Ice Hockey - love it, hate it, don't give a damn?

-- Tim (timp@another.com), October 08, 2000

Answers

Love it, actually. The St. Louis Blues (hometown team) always do well enough to make the playoffs, so it's exciting.

It frightens me how into it some people get, though. They can recite names, numbers, statistics at the drop of a hat. "Yeah! That's so-and-so. Number 33. They scored 21 goals and had 32 assists last season. A plus/minus of +14. 88 penalty minutes!" I just watch the games when I get a chance.

-- Lauren (lauren@blueshoe.org), October 08, 2000.

Timothy, thou shalt get thy butt over to the States to check out some REAL ice hockey! THEN you'll love and worship it like all real sports fans should!

Erm. Ahem. Right. I'm better now.

Anywho, to answer the question, I obviously love hockey. My favorite teams are the New Jersey Devils [National Hockey League] and the Albany (upstate New York) River Rats [American Hockey League, one level below the NHL]. I don't really understand why it isn't more popular in the US (it ranks about sixth out of the four major sports, one of which hockey is supposed to be), except for the possibility that it's more expensive for the average person to start playing hockey than baseball, basketball, American football, rest-of-the-world football, etc. (Equipment costs, exorbiant ice-time fees, yadda yadda.) And I was going to ramble more, but I've suddenly lost my train of thought. Oh well.

-- Tim, but not of the Partridge variety (mediabrat@hotmail.com), October 09, 2000.

Ice Hockey rocks! Oh yeah, although Tim *says* he isn't keen, he's going to see us play the Basingstoke Bison on Tuesday!

-- Sean (sean.c@fatal.co.uk), October 09, 2000.

Ick, ick, and more ick! I hate ice hockey with a passion. Probably largely to do with the fact that it's cold, there's a lot of violence, and it is somewhat boring. I must admit, I have managed to somewhat get into watching a school hockey game, because then I know everyone on our team, and therefore I want them to win. Other than that, ice hockey is by far my least favourite sport. It's even worse than curling. Ick.

-- Sarah Joy (sarahjoy@squirrel-net.co.uk), October 24, 2000.

I think you all have your own opinions about hockey, but it is definitely the best sport in the world. Yum, it is even 100 times better than curling, yum.

-- gary c (plockett@sprint.ca), November 28, 2000.

I got into ice hockey last year when I decided that I thought I would enjoy the sport, even if I'd never seen it played.

I'm quite a fan of the Flyers (Philadelphia, not Fife! :P), the local team, and am disappointed at how much they're sucking this year.

My least favorite part of the game is the fighting, which seems to be the joy of the rest of the American population. Oh well.

Carly

-- Carly (michiruka@excite.com), December 09, 2000.