Hockey
deserves more credit
Kyle Cavaness
With the onset of March and its accompanying madness, sports fans are beginning
to choose the paths that will direct their habits from now until summer with
zest and fervor. Football has come and gone once again, as have the Olympics;
basketball is in mid-season, with any playoff possibilities still weeks away;
and with baseball still months ahead, professional sports have reached the yearly
lull that college sports barely fills until the boredom is over.
And yet, most of us have not considered one of the best-kept secrets of the winter
months: professional hockey. In fact, it is time this sublime display of athleticism
and ferocity took its rightful place as the national sporting pastime of the
21st century, at least between the months of January and June.
Though the possibility of true bloodthirsty competition is within their grasp,
precious few have taken it upon themselves to develop an interest in the sport.
One of the most unfortunate aspects of hockey can be watched as a sort of greatest
hits of professional American sports.
First, the physical contact and conflict of the players, combined with the necessary
padding and helmets, provide fans with a taste of football.
Another common fact sports fans ignore is the almost-gladiatorial violence hockey
brings to professional sporting events. Bench-clearing brawls between baseball
or basketball teams immediately draw suspensions, lawsuits and despair over the
downfall of civilization by melodramatic sportswriters. Firmly on the other side
of the fence, a spontaneous fistfight between two hockey players bring five short
minutes in the penalty box. The fact that hockey players are expected to pummel
on each other during a game without causing an international incident is one
of the greatest benefits of hockey; any two teams with a steaming rivalry will
send a crowd home with at least two or three blood-dripping, teeth-loosening
brawls under their belts, and leave
fans screaming for more.
The pace of the game alone sets hockey apart as the wave of the future for the
modern sports fan. The TiVo-and-Blackberry generation doesn’t have the
time or the attention span to sit through nine innings of three-up, three-down
in the information age. If the game moves slower than the cell phone box-score
update, why even pay attention? No other sport can match the pace of hockey;
skates and ice will always be better to watch than flat, tired feet on a flat,
tired earth.
A possible speed bump on the road to hockey’s takeover is the small issue
of location – unfortunately, Southern California doesn’t have as
much ice on the ground in the winter as other parts of the country do. Though
daunting, the task of finding an available ice rink nearby is not as difficult
as it may seem; a quick Google search came up with three such arenas less than
10 miles from Long Beach. Of course, for those who prefer a warmer environment,
roller hockey is an acceptable, if less purist, approach.
The road to becoming a national pastime is not an easy one. The National Hockey
League went on strike for an entire season last year and barely made a hiccup
in the sporting world. In order to truly bring the game to the United States,
the people must invest in it on a personal level. One of the best ways to stimulate
interest in the sport is by having more Americans play it. For too long, Canadians
and Eastern Europeans have led the NHL with names like Datsyuk, Visnovsky and
Zidlicky on their jerseys.
Another stage will have to be taken by our children as they learn the ways of
this wonderful game.
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