Due to its high-speed play, beautiful finesse, brutally physical play, allowance of fighting and overwhelming respect for all on the ice, hockey has bred a unique culture of fans and players who, as fan bases do throughout sports, have created their own novel terms in reference to occurrences in games. It turns out, though, that these slang terms are rather catchy and have been adopted into many other areas of popular culture, from the names of bands, being used in movies, and even being used as terms in other competitive gaming situations, such as poker.
Here, we’re going to be delving into the origins of many of the greatest and most bizarre hockey slang terms and further explore how they’ve been extrapolated into other realms outside of the rink.
Unique hockey slang definitions and origins
Let’s get stuck into some of the greatest hockey slang terms to be in existence right now:
Gordie Howe Hattrick: Gordie Howe, also referred to as Mr Hockey, is a legend of the sport. He racked up the most games ever played by a single player with 1,767, the second most goals of all-time at 801, and the fourth-highest total points tally at 1,850. His name lives on in hockey in the form of a most-respected achievement, the Gordie Howe Hattrick. To be deemed to have achieved the Gordie Howe Hattrick, a play must score a goal, tally an assist, and drop the gloves for a fight. Despite the player’s actions coining the term, Howe only every achieved the eponymous hattrick twice in his career.
Rick Tocchet is the current career leader in Gordie Howe Hattricks, with 18. The legends of the great game of hockey are always admired, with their names and likeness being used in pop culture. While Howe doesn’t have a poker hand named after him like some other stars, his hattrick is known throughout sports as one of the premier single game achievements.
A Turtle: Turtles are the ones who will never achieve a Gordie Howe Hattrick. When a fight gets going, a Turtle will opt to crouch down in the corner or kneel, rather than engage in some fisticuffs with their teammates.
A Pigeon: This is a term that’s often thrown around as a form of smack talk as it infers that a player is not good enough to score goals by themselves. Pigeons are notorious for swooping in and picking up the scraps, and in hockey, a Pigeon is a player who feeds on the tap-in and knock-on goals provided by their much more skilful teammates. This term was made famous by Claude Giroux.
Your Flow, Lettuce or Salad: Who knew that under the hard helmets of hockey stars could be such beautiful hair? The reference of salad, flow or lettuce is to those who boast superb, often-long and flowing hair. Take the San Jose Sharks’ number 65, Erik Karlsson: his luscious locks are model-esque. In fact, part of the legend of Jaromir Jagr that has earned him a place in the history books and poker slang is his glorious, timeless mullet.
To be Kronwalled: Niklas Kronwall was born in Stockholm in 1981 and managed to be taken in the first round of the 2000 NHL Draft. He made his NHL debut in the 2003/04 season and has been laying out monstrous hits ever since. From the year 2007 to 2019, the mighty Swede has clocked in a colossal 1073 body checks. His hits are so powerful that Detroit Red Wings fans coined the term ‘Kronwalled’ which refers to an utterly demolishing hit laid down by a big defenseman which often leaves the opponent stunned on the ice.
Some Sauce: Talking about the sauce or something being saucy in hockey refers to a pass made by a player where the puck glides in the air and then sits down nicely on the ice before the teammate receives it, commonly known as a saucer pass.
A Howitzer: A Howitzer is an incredibly fast slap shot, often fired by a burly defenseman like Shea Weber or Brent Burns, or powerhouse wingers like Alex Ovechkin.
A Gongshow: When a game gets swamped with many fights, lots of goals, and many penalties – all of the good stuff – and just gets completely out-of-hand by all accounts, it is referred to as a Gongshow. Games that are merely high-scoring are often referred to as Barn Burners.
There you have it: a whole batch of hockey slang definitions to help you understand some of the terms thrown around at the rink. But what’s most impressive about the allure of the sport is how other elements of pop culture have either borrowed hockey slang or just used to sport as the basis of new slang.
Pop culture making use of hockey in its slang
A picture of Wayne Gretzky, who is widely considered to be the greatest hockey player of all-time, compiling records that may never come close to being broken.
There are many episodes of series, movie scenes, and even song lyrics which reference the sport of hockey, its common occurrences, and even some of the legends of the game – most commonly Wayne ‘The Great One’ Gretzky. But throughout all of pop culture, it is, in fact, the cultural phenomenon of poker which has grasped onto the most-used hockey slang, making many references to its iconic players.
The most common way in which hockey slang breaks into the world of poker, particularly Texas Hold’em, is through hands being denoted by legendary jersey numbers. The most obvious one is the 9-9 hand, which in poker is referred to as ‘The Gretzky’ – you can go on to land a hattrick if you flop a third nine. The hand 8-8 has an old school reference to the great Eric Lindros, who wore the number 88, but newer poker players often call a winning hand of eights ‘The Great 8’ in reference to Alex Ovechkin.
Away from jersey-number slang, for which Sidney Crosby and Jaromir Jagr are also referenced, there’s the 7-7 hand, which is called Hockey Sticks, due to an upside-down seven looking like the tool of the sport, and the A-7 hand, which is known as the Slap Shot due to the hockey stick being present as the 7 and the A also being called the bullet: put the two together and you have a hockey stick firing a bullet, or a Slap Shot – if the hand wins, it has also been known to be called a Howitzer.
Have the Montreal Canadiens contributed to hockey slang?
The Montreal Canadiens are the oldest team in North American hockey, having been founded in 1909. With a huge Canadian fan base that boasts both English and French speakers, many great terms have been voiced around Centre Bell, which are often translations of English terms into French. However, the greatest term integrated into the hockey community by the Montreal Canadiens may just be their nickname.
The Canadiens are known as the Habs; a nickname thought to have been forged by a mistaken US reporter. In 1924, Tex Rickard stated that the ‘H’ in Montreal’s logo meant ‘habitant’ which was a French term that referenced the farmers of Quebec. In reality, the ‘H’ in the logo stands for ‘Hockey’ from the team’s name ‘Club de Hockey Canadien.’ Viewed as the French team of Montreal at the time, the club adopted the nickname, and it continues to stand to this day.
It should come as no surprise that the incredibly diverse and exciting game of hockey has invited fans to be so creative with its slang, but it may have come as a surprise to see the sport rub off in pop-culture as well.