BS: Hockey Question

Subject: BS: Hockey Question
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 10:06 AM

What the heck is the "turnbuckle" mentioned by hockey commentators? I KNOW what a turnbuckle is as a piece of hardware, and how they are used. But what's a turnbuckle in hockey? Is it a part of the rink? A euphemism for a piece of male anatomy? Something else?

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: bobad
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 10:39 AM

I always thought it referred to some kind of hardware involved in attaching the glass sheets either to the boards or to the other sheets, but I could be wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: Becca72
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 10:53 AM

Bobad, I was thinking the same thing...

I know in "pro wrestling" it's the padded bit that covers the hardware at the corners of the ring...

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: jeffp
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 10:59 AM

Actually, it's the hardware that is covered by the pads. The turnbuckle is used to tension the ropes.

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 11:42 AM

hardware involved in attaching the glass sheets

We wondered that too, since one rink we've been to has a cable running across the top of the glass sheets to tension the top perimeter, but we're also wondering how hardware could be left exposed in such a way players hitting it could be hurt. Because if the turnbuckle tensions cable, wouldn't the tight cable form a blade that could slice a player hitting it at speed?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: bobad
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 11:54 AM

I think the way they attach the glass these days, at least in the NHL arenas, has changed significantly in recent times. There is a lot more give to both boards and glass than there used to be and the glass is seamless as well. These changes were effected to reduce the injuries caused by the rigidity of the boards and glass and most, if not all the rinks these days have up-dated.

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: Becca72
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 12:06 PM

I don't think it's the exposure of the hardware so much as the tension of the boards and glass that is the problem...all of the hardware I've seen is flush with the glass. the cable at the top is most likely there to prevent the upper portion of the glass from wobbling too much...

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 09:18 AM

I'm wondering if the metal uprights that hold the glass, between the glass sheets (it's plexi, isn't it???), are held onto the boards via a turnbuckle-- I'm picturing a cable running from the boards-top to the top of the metal upright, with the turnbuckle to tighten to the correct tolerance for specs/glass stability. That whole assembly might be referred to as the turnbuckle, and it might be that the checks referred to are the ones where the glass ends at the player bench. If that is the case, there would be no exposed hardware-- it would be in the metal sleeve-- but the tensioned metal sleeve would be not-so-fun to be run into/wrapped around.

Our pop-up camper has a turnbuckle at each corner as part of the latching system for the pop-top, so it's easy to picture the above-- but is it correct?

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: bobad
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 10:49 AM

What is the context in which you heard the word used?

When I first read it I thought it sounded familiar in the context of a hockey arena, but on further thought I'm not too sure.

The word I hear used most often when players get checked into the glass is stanchion.

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 11:54 AM

Context:

"Oh boy, he checked him right [at] the turnbuckle! THAT hurts!"

I "could" email a hockey commentator-- but surely you can see my problem-- if it IS a euphemism for male anatomy, how's a guy gonna feel having a girl ask him about it???

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: The Walrus
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 04:26 AM

"...I "could" email a hockey commentator-- but surely you can see my problem-- if it IS a euphemism for male anatomy, how's a guy gonna feel having a girl ask him about it???..."
Susan,
Isn't that his problem rather than yours?
It's the danger of using euphemisms - they may not be understood and must be explained.
I'd say Go for it! ;-)

Walrus

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: 3refs
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 01:57 PM

Turnbuckle=Where the glass ends at the players benches. Usually padded but it hurts like hell!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 02:15 PM

But why are they using a hardware term for a stanchion? Is there a turnbuckle inside the stanchion?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 08:30 PM

Here's a summary of the numerous answers I got at a hockey board:

The turnbuckle is where the glass starts (or ends--whichever) at the ends of the benches.

There are usually open supports (called stanchions) at the end of each [players'] bench, and also sometimes around penalty boxes. At the upper levels [of pro hockey] the penalty boxes are closed in but at most youth rinks there is no glass covering the boxes so it creates another area where the stanchion is exposed.

These are very dangerous areas to take a hit because you are hitting a SOLID stationary thing and most of the time you can't get your hands up to protect yourself, resulting in your head or upper body taking the entire blow.

At most arenas now they have put up some sort of padding to cover up the exposed metal. Does this padding really help? In most cases not enough. I guess it is better then hitting the metal but it doesn't soften the blow enough.

Yeah and where the glass starts (or ends) there is this foam or some kind of padding along the edge of the glass so if a player goes into that, there is somewhat of a cushion and not hitting the edge of the glass...

You know, like in wrestling where they bounce their opponents head off the turnbuckles, the thing in the corners where the ropes connect... the corner of a wrestling ring; pads cover the harness [turnbuckle] that hold [each] rope to the post.

Mike ["Doc"] Emrick uses [the term turnbuckle] metaphorically, saying "he sent him flying into the turnbuckle!" after a big hit, just like a wrestling announcer would.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: bobad
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 08:32 PM

Well that clarifies it.

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: 3refs
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 07:23 AM

Hurt can't be over emphazised with regards to getting smoked into either the begginig or end of the glass!

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 08:26 AM

Yeah, one man's metaphor is another man's agony.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 10:46 AM

I just misread this as 'Hockney Question' and had looked up Swimming Pool Blue before I realised!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 10:28 PM

We don't have high def, so it took a lot of peering at the screen to catch it, but there is a colorful pad on the stanchion at the end of the bench-- and I just happened to catch some wrestling footage and saw that the padding in the corners in the ring, that covers the turnbuckles used to tension the ropes, is a tall, vertical wedge of foam. The stanchion padding looks a lot like that foam column in the ring, so that metaphor makes perfect sense now.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: Rowan
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 01:41 AM

At last I've figured it out!
You're all talking about "ice hockey"!
And I thought I was going to learn something about hockey?
Sigh.

Susan's "We don't have high def, so it took a lot of peering at the screen to catch it" reminded me of the time I was in SC and trying to understand how gridiron 'worked' from only seeing it on the telly and without any guidance from locals. I gradually figured it out but there were three things I found confusing. Being used to real rugby (Union as well as League), where a try is scored only when the player actually controls the ball's contact with the dirt, I thought the term "touchdown" was a bit wimpish; I understood the rules but still though it a bit of a copout.

But the real confusion came when the kicker did the conversion. The usual camera position is midway behind the posts and you could see the ball fly through a beautiful arc until it reached the posts and then it woulf drop like a stone. I couldn't understand this; there wouldn't be a sheet of glass but I couldn't see a net. The locals I asked didn't have a clue what I was not understanding.

When I got back to Australia, there was a late night broadcast of US gridiron so I watched. Blow me down! Behind the posts I could see the ball hit a net, which made it drop. I then realised why I couldn't see it on American TV; NSTC (or whatever the US standard is called) uses 525 horizontal lines on a TV screen but the PAL system broadcast in Australia uses 625 horizontal lines on a TV screen. The limited resolution on American TV just couldn't display the net. The tennis ball also often disappears from the American TV I watched too.   Which, I suppose, is why Americans are so keen on HDTV.

But, rude jokes and plumbing terms aside, I still don't know what a tight end is.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:55 AM

Hmm, I have been around hockey for forty years as a player, coach and parent. I have never heard the term associated with hockey.

Subject: RE: BS: Hockey Question
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 08:43 AM

Maybe it's newly come into vogue among commentators. Like LH Shatnerized Mudcat? A term I never heard when glued to the tube last year was "wheelhouse," but this year they're all using it.

But there will be NO Shatner in hockey!

~Susan