During a trip to Canada last year I began to watch some local sports, something I always enjoy doing whenever I go to another country. One night I was in this bar around the corner from the hotel and I met Frank Andreoli Montreal Canadiens super fan and a man who was kind enough to tell me all about the game of ice hockey. To be honest I saw that the hockey was on but I wasn’t really invested in it, after speaking to Frank however I started to pay a lot more attention and it turns out, I absolutely loved it.
Usually American sports aren’t my thing, I find that they stop and start a great deal and I just prefer the action which other sports promise. With ice hockey however, this was completely different and here is why I have been an avid fan ever since that fateful night.
True Action
In my view there is nowhere near the level of stop and start in ice hockey that you get in the likes of basketball and football, the game flows so much more smoothly.Not only this but when there is a pause in the action, all of the players and the officials are looking to get the game started as quickly as possible. This keeps the attention and it just adds something a little bit special to the game.
The Skill
I am of course in awe of so many professional sportsmen and women, yet there is something about hockey which just impresses me more. The fact that they are doing amazing things with the puck, using skill and guile, all whilst they are skating on ice, that is something which just blows my mind.
Winners and Losers
My experience so far having watched this game for a year, is that anyone can beat anyone on any given day. There are so many sports leagues around the world where you just know who is going to win more often than not, this so far has not been my experience with ice hockey and that just makes the entire thing so much more exciting and far less predictable.
Savage
If you look at physicality many would say that the NFL has got that covered but in actual fact I’d go as far to say that ice hockey was even more brutal. Not only are some of the injuries which you see in ice hockey absolutely nauseating, there are actual fights which take place on the ice, and which seem to be wholly accepted. When you watch the game you can guarantee that you will be wincing through a great deal of it when you hear those hits. This is something which I really love to watch and the passion of the players when they go in for a hit is absolutely brilliant.
Have you watched ice hockey before? What did you make of it? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
