Hockey...yes Hockey

When baseball ends I truly enter into a sort of depression mode. I hate it. Even when the Yankees win the World Series I still feel this gap in my soul. Baseball Tonight is no longer on, stats and scores don’t scroll across the bottom of ESPN, and even the idea of being able to go to a D-Backs game is no longer a possibility when the season is done. Certain things help. Michael Vick and Desean Jackson helped for a while. Winter meetings and off season moves distracted me from the fact that there are no games. And in years past I have even depended on Lebron James and Kobe Bryant who fill my void of competiveness that I like to watch.

Last spring during the winter Olympics (about ¼ as amusing as summer Olympics) I began to hope and pray for the American Hockey team. Strictly because I consider myself an amazing American and patriot, I feel it’s my duty to cheer for America no matter what it is. I even TIVOed the American Curling team just to hope for an American victory. Watching the American Hockey team originally felt like a lost cause as it is well known throughout the hockey world that Russia and Canada are much superior to the rest of the World. Even countries like Finland, Sweden, and Latvia have fielded better squads then America. Also considering the fact that the Olympics were held in CANADA, the possibility of someone upsetting Canada was unthinkable.

Going into the tournament USA was predicted to finish fourth but once Russia was upset by Latvia the Gold Medal game had suddenly come down to USA vs Canada, something no one predicted. The anticipation within my circle of friends was enormous as it should have been in every American. We were so amped for the game it felt like a game 7 Yankees vs Red Sox. After falling down 2-0 early it felt like we were going to get blown out but we held them to 2 and then scored 1 in the beginning of the 3^rd period. With 24 seconds left in the game Scott Parise, plays for NJ Devils, scored tying the game. It was literally the craziest thing I’ve seen since Aaron Boone’s walk off. I was watching it with around 20 guys and we erupted. To make it better, a guy down the hall in our frat house was Canadian and had been talking smack all week. We ran down to his room screaming and yelling. It felt like we had won a war or something. The game went into overtime and we were so pumped that we could win the gold. The communist puke Sidney Crosby scored the game winning gold for Canada and we were crushed but just to get that close felt good. Aside from NASCAR races and Yankees games in my basement when I was a kid, it was the greatest sport comradery I have felt.

This game sparked my love for hockey and so I started to follow it. I remember watching it as a kid and I know some of its history, especially Gretzky, but I hadn’t really followed it at all. Just so happens the Flyers were one of the best teams in the league so that was good. A week after the gold medal loss, a bunch of my buddies got free tickets to a Coyotes game from an alumni. We went to the game and they were of course facing a Canadian team, the Vancouver Canucks. We were cheering hard for PHX. During the Canada national anthem, the entire stadium booed and the entire stadium then sang in unison our national anthem. In front of us were some Canuck fans and we gave it to them all night long, no homo. The game went into overtime, and then a shootout. PHX one in the 6^th round of the shootout to wrap up one of the most fun sporting events of my life. This now places 2 hockey games in my top 5 sports memories.

Every year the NHL has an outdoor game on New Year’s Day called the Winter Classic. It usually takes place in a baseball field with one year happening in Wrigley Field and last years in Fenway Park. This year was in Pittsburgh in the Steelers stadium between the Penguins and Washington Capitals. Leading up to the game HBO did a four hour series documenting both teams as they prepared for their meeting on January 1. The show is called “24/7 Penguins” and if your even just a sports fan you should watch it because it’s interesting to see what it’s like for the players to travel and the behind the scenes part of sports. The show was awesome and really started to get me loving hockey. For the third year in a row I chose to watch “The Winter Classic” instead of the bowl games on that day and it didn’t disappoint. Washington upset Pittsburgh which is always fun watching Crosby lose and he got hammered on a hit knocking him out of the next three games.

The point is that I have slowly started to love the game of hockey and as an avid sports video gamer, I purchased for the first time in my life the EA Sports hockey game. It’s extremely fun to play. It is an excellent way to fill the time during the offseason of baseball and I guess the entire reason for this huge post is to try and get you guys to start watching it and learn to love the game. In my opinion it blows basketball out of the water and since NFL sucks and the Patriots will win the Super Bowl again, I urge you to try out hockey and let me know what you think. I think everyone can appreciate the passion that the players have and the cool traditions and superstitions which players have. I know most of you (Jeremy) will argue its hard because of the players names and the fact that so many foreigners are better than Americans but I think you can also appreciate that Americans are getting better, especially at Goalie, and the players names aren’t that hard once you get them down. Like the best player in the league Washington Caps Center Alex Ovechkin, everyone calls him Ovy. Or Evgeni Malkin from Penguins everyone calls Geno. It will take time but I think it’s worth it. The toughness is appealing too. The other day a guy took a puck to the face, left to get stitches, came back and scored a goal. Pretty tough.

Let me know what you think. I know I’ll hear American arguments and believe me, I’m still a baseball fan and nothing will ever come close to baseball but Hockey is a fun substitute. We should try and go to a Coyotes game, there so fun and beer is cheap. Also, in this argument, I haven’t even mentioned the Miracle on Ice, arguably the greatest sports achievement in American history.