It was in the middle of the televised Duke-Ohio State college basketball game on Tuesday when I found myself consciously searching for a part of the sports world for the first time this semester. Frankly, it hadn't been that important to me as of late. That's right, cold-weather fans, I started surfing the channels to find out if there was a hockey game on.
Even though it might not be a "primary sport," the hockey world is intense. It often takes sub-freezing temperatures to start remembering why I like the sport, but when it hits I can picture the Washington Capitals skating into the MCI Center rink again.
When hockey first comes to mind, one often thinks of Wayne Gretzky, more commonly known as the Great One, and old Boston Bruins legend Bobby Orr. The more puzzling question on the average American's mind is, what is special about hockey now?
Currently we can find in the NHL a lot of quality players and several great or near-great ones, in a competitive league that has 30 teams in six divisions. The hometown Capitals have forward Jaromir Jagr on their roster, a winner of several scoring titles who learned his trade from the great Mario Lemieux, the Gretzky of the 90s, before breaking out on his own.
Once you've watched hockey frequently enough, these foreign names will start to ring a bell: the Gonchars, the Konowalchuks and the Niedermayer brothers. It normally doesn't take a sportswriter to tell people that the one predominately American thing about hockey is the crowd.
That can be a problem up in cities like Detroit, where a few bad apples who share anti-Canada sentiments can ruin a good time with a little booze.
In my experience, however, the only fights you'll find at hockey games are generally on the ice. Many brawls will continue because players will find grudges against each other or some itch they need to scratch, but hockey is a rough game and the best of players are very physical.
This is the ultimate goal of course, and scoring is complex. After the Bruins and the Dallas Stars, there are 10 teams within five points from each other in a race for the best record in the league, three of which are averaging slightly more than three goals a game. Hence, it's clear that to win in this league you must be able to score or defend well, and a strong combination of the two may make you a contender.
TheBruins might seem like an old legend to many hockey fans, but after a two-year playoff drought and ducking out of the first round last year, the five-time Stanley Cup champions are off to a hot start this year. Newly re-signed center Joe Thornton, who was just named NHL Player of the Week, has been a large part of their success and recent five-game season.
The powerhouse out West appears to be Dallas, still stepping onto the ice with winning energy after winning the Stanley Cup in 1999. It might surprise many that hockey has a history in Dallas dating back to 1941. Hockey in Texas?
Now the question is whether or not hockey needs more attention, being a rough sport with probably the least diversity among its players. That's for you to decide, and I'll make a little more effort over vacation time to find a hockey game.
It's a harder sport to appreciate on television than most because the game moves so fast. It's also a sport from the ears, and from personal experience I can say that it takes being at the game to truly absorb the effects of a player being slammed into the outer walls of the rink. It's a war down there, and there's so much going that the cameras can't capture.
I'm not sure what hit me and probably a number of other casual hockey fans at the turn of December, but I'm sure we'll understand it all when the next snow storm falls and we're found checking the hockey schedule to find out when we can actually watch a game. Going to a hockey game, whether it be on the college or professional level, could turn out to be more exciting than watching a repeat of last year's NCAA basketball finals.
'Tis the season for the good ole hockey game, after all.
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