HabsCast Hockey Blog

[Article via NHLTopShelf.com]

We accept it as the truth, mainly because it is, but what makes hockey the superior sport to the various alternatives out there?

I’m from a continent, and country, where football (the real kind, where you kick the ball with your feet - as is logical) is dominant to every other sport. I play myself, and have played all my life really, but somewhere down the line my interest for it faded as my interest for hockey ignited. Here’s my personal list of why hockey excels over every other major sport - Football, American “football”, baseball, basketball, etc…

The Reasons We Love Hockey:

1. The Speed

The speed of hockey is superior to any other major sport - the pace of which things can change is immense. While there is some speed in American football, it only occurs every so often. The only speed in basketball is when a player runs out of the court to slap a fan. Football is inferior because they lack skates - inevitably making them slower

2. The Intensity

Of course a hockey game can have a lot of breaks - face offs, Rolie The Goalie shaking his mask off, Avery turtling, or whipping blood off the ice - but it is relatively intense when it gets going. The intensity of a baseball game is equal to the anticipation of a mediocre fart, you know its coming, you know its dry and you know it won’t last that long. There is generally a LOT of standing around in both the major American-dominated sports, American “football” and baseball - they run a few yards, lie down and then huddle around in their tight pants - waiting for that next fantastically tiring second. In hockey a great and devastating hit is followed up by more play - not an endless break where people stroll around looking at daisies… That’s intense.

3. The Frequency of Goals and Their Importance Ratio

By this I mean how important each goals is in relation to the frequency of goals scored. In basketball you go “oh - a 3 pointer” or “another 2 pointer” about 30-50 times depending on the score, making the feeling of joy for each point scored quite small. Only in the last minutes do baskets really count for something, so it seems. In football you have fewer goals than hockey, but they mean more for the game - although when a team is up 3-0 you never, ever, expect the opposing team to get back in the game - and it only happens once in a blue moon. If a team reduces to 1-3 in hockey, then there’s suddenly a chance again. In American “football” they can’t count, enough said.

Hockey has a decent amount of goals, they all mean something, and you can score several in a very short time-span, even in a close game, because you’re almost always in position to create something dangerous if you have the luck and the skill. In football you can only create offense in so much of the pitch - and you rarely stay there too long.

4. The Unwritten Codes

Even though hockey has its miserable moments - like the Bertuzzi incident, several spearing, hitting from behind and concussion incidents, I still find it more honest and honorable than the other sports. First of all, hockey as a sport and its players seem to be the most involved in charity than any of the other sports. They take a big part in their community and seem truly involved in local matters (at least most places) On the ice you, compared to other sports, rarely see lengthy debates with the refs - where players take out every ounce of anger of the officials (like football) There seems to be just a tad more respect between the players as well, even fighting has its code of conduct. The mentality of toughness is perhaps the best, you hardly ever see a player fake an injury or overact on some slightly painful problem. Football players… would have been laughed out of the building if they played hockey - not because of their skating, but because they’d cry when they first fell.

5. The League System

I have the privilege of supporting a Championship side in England (second highest division) and they’re mired in trouble. That way I know it will inevitably be years until I can expect to see any kind of success from them. In hockey, even though your team is going through crap, you know there’s at least a chance to revive and do well the next season, there’s hope at least. I love the drafting system, but that only works if one single league is as strong as in basketball, hockey or similar sports. In football, if you have the money, you own every single small-franchise team around - and they never stand a chance to build a team, because they can’t afford salaries to build over a period of time, they’re forced to sell.

Overall: The combination of factors easily propel hockey into the greatest sport around.

Any other additions, anyone disagree, what’s your take?

Digg - StumbleUpon - Reddit - Del.icio.us - Technorati - Email - Etc...

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!