I'm not a fan of hockey (ice or field) just as I'm not a fan of baseball, but I will sometimes watch the Stanley Cup Final or the World Series if there's nothing better on TV. This year it's the Edmonton Oilers versus the Florida Panthers, with Game 1 being played in Florida. Do we have any fans here? I've been to 1 or 2 games when I lived outside of DC, just for something to do. When the sport isn't popular in that region, attending in person is kinda fun because it's not crowded.
I may watch hockey on TV once in a while but I don't know the details of the game like the positions of the players. Hockey is like soccer in some ways only faster and there is not much scoring. Unlike football, a score happens suddenly and out of the blue but in football, the team with the ball advances to the point where a goal is imminent and suspense builds which makes it so popular. We have a Pittsburgh Penguins AHL affiliate here and they seem to draw a crowd although I never went, but the games are televised sometimes and are on the radio.
That sounds like the Minor League in baseball. The more crowded and commercialized the Major Leagues become, the greater the attraction of the Minor Leagues. And I agree with your soccer analogy. Things like "off sides" and "icing" are meaningless to me. I was gonna say I wish the announcers would explain this stuff as the game goes along, but I imagine there are a number of people who feel the same way about football, whose fans would not want to hear the basics repeatedly explained.
I once read that hockey was invented by British troops stationed in Canada. They were bummed they couldn't play "football"/soccer or rugby in the winter, so they invented a sport that could be played on the frozen lakes to while away the dark, dreary days of winter in the North.
Love hockey. Used to play on the streets in Montreal, Quebec when I was little. I was goalie, the only girl among my brother and his friends. Favourite teams, the Habs and Canucks after moving to Vancouver.
There are pockets of the states where hockey is a childhood game. I was not raised in one of them. Did you play ice hockey, or a street version of field hockey? It's been an interesting final. Panthers are up 3 games to 0 (best 4 out of 7.) The 4th (and maybe final?) game is tomorrow at 8PM, played in Edmonton. I'm not a big sports fan, but I'll watch the championship series of most sports.
Ice hockey was pretty much non-existant in the city of my youth but "roller-hockey" was quite popular. I've been to ice hockey matches but I've never really been able to follow what's going on.....especially what constitutes a penalty. They're out there the whole match beating the h-e-double-hockysticks out of each other and bashing each other into the boards and getting into huge fights and then BAM! all of a sudden whistles are being blown and penalties are being called and somebody or -bodies has to sit in the penalty box for a while while everyone else goes back to the performance of icy mayhem like nothing happened. I mean, you'd need a crib-sheet to understand....
In the snow on the streets, so nope, not ice hockey. But all of us ice skated as well. Actually, hubby and I were thinking the Oilers would lose the game last night, but wow, they decimated Florida.
I wonder about the officiating. People have been saying that the calls were "questionable" in order to stretch this thing out (advertising dollars.) Others have said it was so the final game could be on Florida's home ice Tuesday. I don't see how Florida went from dominating the series to getting crushed like that. I watched all of the preceding games and thought the Panthers were gonna finish things off last night. When I saw what was happening, I surfed in & out of the game. Every time I surfed back in, Edmonton had another goal.