Greasy = dirty?

[Alice Faber]

 From an article about a summer school for hockey enforcers (i.e.,
fighters) in Regina, SK
(<http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/hockey/story.html?id=efb8d139-ee13-419c-8cb5-f8a26ee43651&k=75526>):

> "It's a greasy job," he said, "but somebody has to do it."
(The speaker is a minor-league player, probably c. 20, from Western Canada.)

More generally, in hockey, "greasy" generally means "gritty" or "tough":
<http://robots.cnnsi.com/inside_game/darren_eliot/news/2003/05/29/ducksdevils_analysis/>.
This usage was apparently introduced to hockey by Mike Babcock, the
coach cited in that link, according to Larry Brooks of the NY Post
(cited at <http://www.sportsfanmagazine.com/sfm/articles.html?id=343>;
the link to the original Post article is broken):

> A year ago, Mike Babcock introduced the utterly obnoxious term
> "greasy hockey" into the NHL lexicon. Now, it's the Anaheim coach
> whose skids are being greased. While Babcock, who took over Team
> Canada when Joel Quenneville had to step down for medical reasons, is
> more likely than not to keep his job through the summer, GM Bryan
> Murray has made it clear to confidants that he believes the Mighty
> Ducks badly underachieved this year with a better roster than the one
> that went to the 2003 Finals. Babcock, a micro-manager who rarely
> gives his players a chance to breathe, is on notice.

More recently, I find a quotation from a WHL (junior) player voted 3rd
most irritating player by his peers earlier this season
<http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/chiefs/archive/?postID=764>:

> Rutherford's response: "That’s depressing; I thought I would have come in first," he said with a smile. "That’s cool. It’s just the way I play – a greasy style hockey – I kind of like that. It’s nice knowing that I bug a lot of guys out there, so I guess I’m doing my job."
(As a junior player, this guy is probably a few years younger than the
guy quoted above.)

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Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
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