockey Men” (plural), “Hockey People” (to include women around hockey who believe the same.)

“Not your typical Russian” - a phrase heard more frequently with the passage of time expressed by “Hockey People”, extolling praise on Russian born players (or others from the region who may or may not be Russian) for succumbing more easily than their predecessors to NHL cultural conditioning.