Andrew Ference Just Reminded Hockey Fans That Hockey Players Don't Need Reminders On How To Play Hockey

CBC- "Sometimes I get the puck right in front of the other team's net. Their goalie falls down, I'm all alone and the net is wide open, and I think, 'What do I do now?'"- Andrew Ference


​The most unfortunate aspect of this video is that every true hockey fan can see the sarcasm in it. It's funny because we can all relate, but it's depressing that we all have to. Sometimes I feel like the fans in attendance that scream "shoot! shoot!" whenever a player on their team has the puck within 50 feet of the opposing net are spreading some sort of epidemic. Like they are exhaling stupidity on the row in front of them every time they try to yell a command at a player hundreds of feet away from them. It's gotten to the point where it seems like an overwhelming majority of those in attendance have been infected. Infected by the idiocy of the uninformed. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all my fellow hockey fans. There are far too few of us -especially in the United States- to be blackballing one another for the manner in which we root for our teams. That still doesn't excuse behavior that is nothing more than uneducated and nothing less than ignorant. 

I'm not saying it doesn't make sense. Out of the four major sports the one that the least amount of fans have played is hockey. That's not as much of an indictment on the sport as it is a simple fact. Everyone grows up knowing how to shoot a basketball, or throw a football, or kick a soccer ball, but all you have to do is a watch a round of intermission entertainment to realize that properly shooting a hockey puck is an acquired skill that a large majority of the people in the building don't have. It's not to say that other sports aren't as complex, but everyone knows the basic concept of a pick-and-roll or a slant pattern, whereas the intricacies of cycling the puck are far more foreign to the casual fan. I suppose that leads certain people to believe that putting a puck on net through traffic is more effortless than it actually is, but it shouldn't be to the extent that half the building is pleading for it in unison. It's probably the most egregious act of negligence that takes place at professional sporting events, and if you don't believe me then just ask the guy that made a satirical viral video solely at the expense of a portion of people that pay his salary.
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P.S. I was at a game one time and the group sitting around me was particularly adamant about shooting the puck so my friends and I just started responding to their cries by yelling "pass it around a lot!". Poor bastards probably still haven't figured out they were being made sport of.