X-Blog....

In 1995, the X Games took the Olympic concept to extreme sports like snowboarding, skateboarding, BMX, etc. The Games have grown consistently and are now shown on ESPN and big three network NBC.

In 2001, Vince McMahon and NBC developed the idea for the XFL with the slogan: "It's real football". Apparently, "real football" means no roughing penalties, trash talking announcers, scantily clad cheerleaders and nicknames on the back of jerseys. The XFL had 14 million viewers in their first week but their rating plummeted in the following weeks and the league folded after only one season.

In 2002, Spike TV (or TNN as it was called then) aired the first season of a sport called Slamball. Think basketball + football + trampolines. It's was designed to be a real life video game and it really delivers. Slamball was starting to build up a bit of a following but the sport was folded after two seasons. Don't worry Slamball fans, the sport is making a comeback in 2008.

The next "X" sport has arrived and it looks to be the worst idea since Tom Smykowski came up with the "Jump to Conclusions" mat in Office Space. It's called Xtreme Baseball and doesn't have any big hits, cheerleaders, or loud music. What does it have? Two baseball games happening at the same time on the same field. Wow...that does sound EXTREME!

It actually sounds pointless and ridiculous to me. Thankfully, this "sport" is so stupid that it's likely we've never hear of it again:

Get yer kit off...

Since we deal with all things obscure here at "Waikiki Hockey" it was only a matter of time before we delved into the bizarre world of streaking. Since the TV networks don’t show streakers for worry of promoting the behaviour we don’t have a lot of experience with them. I haven’t really paid streakers much thought and I haven’t been ‘lucky’ enough to be at a sporting event where a streaker did their thing. But the first question that comes to my mind is why would somebody risk fines, imprisonment, social out casting, and ridicule for a cheap laugh? I went to Wikipedia for some answers and they had almost 4,000 words on streaking. Seriously, four thousands words on streaking! Who are the people going to Wikipedia and updating the streaking page? Anyway, a fellow blogger, Greg, has kindly summarized the wiki-novel so we'll use all his hard work:

• First streaker was in 1804, he went onto be a US Senator
• College students really like to streak
• Term "streaking" was first used in 1973
• Streakers are telling us to lighten up and not take life so seriously
• Enjoy the streakers doing what they do.

There you go. Who would have thought you would learn something here at Waikiki Hockey?
But you’re not here for a history lesson. You’re here for some hard-core nudity…right?

Hockey – Streaking on ice...there’s something magical (and cold) about it.
Football – My favourite part of streaking is the takedowns. This one doesn’t disappoint. The guy gets belted so hard he can hardly walk afterwards. Speaking of walking, it’s very rare (and not very pleasant) to see a streaker not at full running speed.
Soccer – I wouldn’t think streakers come up with a plan. But if this very poor quality video is accurate this girl must have been pretty happy with the way things turned out with her streak.
Cricket – The gentleman’s game offers up these three classics from Australia. Terry Alderman embarrasses himself, Greg Chappel embarrasses the streaker, and Andrew Symonds embarrasses the Australian rugby team:


It’s not just the team sports either:
Horse Racing, Curling and Snooker also make the cut. Even the Oscars have had a streaker!

After all this ‘research’ I still think streaking depends entirely on one thing. Alcohol. What percentage of streakers do you think are sober? My guess….0%. Your drinking buddies convince you it’s a good idea and next thing you know your getting hammered to the ground by a security guard.

I suddenly feel so dirty.

Brew Crew...

It's not often that you see a headline like this. Even for "The Onion", that's some pretty bizarre stuff.

Lately there's been a more svelt member of the Brewers on my mind. I'm talking about the player who is third in the league in HR's and is on a big time tear right now...13 for 22 with 5 HR's and 10 RBI's in his last 6 games! The Brewer in question is 24 year old hitting machine Ryan Braun.

I don't know why number 8 doesn't get as much attention as some of the other young stars. The typical excuse is he plays in Wisconsin, but that hasn't hurt Brett Favre's publicity lately. Maybe it's because he's not built like a prototypical power hitter but neither is this douche and he still gets a bit of attention.

Braun has continually crushed major league hitting since his debut in May 2007. The recent struggles of fellow phenoms Jay Bruce, Hunter Pence, Alex Gordon, etc. have shown us how rare finding a player of Braun's calibre and consistency really is.

This guy should be an ESPN darling and mentioned in NL MVP talk:

• He hits piles of homers, has a good batting average and some speed
• He is apparently really good looking
• He can spout off the clichés like anybody's business (even if Adam Corrola is trying to give him shit)
• His name is a lot like the paper towel Brawny
• He may be the nicest guy in history:

Maybe that's the problem....Braun is too nice. People only pay attention to the bad guys. He could lie (I hope) and say he used steroids...that really seems to be getting people in the papers nowadays. Or he could hook up with Angelina Jolie (after the twins maybe?) to make the super couple Braungelina?

The best idea might be for Braun win the NL MVP.

Best...Hockey...Movie...Ever.

We don't see much hockey in American pop culture which has led to very few movies with hockey content. A search on imdb.com gives 332 movies, tv shows or video games with "hockey" as a keyword....but that number includes Don Cherry complilations so the number is actually much, much lower. So it's not that big of a debate on the best one of all time.

You'll notice the lack of the Mighty Ducks franchise on this list. Any hockey movie that includes something as ridiculous as the flying "V" or knucklepuck (shudder) has no business on any list.

Also, we realize Miracle is probably considered a pretty good hockey movie in some circles but we just couldn't get into it.....maybe you need to be an American to appreciate Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks.

In our research we came across this by some guy: "Anyone see MVP (Most Valuble Primate) about the monkey that plays hockey? I didn't get to see it, no theatres around here would show it." What do you know. Somebody actually wanted to see that movie ... Wow!

On to the list...in no particular order:

Click on the movie title for a classic clip from the flick

Strange Brew - It's all about Rosy the Rose. You know a Bob & Doug movie had to have some hockey in it.

The Running Man - "Hey Killian, here is Sub Zero, now...plain zero!" Classic Arnie. There were four gladiators that Arnie had to take care of and one of them was a sumo hockey goalie with a razor sharp stick....the hockey fraternity has to be happy with that.

Mystery, Alaska - It's not a very exciting movie but at least hockey is the actual focus of this movie. It is very possible that this movie is to blame for turning Aussie Russell Crowe into a Leafs fan. Poor guy.

Youngblood - A skilled player needs to show he has heart to make the pros...throw in a love story (with the coaches daughter, of course) and you've got a very common movie formula. It's really on the list because Dean Youngblood is a damn cool name and it has loads of "funny even though they are not trying to be funny" moments.

Swingers - This very small scene of this great movie perfectly illustrates how many of us spent our entire teenage years. Stars Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn were also in the greatest sports movie of all time.

Wayne's World - massive hockey fan Mike Myers has to be on this list somewhere. He always seems to work hockey into his movies, even if it's something small like Dr. Evil and Mini Me wearing Leafs jerseys, or his new movie The Love Guru (which looks awful, by the way). But the best hockey moment Myers has given us is Wayne and Garth playing the Canadian pastime of road hockey in Wayne's World (Je suis désolé, c'est en français) throw in a reference to Tim Horton's and you've made many hockey fans happy.

Dumb and Dumber - This movie has nothing to do with hockey as you may realize. But it does contain possibly the best performance by a hockey player in a movie. Boston's favourite son Cam Neely turns in a tour de force performance as Sea Bass. He also appears in "Stuck on You", "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" and "Me, Myself and Irene" but he'll always be Sea Bass to us.

Happy Gilmore - The few scenes of the movie that have Happy playing hockey are extremely entertaining. Would have been nice to have a bit more in the movie focussing on Happy's failed hockey career but we'll take what we can get. Extras points because, according to imdb.com, Joe Sakic was one of the skaters in the try-out scene.

But the best is easily...

Slap Shot - Real life minor league players the Hanson Brothers (although only two were actual brothers) ended up being the unexpected stars of this classi. The Hansons' cult following can still be seen to this day. They have been over-exposed the last 10 years which kinda ruins the original in some small way. Sometimes you just wish the original was left to be, but then things like this and this get made. Even still, the original Slap Shot is a work of sport movie art. Made in 1972, it set the standard for movies like Major League and countless others. From Denis Lemieux to Dave "Killer" Carlson to player-coach Reg Dunlop (played by Paul Newman) the movie is filled with excellent characters some of who can actually act.

Think we forgot something? Leave a comment and tell us. We'll definitely add to the list if we get enough interest.

We still can't believe that the road hockey scene from Wayne's World isn't on YouTube (in English anyway). That needs to be fixed ASAP.