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Hockey Guilty Pleasures: Paul Kukla of Kukla’s Korner

sean leahy
Contributing writer

(Ed. Note: Our series "Puck Daddy's Guilty Pleasures" features puckheads from all walks of life answering questions about their own hockey-related guilty pleasures. It will run daily during the month of August. Have a suggestion for a "Guilty Pleasures" guest blogger? Hit us on email. Enjoy!)

Today's special guest: Paul Kukla of the venerable Kukla's Korner, the godfather of hockey bloggers and your daily news source.

1. The Player You Most Love To Hate

Martin Erat, for this play in the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Nashville was one stupid, blind pass away from going home up 3-1 against the Blackhawks. Every time I hear his name, I just shake my head.

Can you imagine the hate that would still be flowing if Erat played for a team in crazy hockey city?

2. Other Than Your Own, The Team You Can't Help Rooting For

Montreal without a doubt. I still dream of a Detroit/Montreal Stanley Cup Final, taking the train between Windsor and Montreal and living like it was back in the 1950's. I even have a fedora picked out.

Hopefully this is the season, especially with the talk of the Wings moving to the Eastern Conference. I'd even wear a suit to every game!

3. Favorite Fight or Brawl of All-Time


Tie Domi vs. Bob Probert Round ll.

This rematch had a lot of buildup in the Detroit media, especially after Domi had mocked Probert with a 'I have the championship belt now'. If you watch closely at the end of the video, you will notice Yzerman doing the same to Domi and Dave Strader and Mickey Redmond bring it up also.

4. The Hideous-Looking Hockey Jersey You Secretly Love The Most

No doubt about it, the California Golden Seals with the white skates. You can see the skates in action as the Seals take on the all gold of the LA Kings.

5. Your Favorite Hockey Cliché (terminology, traditions, announcer-speak, etc.)

Anyone who can include some Danny Gallivanisms into their work gets an 'A' from me. Unfortunately, we don't hear them often.

From Danny Gallivan's Wiki page …

Gallivan was known for his colourful descriptions of action on the ice. Hard shots became "cannonading drives"; saves were "scintillating" or "larcenous" rather than merely spectacular; and, after a save, pucks tended to get caught in a goalie's "paraphernalia" (goalie equipment). If the goaltender made a fantastic or impossible save, he would refer to it as a "hair raising save" or that the goalie "kicked out his pad in rapier-like fashion" to foil a "glorious scoring opportunity".

He would use words such as "anemic" to describe an ineffective offense or powerplay. He also coined phrases like "nowhere near the net", when a shot would go wide, comment that "there has not been a multitudinous amount of shots" to describe a game with a "dire dearth" of shots on net, would mention that a defender was "wasting valuable seconds in the penalty" when they were ragging the puck, and would almost always announce, "and the penalty has expired!" at the end of a penalty.

The ultimate Gallivanism was a word he coined: the "spinarama," which described a player evading a check or when a player would deke a defender with a sudden 180- or 360-degree turn. Its chief practitioner was Montreal Canadiens defenceman, Serge Savard, so that the move was also known as "The Savardian Spinarama". Many players were also known to "dipsy-doodle" with the puck, or come out of their own zone "rather gingerly".

When a university professor wrote to Gallivan protesting that there was no such word as "cannonading," Gallivan wrote back and replied, "There is now."

6. The Injury You Couldn't Stop Staring At (Non-Skate Lacerations Only)

Not because it looked terrible, but the karma of it all. Chris Pronger took a run at Steve Yzerman in a playoff series and everyone knew Steve had a bad right knee. Yzerman saw Pronger at the last minute, did a little spin and Pronger tore his right ACL and the Blues were done for the series.

If you don't recall the play, you can watch the video with the recap.

7. Your Favorite Cheesy Hockey Reference in Popular Culture

Popular Culture? My vocabulary is still in the 1970's. I'm not sure if 'Rock On' is a cheesy hockey reference these days but 'rock on' was 'in' in the 70's.

7a. Your Favorite Terrible Hockey Card Or Hockey Action Figure.

Who knew they could Photoshop back in 1968? Check out the Frank Mahovlich O-Pee-Chee from that year.

8. Finally, What's The Thing You Secretly Respect Gary Bettman For The Most?

How when you actually get to talk to him, one on one for a few minutes, he has the ability to look completely disinterested, his eyes looking everywhere but at me. And the BlackBerry, he must have checked that 20 times in two minutes.

But we really know none of that is true.