Faceoff Factor

101 Reasons To Love Hockey - Part 2

Ashley Gallant | National Hockey League

Jul 25, 02:19 PM | Hype this story!

21. Sudden-Death Overtime
Overtime can be fairly exciting in any sport, but you can’t get much more thrilling than OT in hockey where the first team to score wins the game.

22. Bobby Orr
It’s not uncommon to see defencemen join the rush and contribute offensively nowadays. Some defencemen are even one of the top 3 scorers on their teams. For this, you can thank number 4, Bobby Orr.

23. Opening Night
It’s the first home game of the season. The team is introduced. The off-season is finally over. It’s time to start the quest for the ultimate prize.

24. The Trade Deadline
Some people actually call in sick to work on this day so that they can sit at home, in their PJs, and watch the drama unfold on television. There always seems to be a shocking move by the end of the day (Hossa to Pittsburgh in 2008, Smyth to NYI in 2007, etc).

25. The Pre-Season Hope
Fans of every team have high hopes at this point in the year. It will be the year they make the playoffs/win the Cup/not finish dead last. Unfortunately, those dreams may be crushed by mid-October.

26. Hockey Blogs
We hockey fans now have a creative outlet through which we can express our joy/rage/disgust/indifference/whatever about the game we love. Blogs can be funny, serious, insightful, moronic, or just plain stupid. That’s the nature of the Internet.

27. Alexander Ovechkin
This guy comes over to North America from Mother Russia and plays the game with more passion than most North American hockey players. Sometimes he’s shy, sometimes he’s outgoing, and then sometimes he just likes to ride his Segway around Washington.

28. The World Juniors
The WJC is something special because these young, skilled kids get together and compete for their countries. They haven’t been jaded by money and fame. Who wouldn’t like to support that? Oh, and it’s hockey over the Christmas holidays. Eat some turkey, watch a hockey game…can it get any better than that?

29. The Montreal Canadiens
If you can’t tell, I love the history of the game and there is no team with as much history as the Montreal Canadiens. In fact, they have 100 years of history – more than any professional hockey team in the world. Some of the greatest players in history have played for this team, and they have 23 Stanley Cup banners hanging from the rafters. Oh, and pretty much everyone in my family is a Habs fan.

30. Ending Cup Droughts
It’s an exciting time when a team wins its first Stanley Cup in franchise history, or when it ends a long Cup drought (like the 1994 Rangers). Unfortunately, this generation of Maple Leafs fans has no idea what this kind of excitement is really like.

31. Playoff Atmosphere
The energy of the playoffs is absolutely unreal. What I love, though, is when the crowd is uniform – think of the ‘White Outs’ in Pittsburgh or how everyone in Calgary wears a red Flames jersey.

32. Open Practices
Now and then, coaches will open practice to the public so that we can see players skate around in circles and practice drills. Who knows, we may even get to see a third line player dress up like the team’s superstar.

33. The Hanson Brothers
Not the musical group. Think Slap Shot. Need I say more?

34. Playing Through Injury
It takes a lot of guts for players to continue to play even though they have been injured. Sometimes it’s a broken bone, or a torn muscle, or a dislocated joint put back into place. To play with that kind of pain shows incredible strength and determination.

35. Come-From-Behind Victories
Your team is down 5-0 in the middle of the second period when they score one goal, then another. Pretty soon you’ve won the game in OT and the Rangers are going home stunned. How great is that?

36. Paul Henderson’s Goal
It was the goal heard around the world. It came 10 years before I was born, but people still talk about it today. It was the game- and series-winner of the 1972 Summit Series, and it came at 19:26 of the third period. He may never be inducted in the Hall of Fame, but he will be forever remembered for that moment in history.

37. Drafting First
Being one of the NHL’s worst teams is certainly a downer, but it also brings the possibility of drafting first overall. That kind of promise and potential can help to take some of the sting out of a losing season.

38. Back-and-Forth Games
It’s always fun to watch games where the teams trade goals and you’re never sure who is going to win until the final buzzer sounds.

39. Ty Conklin
…and players like him. They’re the ones we moan and groan about when signed by ‘our’ team. Then they step in and become a key part of the team when needed.

40. The Post-Game Parties
In May 2006, when the Memorial Cup was being held in Moncton, I went to a downtown restaurant with a bunch of friends to celebrate my friend’s birthday. That night also happened to be the night that the Moncton Wildcats were competing in the semi-finals. As we left the restaurant, I turned to my friend and wondered aloud whether the ‘Cats won…and then we heard the noise. Dozens of cars were driving past, people leaning out the windows cheering and drivers honking their horns in celebration. They must’ve started the party at the Coliseum, which was a good 10 miles away, and continued to drive all over town. It’s hard to not get caught up in that emotion, even if you’re not a hockey fan.