Why Hockey Will Be Your New Favorite Sport
If it isn’t already
NHL regular season is heeeeeeeeere! I’m (clearly) excited, and you should be too. Even if you’ve never watched a game—although I’m sure many of you have as the league’s fanbase skews about a third female—stay with me. I have a pitch for why every type of sports fan out there should give hockey a try.
For the fan who gets bored during the 4th quarter of football or the 11th INNING (seriously, let’s just call it a tie):
If you think football and baseball are okay, but wish they were faster-paced, you got it with hockey. What with only one timeout per team per game, and only three TV timeouts in each of the three periods, teams can play up to 4–6 minutes in a row without stopping, which is a lot more than most other sports.
Plus, the punishment for a penalty is literally putting the instigating player into timeout (he goes off the ice and into the penalty box), which means a lopsided five-on-four game for usually two minutes each time (sometimes five, depending on the penalty). All that translates to hearts consistently jumping into throats. Yup, those chills are not just from the ice.
For the fan who is already pretty into basketball...
Wait a minute, there’s room for another sport! Like the structure of the NBA? You’d be surprised how similar basketball and hockey are — their seasons start and end around the same time (October-June, including postseason), they play the same number of games (82), and in both sports teams essentially set up a chess match of passing the ball/puck around until someone gets into optimal scoring position (unless the other team steals it first).
Yes, there’s more scoring in basketball, but the anticipation of hockey is part of the fun. Especially when there’s a player like the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, who became the first ever to score four goals in his NHL debut:
For the fan who loves a sport worshipped the world over
Look: there’s two more years until the World Cup and the Winter Olympics and just a smidge under four years ’til we’re back in Summer Olympics-land, but we have something to tide you over. As much fun as it is to see players like Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby (who seems to be recovering quickly from his concussion; he practiced with the team yesterday), Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews on the same team (go Canada go), sometimes it’s even better to watch them battle each other alongside the likes of Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh/Russia), Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay/Sweden) and Patrick Kane (Chicago/USA).
If the World Cup of Hockey didn’t hook you last month, get into it now, and watch some of the best players in the world all play together.
For the fan who wants to do some people-watching, okay Famous People-watching, during the game
And if you’re more interested in what celebs might be at the games with you? Carrie Underwood’s hubby Mike Fisher is captain of the Nashville Predators, Wil Wheaton (for all you Trekkies out there) is a diehard L.A. Kings fan, and the Chicago Fire/PD casts love their “hometown” Blackhawks:
The Underwood-Fisher camp may not be quite as cute as, say, basketball’s first family, the Currys, but there are already some hockey family members making us say aw. Last night, Auston Matthews’ mom had the cutest reaction to her son’s hat trick.
Not convinced without Leo and Jay + Bey sitting rinkside? Read Parks and Rec star Retta’s essay for Lenny Letter on how she became a hockey fan—and we dare you not to want to sit through a game cheering and giggling with her.
For the fan who loves to share fun facts at dinner parties, on Twitter, in class — you name it
Into stats? You’re about to have a field day. Did you know the Montreal Canadiens have the most Stanley Cup championships with 23, yet neither they nor any other Canadian team has won the Cup since MTL did back in 1993?!
Ooo, here’s another one. Think our neighbors up north have a hold on hockey? No Canadian teams made the playoffs last year at all — for the first time since 1970. Thankfully, Cup-winning teams tend to have a lot of Canadian players on them, so national identity crisis averted.
If analytics are your jam, you can wade into the numbers to your heart’s content: goals scored, assists made, goalie save percentages, Corsi ratings (basically, the amount of shots on goal a team attempts vs. the amount of shots attempted on their goal in the time a particular player is on the ice). Number nerds unite.
Have we hooked you yet? Keep following along. We bet we’ll get you there.
Sports served up fresh in your inbox, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Follow along!
