Faceoff Factor

101 Reasons To Love Hockey - Part 3

Ashley Gallant | National Hockey League

Jul 26, 03:07 PM | Hype this story!

41. Parties at the Local Pubs and Eateries
Imagine this: It’s the Stanley Cup Finals, or your country is in the Finals at the World Juniors. Why not go to a local pub or sports bar to watch the game with a hundred other fans? It beats sitting at home all by your lonesome.

42. The Cameras
NHL games have cameras all over the arena to capture the action from every angle. When a play is under review, the network replays the incident in question over and over again so that we can come to our own conclusions. These cameras help to make the game as fair as possible.

43. The Refs
Hear me out before you wonder whether I have lost my marbles. I recognize that the refs make a number of boneheaded decisions all the time. However, I also recognize that being a hockey referee is one of the hardest jobs in sports because the game is so fast and it’s hard to see everything that happens because there are so many players on the ice. I think that (most of) the refs do the best that they can and try to get it right. At least they’re not fixing games (that we know of, anyway).

44. The Rituals
Sure, Detroit’s obsession with a stinky, slimy octopus is gross, but that kind of history is kinda cool.

45. Bruce Boudreau
You have to love a coach like this, who spends years in the minors before he finally gets his chance at the big show. He starts out being an interim head coach, only to be offered a full-time position a month later after he completely revamps the team. They go on to win the division and make the playoffs for the first time in 5 years. To top it all off, he appears to be a genuine nice guy.

46. Superstitions
Hockey players are superstitious creatures. Some need to put on their equipment in a specific order, while others refuse to touch the Stanley Cup unless and until they win it. And then you have the goalies, with Patrick Roy being (perhaps) the most superstitious of them all; he never skated over the blue lines, and he often talked to his goal posts.

47. Hockey Brawls
They are so much better than the sissy ‘brawls’ in baseball.

48. Joey Moss
You may have never heard of him, but his story is truly inspirational. You have to love the Edmonton Oilers and ‘Sparky’ for all they have done for Joey.

49. History in the Rafters
In many hockey arenas, you can look up at the rafters and see the team’s history on banners. Championship banners, honoured players…it’s like looking back in time.

50. Brian Burke
To say he speaks his mind is a bit of an understatement. He’s a colourful guy in the hockey world, never boring.

51. The Music
Sometimes you hear ‘Pretender’ by the Foo Fighters, and sometimes you hear the Bonanza theme song. It doesn’t matter what plays through the speakers, it’s all good.

52. The Kids
They are bundled up in miniature hockey uniforms, trying to stay on their feet and push the puck with their sticks, just like their favourite NHL players. More often than not, they end up on their rear ends or under a pile of uncoordinated kids, but they have fun while doing it.

53. Major Junior Hockey
It’s like a kids version of the NHL. These players are skilled and they play hard. Sometimes they fight. They also go to school and are often far from home. They just don’t have multi-million dollar contracts.

54. The Toronto Maple Leafs
If the Leafs weren’t around, messing things up, the media would have to talk about another team. Maybe they would latch onto the Penguins and talk about what Ray Shero ate for breakfast on July 1st.

55. The Grinders
They don’t get the big contracts, or a lot of face time with the media, but they get plenty of love from fans.

56. The Arguments
There is simply no sport out there that is argued about as much as hockey. We argue about how many teams are in the NHL, where teams should be located, what rules should be added, what rules should be abolished, which players are good, which players are overrated, who played well in Game X, who needs to get things together, and so on. And the thing is, for every issue at hand, a case can be made for both sides.

57. The Mascots
Sometimes the mascots can be corny or annoying, but they can also be a source of entertainment. It was kind of funny when Sharkie got stuck while rappelling from the rafters (although I’m sure he didn’t find it quite as amusing).

58. Hockey Nicknames
We give nicknames to individual players (‘Soupy’ for Brian Campbell), to lines (the ‘EGG’ line in New Jersey), and even teams (the ‘Habs’ for the Canadiens).

59. Free Agency
We sit around and watch team after team overspend in the hopes of landing the big fish of the pond, and then we tell everyone who will listen how Team X is stupid for grossly overpaying Player Y.

60. Die-Hard Fans
They are the ones who support the team even when the team can’t ice a decent product. They cheer when there isn’t much to cheer about. They buy the jerseys of lesser-known players, in addition to the jerseys of star players. They spend money on lamps, mouse pads, banners, pucks, clothing, mugs…anything with the team logo.