Why do we never see this in the NHL? This is immediately after a DOUBLE OT LOSS. One thing I always liked about other sports is the mutual respect and sportsmanship shown the moment the game ends.
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For reference, LA is 1 game back from a play-in spot, halfway through the season, so they needed to get a win. It’s so silly to me that in hockey culture (and some other sports as well), you’re not allowed to even smile after a loss or else you get blasted for not taking a game serious enough. One of the most ruthlessly competitive athletes in sports history, Michael Jordan, would often have dinner and play golf with players on the other team after a game, or the morning after.
I feel like the physicality of the sport plays a role, but you see this in American football, and rugby as well. I would love to see players skate around and give a casual, kind-spirited “good game” to the opponents, instead of immediately stomping off to the dressing room. I feel like the media and fans put so much pressure on hockey players to take every game way too seriously, like it’s the most important thing in their life. “If you don’t look clinically depressed and full of rage after a loss, then clearly you weren’t trying hard enough”. At the end of the day, it’s all just for fun, and love of the game, and highly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Let them have fun.
There are a few things going on here.
1. When a hockey game ends in OT, it’s a sudden death goal, meaning the game ends immediately and the winning team piles on to celebrate with each other. The losing team is obviously going to be dejected and not want to stick around watching the other team celebrate to go shake their hand.
2. The physicality of the sport definitely plays a role. Since hockey has fighting and pushing and shoving, the league/officials/players have decided that it’s in everyone’s best interest for team’s to separate and leave the ice. In fact, if there’s a post game scrum, players are not allowed to leave the bench to join, or they will be penalized. They have to wait for the officials to separate the players on the ice before players on the bench can celebrate with their team.
3. There are instances of players getting together to congratulate one another after a game – the most well known is the postseason handshake lines after a playoff series is complete: [NHL Mic’d Up Handshake Lines](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxzkvSdBchw). You can see there’s a lot of camaraderie among opponents, with the losing team often wishing the winning team luck in their upcoming series.
Every sport does this, and does the opposite. Lebron specifically behaves this way and is known to be a liked guy. MJ and Kobe absolutely did the opposite after a loss.
Because LeBron is a class act
The NBA does the handshake lines in playoffs like hockey?
I like it more when they don’t like each other because then it means they’re competitors first who desperately wanna win for the team and fanbases. Otherwise it sorta just looks like a bunch of dudes all happy after a game at the local Y because “fuck it, we’re rich, winning is now secondary”
As an NFL fan games just have much more meaning. There’s only 17 of them. In the NBA there is like 80 games? You can lose so many games and make the playoffs. It just seems like it wouldn’t matter as much since it’s so many games.
You know what I like about other sports? Following the rules on the field / court, and playing a little bit of defense. They are letting guys get away with 5-7 step travels, it’s not even funny at this point. Defensive players just get out of the way of a layup or dunk. The NBA has become a joke, and to trash the NHL over something like this is petty and pointless.
This coming from someone who’s been following basketball since the early 90s.