DCHP-2

rag the puck DCHP-2 (June 2016)

• 1 expression — Hockey

  to keep possession of the puck as a defensive measure.

  Type: 5. Frequency — As shown in Chart 1, the use of rag the puck is virtually exclusive to Canada. The expression appears to have developed as a variation for keeping the puck, using "rag" as a verb (see the 1918 quotation). In addition, the significance of hockey as a sport in Canada's social and historical development warrants the treatment of hockey terms as culturally significant (see CBC reference).

  See also: puck-ragging (meaning 1)  

  • 1918  Kitchener had an excellent chance shortly after the start of play. Winnipeg had two men penalized, and were playing four men against six. Contrary to the custom followed in Eastern hockey under similar conditions, the visitors did not attempt to "rag" the puck, passing it behind the goal or shooting it the length of the ice, but forced the play, and not only kept the puck away from their own goal, but kept the Kitchener defence busy with their rushes, and the latter were unable to score. 
  • 1930  As usual whenever Ottawa was short, Bill Touhey went into action and ragged the puck effectively, and the game slowed up even more. Maroons seldom bothered to rag the puck, generally continuing to carry the play to the Senators while weakened in man-power. 
  • 1943  He was ragging the puck for the first while Mills was in the penalty box, Mills returning in time to take the pass and go in and score. 
  • 1963  Bob Turner was doing an excellent job of ragging the puck, with less than 30 seconds of Mikita's penalty left to be served. 
  • 1978  They should remain among the key players throughout this trip. Pronovost can stickhandle and rag the puck with the best of the Europeans, often putting on a one-man show when killing penalties. He says he is very much at home with the European style of play. 
  • 1991  PUCK LUCK: Observation by Minnesota centre Dave Gagner after the North Stars beat Detroit 3-2 on Gagner's late lucky deflection despite being outshot 27-8 in the final 40 minutes: "It was nice of Detroit to rag the puck and kill the clock for the last two periods." 
  • 2013  "It's something I'm pretty happy about, certainly getting Olli and (Alexei) Ponikarovsky adds a lot of size to our team and depth at forward," Wellwood said. "So when you get out there, especially being a smaller guy, you know you're going to have somebody to rag the puck down low and be able to handle themselves in the corners. That should help me a lot." 
  • 2016  He knows when to leave the backchecking or the forechecking to others, when to play defence, when to play offence, when to rag the puck and even, when the clock’s ticking and you’re down, when to pull the goalie! He can also be creative when interpreting advice: for example, I learned from him that the word “backcheck” when translated into Dutch, means something like, “Let’s stop for a few minutes and have a beer!” 

• 2 expression — in figurative use, informal, usually Politics

  to stall or kill time as a defensive measure.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — COD-2 lists only the figurative meaning (see COD-2, s.v. "rag the puck" (1)), as Canadian, while meaning 1 is unmarked regionally (see also Gage-5, ITP Nelson and OED-3). This meaning is used to describe political situations where one party is tactically stalling (see the quotations). OED-3 marks the term as "Cdn", labeling a Canadian source as the earliest attestation.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "rag the puck (2)", which is marked as "Cdn. slang".

  See also: puck-ragging (meaning 2)  

  • 1979  Tories rag the puck to survive FOR PREMIER William Davis and his Cabinet the past year has been a bit like the Leafs in the third period with a one-goal lead. Basically, they have been ragging the puck, playing defensively to kill time while taking the occasional foray toward the opposition net. The Davis strategy has been to pick away at what he perceives to be the Liberals' and New Democrats' weaknesses, rather than do much rushing himself. 
  • 1988  A panel of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade last year found those restrictions violated international trading rules by discriminating against imports. "It's going to be a long show," said one of the Canadian official familiar with the negotiations. "There's a lot of opportunity to avoid having to make a decision. We can rag the puck for a number of years". 
  • 1997  Ontario's only real fear is that Ottawa may try to undermine any deal by delaying the timing of the agreement for six months or a year. "What we're concerned about is that instead of being genuine in making this thing go, we'll see a bit of a 'rag the puck' exercise," said one senior Ontario official. 
  • 2011  "The Harper model, when it comes to ministerial resignations, is very similar to the Chretien one," said political strategist Tim Powers, vice-president of Summa Communications. "To use the hockey parlance, they 'rag the puck' until the intensity of the controversy dies down." 
  • 2013  Prime Minister Stephen Harper has managed, so far, to rag the puck on climate change generally and the Alberta oilsands in particular by waiting for the U.S. to get its act together. Well, U.S. President Barack Obama has just whistled down that play by rolling out a plan to cut planet-warming greenhouse gases that gets the U.S. partway to where it needs to be, and well ahead of us. 
  • 2016  This is by no means a perfect budget. It fails to commit significant new funds to health care. It continues to rag the puck on Canada Pension Plan reform. While it talks of the need for Canada to become more innovative, it does not say how this will be accomplished, promising instead that the government will think of something over the next two years.