Serving up the 'sauce' before the 'top-cheese'

Of all the major sports, hockey's terminology is probably the most nuanced and foreign to mainstream observers, in large part due to the preponderance of Canadian-born skaters.

To help bridge the gap, The Daily Princetonian sat down with some of the members of the men's hockey team to put together a two-part compendium of terms every fan should know. Last week, we gave you "Apples" to "Plug." Today, we round out the lesson with "Pracky" to "Yardsale."

Note: On very rare occasions, some or all of these expressions are preceded or followed by some sort of expletive.

Pracky (n.): practice.

This is almost exclusively a Canadian term.

Puck bunny (n.): an upstanding young lady who enjoys the game of hockey and appreciates those who play it in the manner that it was intended to be played.

Pull a flamingo (v.): to lift up one leg in an attempt to block a shot, while avoiding being struck in the body by the puck.

Note: Sophomore Lee Jubinville confesses to being the most likely on the team to be caught "pulling a flamingo."

Pull the 'chute (v.): to bail out in any manner; this can vary from shying away from a hit to attempting to miss practice due to a supposed illness; " 'chute" is short for "parachute."

Ex: "Yah, we're playing the Tigers tonight; so half our team ended up pullin' the 'chute."

Roadie (n.): a road-trip.

Note: A handful of Tigers claim the Clarkson-St. Lawrence road trip to be their least favorite, due to the long nature of the journey required.

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Roast (v. int.): when a goalie and/or defender succumbs to a fake-out ("deke").

Note: One of the more memorable roastings of the season came on freshman Dan Bartlett's game-sealing goal against Rensselear on Dec. 9.

Sauce (n.): a pass that is designed to glide over an opponent's stick.

Note: The most common user of the sauce on the Princeton squad is junior forward Keith Shattenkirk, who often utilizes "Shatty's saucer pass."

Scrum (n.): an incident in front of the net involving pushing and shoving by both teams.

Seatbelt (n.): the act of holding onto an opposing player during a fight so as to avoid any especially damaging blows.

Ex: "You see that guy out there usin' a seatbelt? He's goin' down anyway."

Snipe (n.): a player who scores a lot of goals.

Note: According to Jubinville and sophomore Brett Wilson, Powe doubles as both the team's cheddar and a snipe.

Speed-bag (n.): a player who has been injured badly in a fight with an opponent.

Stripes (n.): referee; also known as a zebra.

Note: For the most part, Tigers, with the possible exception of senior captain Darroll Powe, have little interaction with any stripes.

Suey (n.): a pass that sets the receiver up to take a powerful hit, likely because he will have to look back to find the puck. "Basically, he's going to get killed," freshman Kevin Kaiser explains. Also known as a "suicide pass."

Suitcase (n.): a frequently traded player; one who always lives out of his suitcase.

Note: Not present in college hockey, but relatively common in junior hockey. Freshman Zane Kalemba describes himself as a suitcase prior to arriving at Princeton.

Toe-drag (n.): the act of pulling the puck back towards one's toe and body when the puck approaches a defender, so as to prevent the defender from stealing the puck.

Note: McIntyre is the team's most prolific user of toe-drag.

Took (n.): "what you Americans call a winter hat," a Canadian player says flatly, with a hint of disdain.

Top-cheese (n.): a goal that is scored in the top portion of the net.

Turtle (v.): to collapse during a fight so as to avoid further punishment.

Note: While similar to a seatbelt, Wilson is quick to note the difference between the two. Both, however, are looked upon with disdain.

Yardsale (n.): a hit levied so powerfully that the player on the receiving end loses some, if not all of his equipment (i.e. gloves, stick, helmet, etc.)

Various hockey terms are not the only things separating the speech of Princeton's Canadian-born students from their American counterparts. The team has, on occasion, been divided over various grammatical discrepancies.

"[Wilson] will always say, 'I'm done my homework,' " Kalemba said. "[The Canadian players] don't really use 'with.' "

Even when the Canadians do opt for prepositions, however, some Americans still take issue.

"They'll always say 'quarter 'till' instead of 'quarter of,' " Kaiser says. "We've had some big arguments over that one."

In spite of their strongly held positions, the Tigers do not let their grammatical disputes get in the way of their activities on the ice.

So now, the next time a fan of an opposing team complains, "Eh, stripes missed that one — your plug just smoked our dangler with his lumber, shoulda been a penalty," you can quickly reply, "First of all, don't ever call our snipe a plug, and if your gong-shows didn't want that to turn into a yardsale, that suitcase shouldn't have passed him a suey."