Monday, October 26, 2009

Fast Game for a Fast World

This is a conversation that I've had with a few friends of mine at various times, but allow me to share it with my other sports brethren. Let me, of course, preface this with the somewhat obvious statement that I am a gigantic hockey fan, so I already don't understand why people don't just love the game as I do. Just as most of the rest of the world doesn't really get why the United States hasn't embraced soccer any more than we have. That being said, allow me to make my case to you possible hockey fans out there.

First, I think we can come to a reasonable consensus that football is currently the most popular sport in the United States. What are the characteristics of this game? Hard hitting, team oriented, violent, highly competitive, but slightly choppy at times. Hockey has all of those things, except for the choppiness. It's hard hitting, incredibly violent, the only sport that actually allows fighting on the ice, incredibly competitive, and very much based off of the performance of a team.

Second, let's look at the various sports and talk about some of the injuries that are seen that keep people out for a considerable amount of time. In baseball, a guy with a sore shoulder can be out for weeks at a time. Simple soreness can keep you out. I mean, I understand, mostly, with pitchers as they are gunning it out there every single pitch, but what about the rest of the guys who don't all even see the ball much of the game? They get a sore arm and they're out for weeks. Basketball, how many times have we seen Shaq sit out for long stretches of time with nothing more than a sore toe? I mean, I know the guy is a 300 pound tree, but come on! If your nickname is "The Diesel" a sore toe should not keep you on the bench. Football, for the most part, keeps up with the actual injuries. But there have been times where somebody sits out with a bruised shoulder. Now the tackling can really affect that, but how about the checks in hockey?

Hockey players are the gladiators of our time! I have a vivid memory of Paul Kariya in my mind, years back. He was on the Ducks, and they were in the Stanley Cup Final against the Devils, and Scott Stevens took his head off!! He was knocked completely unconscious. You actually saw his body jerk him back awake so that he would continue to breathe. I think he missed 1 shift, and ended up scoring a huge goal in that game to win that game. You had better believe that nobody in any other sport would have been back out there after that. So if you're looking for toughness, look no further than a hockey rink.

My biggest pet peeve regarding people's dislike for hockey is when they say "I don't understand the rules!" The rules of hockey are really not that difficult to follow for anybody that has about 10 minutes to spend on figuring things out. Things like icing, once properly explained, are quite easy to understand. When I first started watching hockey, I wasn't totally sure about what offsides was, but a simple explanation was given to me and it was all clear! People who use this excuse are simply too lazy to ask somebody who would know, or just find the answer online. As I tell my students, laziness is never an excuse.

The last thing that I don't really get is people who complain about hockey being too fast. Too fast? Have they seen the world that we live in? Everything happens in the blink of an eye. We don't have to wait for letters to be sent through the mail anymore, we just e-mail a person and things are there in a matter of seconds. Fast food, instant coffee, ridiculously fast internet connections, and they're complaining about the game being too fast? I'll tell you what they mean by this. They mean, "I can't follow the puck." Ok, I will grant that a puck is awfully small and, with it being moved around so quickly, can be hard to follow. But let me ask you this, when you're watching a football game, do you watch the football? Or do you look at the guy carrying the football? In basketball, do you look at the ball, other than when it has been shot, or do you watch the guy carrying the ball? Same thing with hockey! Don't watch the puck, look for the guy who has the puck. How can you tell, you might ask? He's the guy with his stick always on the ice, and puck handling. He stands out, I promise.

So, I have made my pitch! If you're looking for a game that is hard hitting, competitve, strongly team-based, with a foundation in toughness, and rules that can easily be figured out, then hockey is the sport for you! It is the sport of the 21st century as it is the world's fastest game! Don't be that guy/gal that says they watch hockey only for the fights. There's so much more to it than that! I'll be more than happy to help ya learn!

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