American hockey slang offside?
It’s slapshot, not slapper, senator bemoans
• One of Canada’s newest senators took a moment Tuesday — on the record, in the Senate chamber — to bemoan how American commentators are ruining hockey.
Sen. David Adams Richards, who recently quit the Independent Senators Group because he said he’s used to being alone, shared his thoughts on the pitfalls of Yankee slang such as “wrister” and “luscious.”
Inspired by it being “playoff time,” Richards mourned how traditional hockey language from “long ago and far away, when I was a boy” is being lost as Canadian commentators are “silly enough to imitate” their American colleagues.
It was an unusual topic choice — other senators that day were seized with things like Iran Accountability Week, Asian Heritage Month and the Aga Khan’s upcoming visit.
But Richards pressed on. Whatever happened to “dipsy-doodling,” the Canadian phrase he said came from knowing “the motion of the ice.” It’s hockey sweaters, not jerseys. Dressing rooms, not locker rooms, he said.
“We didn’t deny a shot; we actually saved it. We didn’t delay at the blue line; we stopped at the blue line. Nor did we take a wrister. What an insulting word. We took a wrist shot. Nor did we take a slapper. What an insulting word. We took a slapshot — and not the movie,” Richards recited.
Calling the phrases “odious,” he accused American hockey commentators of having “no respect for millions of Canadians” who love the game.
“Canadians are often forced to listen to American play-by-play commentators if we want to watch U.S.based teams in the first or second round,” he said. “I know, my fellow senators, that all of this seems petty, but nothing is petty about our game ... our language enhanced and enriched every aspect of the play because our commentators actually knew what was happening on the ice.”
A few minutes in, Richards was making a point about how Canadians haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1993. He was taking significant issue with Fox News commentator Shep Smith when the Speaker cut him off because his time had expired. Senators applauded.
His office provided the tail end of the statement. The last paragraph began, “My fellow senators we still have Winnipeg.”