Alongside AFL, hockey is my favourite sport in the world. There’s no sport in the world that mixes the physicality, skill and rabid fanaticism from players and supporters alike that few other sports can claim.
A few days ago, someone asked me what it is that has so endeared the game to me. I could’ve sat down and listed a hundred reasons. Below, in no particular order, are 54 reasons why I love the great game:
1. Wayne Gretzky. The Great One. There will be no better player to grace an NHL rink.
2. Walking into an arena for the first time after a long time away, getting that first glimpse of the sheet of ice. It’s magical.
3. The feeling that hockey is the world’s best kept secret. In most parts of America, it really is.
4. Don Cherry. Polarising, but a hockey icon. Glad ‘Grapes’ is still around.
5. Olympic hockey. As good as it gets.
6. Henrik Lundqvist. All Hail The King!
7. Tradition. There’s so much of it around hockey today. Franchises do a wonderful job of honouring past players and triumphs.
8. Bravery. A guy will lose multiple teeth to a puck in the face and, more often than not, hardly miss a shift. Compare that to the diving you see so often in soccer.
9. Alexander Ovechkin. The Great Eight has all the intangibles. I love watching him.
10. The moment when the lights in the arena go dark and the crowd roars because we all know that the pre-game video (and, sometimes, pyro and laser light) spectacular is about to begin.
11. A deke that completely undresses a defenceman.
12. Hearing 20,000+ fanatical fans screaming throughout the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ at United Centre in Chicago.
13. The Miracle on Ice. One of the game’s defining moments. Mark Johnson, Jim Craig and Mike Eruzione will be remembered fondly for a long time to come – okay, well, maybe not in Russia, but elsewhere.
14. The shootout. Some hate it, I love it.
15. ‘Badger’ Bob Johnson’s immortal words “It’s a great day for hockey!”
16. Watching Nicklas Kronwall hit someone. They call it getting “Kronwalled” for a reason. If he hits you, you stay hit.
17. The goal horn after the Rangers score.
18. Walking into Madison Square Garden – there’s so much history in that place you can almost reach out and touch sporting and entertainment greatness.
19. Bars and restaurants around any downtown arena, where there’s no shortage of hockey opinion and camaraderie. Hockey people are great people.
20. The final buzzer – and the ensuing celebrations – at the end of the final game of the Stanley Cup Final.
21. Unlimited playoff hockey. They keep playing until someone scores, and there’s epic desperation throughout.
22. Jack Edwards. You love the NESN Bruins announcer or you hate him. There’s no middle ground. I love him.
23. A goalie robbing a shooter. Happens often. Never fails to amaze.
24. Capitals fans “rocking the red” in Verizon Centre.
25. A curl-and-drag move.
26. Steven Stamkos. Absolute gun.
27. Vancouver fans going nuts when one of the Sedin twins score.
28. The Rangers’ goal song – not big on words, but the one I love the most.
29. Canada’s obsession with the World Junior Championship.
30. Hockey in non-traditional markets. In particular, Los Angeles, where the atmosphere is comparable to Chicago, Pittsburgh or Minnesota.
31. The octopus on the ice in Detroit at the commencement of another Red Wings playoff run.
32. Hockey in Canada. You’ve seen an NHL game in America? You haven’t lived til you’ve seen one in Canada.
33. Lake Placid, New York. The town seeps hockey history. Definitely worth the pilgrimage.
34. The Toronto Maple Leafs. So many fans, so much disappointment.
35. Listening to the booming tenor voice of Jim Cornelison at United Centre. The man does the best rendition of the American national anthem that I’ve ever heard and is as beloved in the Windy City as Hull, Toews or Savard ever was/is.
36. The legendary Rangers fan known only as “Dancing Larry” doing his thing from the fabled blue seats at Madison Square Garden. So bad it’s good!
37. Vancouver’s ability to chew up and spit out goaltenders. It’s an art up there.
38. “Chelsea Dagger” being belted out by 20,000+ fans at United Centre in Chicago. It’s the second-best goal song in the NHL.
39. Being in the house for a Boston vs. Montreal clash – the game’s greatest rivalry is best seen live, in either city.
40. Rene Rancourt singing the national anthem in Boston. More specifically, his post-song exhortations to the Bruins crowd.
41. Vintage jerseys. You see them at every game, some decades old, and it’s great to see fans paying homage to the building blocks of their franchise.
42. Playoff hockey.
43. A giant hit that rattles the glass and makes everyone in the crowd wince
44. Two players dropping their gloves to settle the score in an old-fashioned manner
45. Patrick Kane. I’m a Rangers fan, but Kane’s my favourite player. Ridiculous talent.
46. The final buzzer when the Rangers win.
47. The Joe Louis Arena. One of the last-remaining great hockey coliseums.
48. Herb Brooks. Coached the US to the most unlikely of victories against the USSR in 1980. Did it by galvanising a divided team by making himself the enemy. It worked. The Miracle on Ice won’t be soon forgotten.
49. Booing Sidney Crosby. If you’re not a Pens fan – or Canadian during the Olympic campaign – you love doing it. Admit it!
50. The LA Kings mascot, Bailey: easily the most enthusiastic mascot there is
51. The great Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick calling games on television. There’s no one better in America, and perhaps not anywhere else in the hockey world. He brings the game to your home like no one else can.
52. A goalie making a sprawling save.
53. The Winter Classic – because outdoor hockey is the most romantic part of this great sport. Seeing a game live at Mariucci Arena in Minnesota – the University of Minnesota has so much history behind it, and the best fans in all of college hockey
54. The first puck drop in the Stanley Cup Final.
