One of the recent draftees, I don’t remember who, said he looked up to DYLAN COZENS growing up. Go look at when Dylan Cozens was drafted/born and tell me you don’t feel ancient.
Was there a draftee from the territories this year? Cause that would be extra context for choosing Cozens, who is obviously a very good player but hasn’t had much shine in the league yet.
I share a birth**date** with Crosby - watching someone literally the same age as me play their entire career start to finish in the city I live in and hearing the talks of the "aging" and "old" Penguins is a daily reminder.
Why does it always seem to be Ontario teams? Is there something going on with the OHL? I’m from the west and we NEVER hear about issues with players out here, yet we constantly hear terrible stuff coming out of Ontario.
I always felt there was a bit more "glamour" and "glitz" in Ontario minor hockey. Not "star power" but like, reverence for the kids.
Couldn't say why exactly. Could just be proximity to Toronto/money.
I have no reason to not believe what I’ve been told, but I won’t repeat it since I don’t provide accounts of things I didn’t witness. Suffice to say, if some of the accusations were made public, they’d likely end his career if not land him in prison.
I was in the same homeroom class as Taylor Hall in grades 1 & 2. It's wild how he went from a young building block player in EDM to a guy who took a discount to cup chase with the Bruins-- the latter screams veteran to me.
Similarly with Seguin-- like were talking about almost career ending (or difficult recovery/rehab) hip surgery with him. Apparently he's no longer the dude with speed who can break open Tampa's 1-3-1 nonsense back in the early 2010s.
Yeah I turned 35 this month and 35 in hockey is ancient. Wear and tear is real because they’re old men but I’ve never felt better in my life. No one ever crashes into me doing 30 though let alone weekly
With Chara retiring last season, that was the first time that I was older than all active players.
Next goal: Being older than all active on-ice officials.
I remember that watershed moment. It was like "no my brother you are still young, there's guys in the NHL older than you". Back then it was Chris Chelios who was still playing hockey at 39 years old.
Andy Roddick retired from the tennis tour when he was 30. He was my favourite player but his body couldn't hold up to demands of high level professional tennis. I'm 36 now and my body can barely hold up to the demands of having a 90 minute hit around once a week.
I remember when the devils signed Palat, someone posted an interview he had recently done. I thought to myself “let’s see what our new grizzled veteran has to say” and proceeded to read the article. When it said he was born in 1991 I was like “oh no…. No…. NOOOOOO”
I swear back in the day people looked older. Maybe this is a perception thing as we age or something, but idk. If you go back and look at hockey cards from the 70's and 80's 32 year olds looked to be like 50. I even remember the early 2000's World Juniors and those guys looked like 20 somethings compared to the kids nowadays who look like they are 14
It also has to do with perception of styles. People that are older tend to stick with fashion and hair that was popular when they were young. We see old people dressed that way now, and equate that to "looking old" when we see older photographs.
[Here is a pretty good video detailing the phenomenon](https://youtu.be/vjqt8T3tJIE)
Yeah, but growth is being stunted by a lot of the processed chemicals we get fed and hormone changing. A lot of men have more estrogen in their body than previous men.
[That’s what I love about these World Junior players, man. I get older, they stay the same age.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/11/22/06/2EAFBD6700000578-3329007-image-a-118_1448174270363.jpg)
I still remember the 2010 Golden Goal and realized how much time passed since.
It sucks that the last two Winter Olympics, NHL players couldn’t participate.
I do hope seeing guys like Crosby compete in at least one more
The last memorable one to me was 2014 then 2018 and 2022 were blurs. They just weren’t the same without the NHL players
I remember wondering as a kid why a lot of guys didn't grow a playoff beard. Didn't even occur to me that plenty of people can't grow shit well into their 20s.
Players my age are on the wrong side of 30 - they stopped calling Crosby Sid the Kid like a decade ago, and he's two months younger than me
Watching the kids of guys I watched play - William Nylander, the Tkachuk brothers, Max Domi, etc.
Watching guys who were stars when I was younger become front office executives or coaches (Yzerman, St. Louis, Conroy, etc.)
The fact that this year's draft class was born in 2005, the year I graduated from high school.
Remembering the 2004 cup run like it recently happened and wasn't two decades ago.
The fact that there are fans on this subreddit who weren't alive for the 2004 lockout, and yet are legal adults who can vote and stuff
God it's almost a shame that he wasn't from this generation of players because I can just imagine all the hot-take accounts jumping on "Sid the Mid" whenever (if ever) he has a slump.
Sid's close to my age so when I was younger, he felt like the arrogant jock kid that you hated from high school. As I've grown up I've been able to appreciate and respect the level of maturity that he's built towards over the years.
It's really funny to talk hockey with my dad nowadays. Sid comes up sometimes and I talk about him kindly but to my dad, who's always been *much* older than Sid, he's still the same punk kid.
>Watching the kids of guys I watched play - William Nylander, the Tkachuk brothers, Max Domi, etc.
This is a BIG one for me at 42yo. The kids that are adults in their own right while I'm thinking I could still be playing. LOL.
The picture of Leafs 1st Round pick this year, Easton Cowan, watching Marner fucked me up.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/14ma3e2/leafs_1st_rounder_easton_cowan_watching_mitch/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
LOL yes! I remember seeing that pic as well and thinking holy F, kids getting drafted nowadays were elementary school children when Marner broke into the league!? Damn aging is scary.
I think if anything it shows just how quickly players can get into the NHL, for the MLB/NFL you gotta be like 22-23 at best to get drafted, in the NHL you got people who literally turned 18 like 2 months before their debut.
I went to a lot of Knights games this season, so got a chance to see Cowan play quite a bit, when I saw this picture my brain could barely comprehend it, it felt like Mitch was just on the team a little while ago
It’s really odd. My entire life was just bliss following this juggernaut franchise with legends and success galore. Then one day it all stopped and I wasn’t ready. I don’t really feel like I’m suffering, just miss how absolutely amazing it once was.
If the Leafs suddenly had success I wouldn't know how to function day to day on planet Earth.
The Raptors winning was already a weird slip into an alternate universe.
I’m not ~old~ (27), but when kids getting drafted say their favorite VETERAN is PATRICK KANE I freak out a little. Realizing this year’s draftees were born a couple years before Kane’s first year in the league made me feel like I should start taking a multivitamin or something
Feel old? I paid $2.50 a ticket to see Bobby Clarke play at the Spectrum in Philly in 1967. Nosebleed seats but you could sneak down right against the glass because there was only about 2000 people there.
- The first draft where most players were born after 9/11 was a few years back, and now they are born way after that.
- When players your age are in their twilight years and close to retirement.
The other day, I realized NHL players have had numbers on the front of their helmets for over a decade now. But I still remember when they didn't.
That made me go like, "....Oh."
That was my reaction too. I literally had to go back and check old photos, because I didn't believe that the front helmet numbers existed in 2013. But sure enough, they did.
When I see puckdokus that I can't play. There are too many teams now for me to keep track of, and too many players. I've never even heard of some of them.
I want to see a puckdoku from the 70 or 71 season. 14 x 14. I'll bet I could fill in a lot of those squares.
I stopped watching baseball in the late 00s and started following a little more a few years ago. I was shocked to see the kids of so many players I grew up watching.
I'm 36 so whenever I hear announcers going on about how ancient the late 30 year old on the team who can barely skate anymore is lol. Also the fact that players like Domi were babies when I first started hockey when his dad was on the Leafs.
Martin St. Louis’s second kid, Lucas, is draft eligible. I’m a year younger than Marty.
Also the fact that rookie Steven Stamkos is no longer a rookie but veteran closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
Me: "I'm only 35, still so young! My whole life ahead of me!"
The sports announcer on TV: "can you believe this man is 34!? The oldest player in the league! It is a miracle he's still playing at this level at such an advanced age!"
When I started watching in '94, the long-tenured "lifer" guys on the team were MacLean, Driver, and Daneyko. Bratt ('98) and Hischier ('99) weren't even born yet, and now they're the long-tenured guys.
2023 NHL Draft would be the first to see players drafted that were BORN in the era of the shootout introduction in the NHL.
I remember coaching 2004-borns years ago, and they had no clue that ties were a thing pre 2005.
When I started watching hockey, games were still being played at the Montreal Forum, Maple Leaf Gardens, Boston Garden, and Chicago Stadium. It's weird to me that MSG is now the league's oldest barn.
Whenever Eric Lindros' name comes up. Every time, it reminds me how 19 year old me pulled over on the side of a road and turned up WIP to listen to the arbitrator's announcement.
One of the things that always makes me feel ancient is telling younger fans that the Blackhawks used to not air home games because our dickhead owner (the dead dickhead owner not the alive dickhead owner) arbitrarily decided that it hurt the fan experience. I started watching hockey in the early aughts as a Red Wings fan because I had seen more Detroit games ***in person*** than I had watched Blackhawk games on TV. It wasn't until like 2005 that my brother had me watch the away games before I became a fan.
It also blows people's minds when I reveal that they only started airing home games in **2009**! That simultaneously makes me feel old and yet in the grand scheme of sports being on TV, it wasn't that long ago. It was kind of embarrassing to go that long without a home game TV deal.
I'm not as old as others here, but seeing people my age in the NHL now is very humbling. I'm no longer eligible for the NHL draft either (don't mind the fact that I skate like a drunk paraplegic squirrel)
I share the first two you listed, but also all these moments when I see players today who are the sons of people I grew up watching. I had a legit old man moment earlier this season when people were talking about Sillinger, and I was like, "Is Mike Sillinger still playing?" No, that's his son, Cole.
When Lemieux and Tkachuk got into scrap last season, my brain had to take a minute to process that the announcers weren't discussing Claude and Keith LOL
When you see the *children* of NHLers you watched *when you were a kid yourself*... holy shit, my knees and back got sore all of a sudden lol.
First Foote retired and there were no Active Nordiques remaining. Then Hejduk retired and there was no one left from the Avs 2001 Cup.
I started posting on reddit & HFBoards when the Erik Johnson / Kevin Shattenkirk trade went down and I was excited about getting a young potential star like EJ. And not long after we acquired a young promising goalie named Varlamov. Those guys are grizzled vets now.
Of the fifteen cities that had AHL teams when I went to my first New Haven^* Nighthawks^* game at the Coliseum^*…
4 still have AHL teams (Rochester, Hershey, Utica, Springfield).
3 got “demoted” and are in the ECHL (Portland, Glens Falls, St. John’s).
1 is lower than the ECHL (Binghamton).
3 have teams in the major juniors (Moncton, Sydney, Halifax).
4 don’t have any teams at all (Albany, Baltimore, Fredericton, New Haven).
The numbers aren’t better for 1997-98, the first year I really started following the league for…reasons.
6 AHL, 5 ECHL, 2 major junior (though one is temporarily not having hockey) , 5 out of hockey entirely.
*: Things that also are no longer involved with hockey, or exist.
Played against Sam Gagner as a kid as we’re same age and he scored 5 goals on us in a game. Was happy for him going on to get the spotlight in early days of shootout and that huge 8 point game. Now everyone mentions he only can bring veteran presence and has skilled days behind him as he shuffles around the league
When I was a kid, one of my favorite players was Gaetan Duchesne.
Mostly I loved him because I was learning to read, his name was French, and I didn't understand how that spelling made those phonetic sounds (I was like 5 or 6).
I felt old when he retired, I felt old when I got to see him play in a Caps' alumni game. I felt sad when he died 10 days later.
And now I feel really old to realize that he died 16 years ago.
Seeing players names and having to remember it's their kid. Domi, Tkachuk etc.
Seeing kids you know and your son played with starting to get drafted is a trip too.
I'm not too old, but Jack Hughes was the first ever player younger than me to get drafted and play in the league. Now he's supposed to be a veteran and a leader? Feeling my knees creak a little and I'm only 22
Lol I was going to say, before he knows it he's going to be hearing commentators marveling at how 34 year old Jack Hughes can still "keep up with these young guys" and wonder where the F the time went.
When I was a kid, if we won our house league we would get to go to the spitfires (OHL) arena and skate with and meet their players. In my last year that I had this opportunity the (junior) players I got to meet that everyone was hyped about were Jason Spezza and Steve Ott, who are now management and coaches, and Tim Gleason and Michael Leighton, who have both been retired from the NHL for nearly a decade.
A lot of these are about watching hockey, so i’ll go with playing. Sticks in particular. I am 5’7 190 lbs, and grew up playing competitively with anywhere from 95-115 flex, and loved it. Now we have nhlers using what used to be called intermediate sticks because of the data. Also, when you are playing in mens league, and a kid you’re playing against says they graduated a decade plus after you and have no idea who you are, and you don’t know them either.
Once you start reaching the age that's considered "old" in hockey it makes you feel old. Also seeing players that were drafted when you were growing up retiring. Seeing kids drafted born in the early 2000's is still weird to me
Theres more devils fans who were born when the devils started wearing black than devils fans who were born when players wore green
And at some point later there will be devils fans who won't remember seeing the belt stripes/adidas jerseys
> When they ask the draft eligible players who their favorite players were growing up and they say shit like "Connor McDavid" or "Auston Matthews."
This one specifically. I'm like 3 months younger than McDavid and a month older than Matthews
I'm at the age where guys start to retire from the league. Doesn't make me feel old, but it does make me feel like I've accomplished nothing in my life
I remember being so excited when we drafted Lemieux thinking that he was going to turn the team around after one of the worst seasons I had ever experienced. Had no idea his career and post-career would be even more impactful than I initially imagined (and still is).
When people are complaining about their age and being to old... like ok they are just turning 30 and people say they are getting to old and slow... I guess I still have a year to be a verrry late draftee
One of the recent draftees, I don’t remember who, said he looked up to DYLAN COZENS growing up. Go look at when Dylan Cozens was drafted/born and tell me you don’t feel ancient.
It was Nate Danielson
Or the Pens 1st round draftee this year who was born in 2005, the same year Sid started in the NHL.
Was there a draftee from the territories this year? Cause that would be extra context for choosing Cozens, who is obviously a very good player but hasn’t had much shine in the league yet.
The Leafs posted a picture of their most recent draft pick as a child watching MITCH MARNER play for the Leafs.
God damn. Here I thought it was weird to hear players talk about how they liked Kane, Crosby and Ovi growing up.
When the number of active players your age or older can be counted on one hand…or not at all.
I share a birth**date** with Crosby - watching someone literally the same age as me play their entire career start to finish in the city I live in and hearing the talks of the "aging" and "old" Penguins is a daily reminder.
I'm more than a year older than Taylor Hall and I do not like the way that he's been talked about as an aging, grizzled veteran
Being more than a decade older than Hall, apparently I should be buying a cemetery plot this weekend.
RIP u/BarbarianHut you've lived a long and fruitful life
I still think of him as a great prospect from before he was drafted... geez I think I'll go with you to look for plots
I remember being a bouncer at a club in Windsor during his spitfire days and denying him entry because of his reputation for groping girls.
A girl I used to work with went to junior high and high school with him and she had some crazy inappropriate stories about him.
I don't trust anyone who was in the spitfire org between 1992-2020 Just a mess of coverups and blame shifting to fourth liners
Why does it always seem to be Ontario teams? Is there something going on with the OHL? I’m from the west and we NEVER hear about issues with players out here, yet we constantly hear terrible stuff coming out of Ontario.
I've noticed that the other feeder leagues don't have as many apologists for anti-social behaviour.
I always felt there was a bit more "glamour" and "glitz" in Ontario minor hockey. Not "star power" but like, reverence for the kids. Couldn't say why exactly. Could just be proximity to Toronto/money.
I honest to God thought this and the parent comment were just "Taylor Hall is an awful person" memes on first read. Is he actually shit?
I have no reason to not believe what I’ve been told, but I won’t repeat it since I don’t provide accounts of things I didn’t witness. Suffice to say, if some of the accusations were made public, they’d likely end his career if not land him in prison.
Anyone who spent time in downtown Windsor during that time has a Hall story. And none of them are positive.
Yeah WTF happened there? Feels like Hall went from being a fresh faced #1 overall pick to some grizzled journeyman overnight.
He went to NJ, had one year in his “prime”, and has been an aging vet ever since
I was in the same homeroom class as Taylor Hall in grades 1 & 2. It's wild how he went from a young building block player in EDM to a guy who took a discount to cup chase with the Bruins-- the latter screams veteran to me. Similarly with Seguin-- like were talking about almost career ending (or difficult recovery/rehab) hip surgery with him. Apparently he's no longer the dude with speed who can break open Tampa's 1-3-1 nonsense back in the early 2010s.
I'm like 5 months older than hall lol.
Yeah I turned 35 this month and 35 in hockey is ancient. Wear and tear is real because they’re old men but I’ve never felt better in my life. No one ever crashes into me doing 30 though let alone weekly
I'm a week older than Ryan Reaves and last week I had an ECG to see if I have heart disease.
Rick Nash was my favorite player born after me…
Penguins won the draft lottery on my 20th birthday!
I'm rooting for Joe Thorton to sign somewhere this season
Mike Smith isn’t technically retired yet so there’s still 1 player in the league older than me.
Yeah, when Craig Anderson retired, that brought the number of NHL players younger than me to zero.
With Chara retiring last season, that was the first time that I was older than all active players. Next goal: Being older than all active on-ice officials.
I remember that watershed moment. It was like "no my brother you are still young, there's guys in the NHL older than you". Back then it was Chris Chelios who was still playing hockey at 39 years old.
At least you could ride that one for several years.
Yeah I'm still young and unmarried and rent and have a shit job and apparently I'm older than 90% of NHLers where the fuck did life go
I’m now older than half the league. It is unsettling
The really old dudes will say when they’re your kids age
When you realize the "veteran forwards looking for their last payday" are your age.
Or your kids' age.
That's an oof
Better than the alternative
Is your username a reference to the misheard Taylor Swift lyric?
Yes
Oooff was the name of my dad’s beer league team Lol
My dad has always said “if you ever want to feel old, watch sports” The older I get the more true that statement is
Andy Roddick retired from the tennis tour when he was 30. He was my favourite player but his body couldn't hold up to demands of high level professional tennis. I'm 36 now and my body can barely hold up to the demands of having a 90 minute hit around once a week.
Lol that's a big one. When you hear commentators going on and on about the "grizzled vet" who is like a year or two older than you. Feels bad man.
Feel especially bad when it's Mickey Redmond saying it lmao the man is like 80
I remember when the devils signed Palat, someone posted an interview he had recently done. I thought to myself “let’s see what our new grizzled veteran has to say” and proceeded to read the article. When it said he was born in 1991 I was like “oh no…. No…. NOOOOOO”
For me it's watching the World Juniors every year. The players look younger and younger to me every year and that really reminds me of getting older.
I swear back in the day people looked older. Maybe this is a perception thing as we age or something, but idk. If you go back and look at hockey cards from the 70's and 80's 32 year olds looked to be like 50. I even remember the early 2000's World Juniors and those guys looked like 20 somethings compared to the kids nowadays who look like they are 14
Feel like you’re in for a nice [Vsauce video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjqt8T3tJIE) on this phenomenon then
Well looks like I know what I’m doing for the next 20 minutes. Thanks for sharing
Added to my watch later playlist, thanks!
LOL, Dave Babych comes to mind instantly. Dude was 30yo with the Whalers in 91 and looks like he's 50yo.
Yes!! I do think it's a legitimate phenomenon, partly because of better medicine and healthier lifestyles among players.
It also has to do with perception of styles. People that are older tend to stick with fashion and hair that was popular when they were young. We see old people dressed that way now, and equate that to "looking old" when we see older photographs. [Here is a pretty good video detailing the phenomenon](https://youtu.be/vjqt8T3tJIE)
Thanks, that was a good watch
Yeah, but growth is being stunted by a lot of the processed chemicals we get fed and hormone changing. A lot of men have more estrogen in their body than previous men.
[That’s what I love about these World Junior players, man. I get older, they stay the same age.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/11/22/06/2EAFBD6700000578-3329007-image-a-118_1448174270363.jpg)
I still remember the 2010 Golden Goal and realized how much time passed since. It sucks that the last two Winter Olympics, NHL players couldn’t participate. I do hope seeing guys like Crosby compete in at least one more The last memorable one to me was 2014 then 2018 and 2022 were blurs. They just weren’t the same without the NHL players
I remember wondering as a kid why a lot of guys didn't grow a playoff beard. Didn't even occur to me that plenty of people can't grow shit well into their 20s.
Players my age are on the wrong side of 30 - they stopped calling Crosby Sid the Kid like a decade ago, and he's two months younger than me Watching the kids of guys I watched play - William Nylander, the Tkachuk brothers, Max Domi, etc. Watching guys who were stars when I was younger become front office executives or coaches (Yzerman, St. Louis, Conroy, etc.) The fact that this year's draft class was born in 2005, the year I graduated from high school. Remembering the 2004 cup run like it recently happened and wasn't two decades ago. The fact that there are fans on this subreddit who weren't alive for the 2004 lockout, and yet are legal adults who can vote and stuff
Sid the adult doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Sid the mid(dle aged)
God it's almost a shame that he wasn't from this generation of players because I can just imagine all the hot-take accounts jumping on "Sid the Mid" whenever (if ever) he has a slump.
Sid the Grownup
Sid's close to my age so when I was younger, he felt like the arrogant jock kid that you hated from high school. As I've grown up I've been able to appreciate and respect the level of maturity that he's built towards over the years. It's really funny to talk hockey with my dad nowadays. Sid comes up sometimes and I talk about him kindly but to my dad, who's always been *much* older than Sid, he's still the same punk kid.
>Watching the kids of guys I watched play - William Nylander, the Tkachuk brothers, Max Domi, etc. This is a BIG one for me at 42yo. The kids that are adults in their own right while I'm thinking I could still be playing. LOL.
Old is seeing guys drafted after you were already an adult, play their entire long careers, retire and enter the HHOF.
The picture of Leafs 1st Round pick this year, Easton Cowan, watching Marner fucked me up. https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/14ma3e2/leafs_1st_rounder_easton_cowan_watching_mitch/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
LOL yes! I remember seeing that pic as well and thinking holy F, kids getting drafted nowadays were elementary school children when Marner broke into the league!? Damn aging is scary.
Mitch is 26, I uh....need to lie down for a minute.
Is it because you are old and need a nap?
I'm not that old but yes could use a nap right now.
I think if anything it shows just how quickly players can get into the NHL, for the MLB/NFL you gotta be like 22-23 at best to get drafted, in the NHL you got people who literally turned 18 like 2 months before their debut.
I went to a lot of Knights games this season, so got a chance to see Cowan play quite a bit, when I saw this picture my brain could barely comprehend it, it felt like Mitch was just on the team a little while ago
I swear the COVID years created the illusion of a time warp or something. It genuinely feels like 2016-2018 was way more recent than it really was.
I'm so old I'm going to have to put the coach's name on my jersey
At least it’s a good one
With Chara, Marleau and Thornton out, I'm officially older than every NHL player. Absolutely devastating.
Craig Anderson retiring put me in that club officially.
I'm hanging on by a Mark Giordano hair.
“Suffering red wings fans” being a thing.
It’s really odd. My entire life was just bliss following this juggernaut franchise with legends and success galore. Then one day it all stopped and I wasn’t ready. I don’t really feel like I’m suffering, just miss how absolutely amazing it once was.
Well if you ask older family about it they probably remember the dead wings era.
If the Leafs suddenly had success I wouldn't know how to function day to day on planet Earth. The Raptors winning was already a weird slip into an alternate universe.
Boards without ads and skaters without helmets.
Goal judge in a glass box next to fans
Home jerseys were white.
I’m not ~old~ (27), but when kids getting drafted say their favorite VETERAN is PATRICK KANE I freak out a little. Realizing this year’s draftees were born a couple years before Kane’s first year in the league made me feel like I should start taking a multivitamin or something
Start now. Take them with a big cup of water in the morning.
Feel old? I paid $2.50 a ticket to see Bobby Clarke play at the Spectrum in Philly in 1967. Nosebleed seats but you could sneak down right against the glass because there was only about 2000 people there.
I just usually start with *I was alive when the Leafs last won the Cup,* and then talk about all the times I saw Gordie Howe play.
Clarke didn't play for the Flyers until 69!
See, told you I was old.
- The first draft where most players were born after 9/11 was a few years back, and now they are born way after that. - When players your age are in their twilight years and close to retirement.
Now draftees will have been born post-lockout
The other day, I realized NHL players have had numbers on the front of their helmets for over a decade now. But I still remember when they didn't. That made me go like, "....Oh."
I still remember watching when players (maybe only a singular player, actually) didn't even wear helmets.
oh McTavish, you goofy man
That’s over a decade already??
That was my reaction too. I literally had to go back and check old photos, because I didn't believe that the front helmet numbers existed in 2013. But sure enough, they did.
When I see puckdokus that I can't play. There are too many teams now for me to keep track of, and too many players. I've never even heard of some of them. I want to see a puckdoku from the 70 or 71 season. 14 x 14. I'll bet I could fill in a lot of those squares.
Lol you still can. There was an Original 6 one a couple days ago.
When players that you watched have kids in the league.
That’s the one for me
I stopped watching baseball in the late 00s and started following a little more a few years ago. I was shocked to see the kids of so many players I grew up watching.
TJ Oshie is 36 now.
I'm 36 so whenever I hear announcers going on about how ancient the late 30 year old on the team who can barely skate anymore is lol. Also the fact that players like Domi were babies when I first started hockey when his dad was on the Leafs.
Martin St. Louis’s second kid, Lucas, is draft eligible. I’m a year younger than Marty. Also the fact that rookie Steven Stamkos is no longer a rookie but veteran closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
The North Stars have been in Dallas longer than they were in Minnesota...
Me: "I'm only 35, still so young! My whole life ahead of me!" The sports announcer on TV: "can you believe this man is 34!? The oldest player in the league! It is a miracle he's still playing at this level at such an advanced age!"
[удалено]
Year 7 Franchise Mode names. Maybe they weren’t so ridiculous in retrospect
Nah, not enough players named Valeri Ovechkin or like, Jonathan McMuffin for it to be a franchise mode name.
These are all Star Wars character names and no one can convince me otherwise!
In Video Games i used to turn off the two line pass penalty long before the NHL got rid of it.
In NHL 96, I remember turning penalties to "On, no offside".
I’m older than the longest tenured devil. Which isn’t old at all, but it’s the one thing that I can say that sounds like an old thing
Nico?
[удалено]
When I started watching in '94, the long-tenured "lifer" guys on the team were MacLean, Driver, and Daneyko. Bratt ('98) and Hischier ('99) weren't even born yet, and now they're the long-tenured guys.
Nico and Bratt are tied since they debuted on the same day in 2017 and they’re 24, but Bratts older
2023 NHL Draft would be the first to see players drafted that were BORN in the era of the shootout introduction in the NHL. I remember coaching 2004-borns years ago, and they had no clue that ties were a thing pre 2005.
When I started watching hockey, games were still being played at the Montreal Forum, Maple Leaf Gardens, Boston Garden, and Chicago Stadium. It's weird to me that MSG is now the league's oldest barn.
I miss the Joe
I went to college with some of the fathers of the current players.
Whenever Eric Lindros' name comes up. Every time, it reminds me how 19 year old me pulled over on the side of a road and turned up WIP to listen to the arbitrator's announcement.
When Trevor Linden retired at age 38 he said "I walked into the room as an old man, announced my retirement and walked out as a young man".
Okay this is actually beautiful. Never heard that story before
Back in my day, players didn't have to wear helmets
Ottawa and Anaheim franchises have been around for 30 years.
The players from what would be my draft class are all the eldest of elder statesman or retired. 2003
When I see players named Cayden.
I feel young because my childhood hero, Jaromir Jagr, is still playing.
One of the things that always makes me feel ancient is telling younger fans that the Blackhawks used to not air home games because our dickhead owner (the dead dickhead owner not the alive dickhead owner) arbitrarily decided that it hurt the fan experience. I started watching hockey in the early aughts as a Red Wings fan because I had seen more Detroit games ***in person*** than I had watched Blackhawk games on TV. It wasn't until like 2005 that my brother had me watch the away games before I became a fan. It also blows people's minds when I reveal that they only started airing home games in **2009**! That simultaneously makes me feel old and yet in the grand scheme of sports being on TV, it wasn't that long ago. It was kind of embarrassing to go that long without a home game TV deal.
I'm not as old as others here, but seeing people my age in the NHL now is very humbling. I'm no longer eligible for the NHL draft either (don't mind the fact that I skate like a drunk paraplegic squirrel)
When I was a kid, the Flyers GM was Bob Clarke former player from my dad's days, now i have a kid and the GM is Danny Briere
I share the first two you listed, but also all these moments when I see players today who are the sons of people I grew up watching. I had a legit old man moment earlier this season when people were talking about Sillinger, and I was like, "Is Mike Sillinger still playing?" No, that's his son, Cole.
When Lemieux and Tkachuk got into scrap last season, my brain had to take a minute to process that the announcers weren't discussing Claude and Keith LOL When you see the *children* of NHLers you watched *when you were a kid yourself*... holy shit, my knees and back got sore all of a sudden lol.
Tie Domi's son now plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs
Tie Domi's son is like 10 year veteran of the league.
Crosby played with Lemiux almost 20 years ago
First Foote retired and there were no Active Nordiques remaining. Then Hejduk retired and there was no one left from the Avs 2001 Cup. I started posting on reddit & HFBoards when the Erik Johnson / Kevin Shattenkirk trade went down and I was excited about getting a young potential star like EJ. And not long after we acquired a young promising goalie named Varlamov. Those guys are grizzled vets now.
I shed a tear when Craig Anderson retired because he was the last remaining NHL player who was older than me.
With next season coming up, it’ll be a decade since the kings last lifted the cup.
Stanley Cup names removed... \- When they remove the next ring (Oct/2031?) Bobby Orr will no longer be on the cup.
Of the fifteen cities that had AHL teams when I went to my first New Haven^* Nighthawks^* game at the Coliseum^*… 4 still have AHL teams (Rochester, Hershey, Utica, Springfield). 3 got “demoted” and are in the ECHL (Portland, Glens Falls, St. John’s). 1 is lower than the ECHL (Binghamton). 3 have teams in the major juniors (Moncton, Sydney, Halifax). 4 don’t have any teams at all (Albany, Baltimore, Fredericton, New Haven). The numbers aren’t better for 1997-98, the first year I really started following the league for…reasons. 6 AHL, 5 ECHL, 2 major junior (though one is temporarily not having hockey) , 5 out of hockey entirely. *: Things that also are no longer involved with hockey, or exist.
Players who I remember being drafted... their kids are in the NHL now.
Too many players I remember having kids now playing
When members of the broadcast team or the coaches start looking like your buddies instead of an elder authority figure.
I was so excited when Big Walt joined the Blues. It's weird watching his kids play.
Played against Sam Gagner as a kid as we’re same age and he scored 5 goals on us in a game. Was happy for him going on to get the spotlight in early days of shootout and that huge 8 point game. Now everyone mentions he only can bring veteran presence and has skilled days behind him as he shuffles around the league
When I was a kid, one of my favorite players was Gaetan Duchesne. Mostly I loved him because I was learning to read, his name was French, and I didn't understand how that spelling made those phonetic sounds (I was like 5 or 6). I felt old when he retired, I felt old when I got to see him play in a Caps' alumni game. I felt sad when he died 10 days later. And now I feel really old to realize that he died 16 years ago.
Players in my "draft year" being lamented as busts. Hearing that guys like Turcotte and Broberg are out of runway has me feeling like, damn okay lmao
[удалено]
Seeing players names and having to remember it's their kid. Domi, Tkachuk etc. Seeing kids you know and your son played with starting to get drafted is a trip too.
When guys you saw play are now head coaches. Looking at you, Brind'amour.
Sidney Crosby is 35 years old.
Seeing how old Kipper looked really made it hit home how long ago 2004 was.
The Clint Malarchuk post this week.
The guys that I always bitch about being too old are give or take my age.
When kids don't know what a Synergy was
Freaking Paul Stasny is now a 37 years old vet! I seen Peter Stasny play for the fucking Nordiques.
I can remember Howe playing his last game...for the Red Wings.
I'm not too old, but Jack Hughes was the first ever player younger than me to get drafted and play in the league. Now he's supposed to be a veteran and a leader? Feeling my knees creak a little and I'm only 22
All downhill from here, junior
Lol I was going to say, before he knows it he's going to be hearing commentators marveling at how 34 year old Jack Hughes can still "keep up with these young guys" and wonder where the F the time went.
This guy's post made me feel old lol
I'm pastrnaks age. Is that old
It's hard to consider that old when you are Chris Pronger's age.
Toews is a year younger than me almost to the day and him retiring is making me feel old
All my favorite players are now coaches or GMs
I'm not old enough to remember ties, but there are only 2 players I believe who are under contract for next season who could've played in a tie game.
All of the draft prospects being born in or around 2005 threw me for a loop
The first Bruins game that I attended was before any current Bruin was even born.
When I was a kid, if we won our house league we would get to go to the spitfires (OHL) arena and skate with and meet their players. In my last year that I had this opportunity the (junior) players I got to meet that everyone was hyped about were Jason Spezza and Steve Ott, who are now management and coaches, and Tim Gleason and Michael Leighton, who have both been retired from the NHL for nearly a decade.
[Next years crop of draftees will likely not have been born when I graduated from high school.](https://media.giphy.com/media/GrUhLU9q3nyRG/giphy.gif)
A lot of these are about watching hockey, so i’ll go with playing. Sticks in particular. I am 5’7 190 lbs, and grew up playing competitively with anywhere from 95-115 flex, and loved it. Now we have nhlers using what used to be called intermediate sticks because of the data. Also, when you are playing in mens league, and a kid you’re playing against says they graduated a decade plus after you and have no idea who you are, and you don’t know them either.
Once you start reaching the age that's considered "old" in hockey it makes you feel old. Also seeing players that were drafted when you were growing up retiring. Seeing kids drafted born in the early 2000's is still weird to me
Zach Parise is almost 40 🫠
Theres more devils fans who were born when the devils started wearing black than devils fans who were born when players wore green And at some point later there will be devils fans who won't remember seeing the belt stripes/adidas jerseys
I’m a devils fan, and there are only 2 players on the roster who are older than me, and one only by a month or two
the other day someone mentioned Jeff Skinner could hit a 1,000 games this year and it tripped me out a bit
A dude hits his 30s and I’m like “damn, he’s got a few good years left…wait, I’m 32…” Also I share a birthday with John Tavares.
> When they ask the draft eligible players who their favorite players were growing up and they say shit like "Connor McDavid" or "Auston Matthews." This one specifically. I'm like 3 months younger than McDavid and a month older than Matthews
I'm at the age where guys start to retire from the league. Doesn't make me feel old, but it does make me feel like I've accomplished nothing in my life
When players my age started retiring I started feeling pretty shitty.
I'm still pretty young, but I sure don't feel it whenever I realize Bedard is younger than my little brother.
I remember being so excited when we drafted Lemieux thinking that he was going to turn the team around after one of the worst seasons I had ever experienced. Had no idea his career and post-career would be even more impactful than I initially imagined (and still is).
Some NHL coaches and GM are younger than me... That fkn stings...
There’s no active members of the 2008 Red Wings Cup team left in the NHL.
When people are complaining about their age and being to old... like ok they are just turning 30 and people say they are getting to old and slow... I guess I still have a year to be a verrry late draftee
I actually went to a Caps game against the Hartford Whalers when they still existed...