Hockey deserves way more respect

I was born and raised in Vegas, unfortunately it took until 2017 for us to finally get the Vegas Golden Knights. This was because "Vegas isn't a sports town". Boy I love how painfully wrong all those Vegas haters are. Currently we have NBA, NHL, AHL, WNBA, triple-A baseball, soccer, and the IFL on their way in only 5 short years. Anyways, because of this the most exposure I had when it came to hockey was: The Mighty Duck films, Miracle, and that one time Wayne Gretzky played in Vegas, however that was long before I was born. Also the Wranglers but I never attended a game unfortunately, so I don't count the Wranglers. However I always had a massive respect to hockey players. Also before I forget I've never played myself but I would love to.

Then once the Vegas Golden Knights were announced I was all in. I actually owe "2BCProductions2BC" for all my hockey knowledge. Countless hours studying his videos. If it wasn't for his "General Zod" series I would have had a much harder time trying to learn hockey.

Hockey basics

So let's start from the beginning and you'll see why hockey/hockey players deserve way more respect. Hockey teams will dress 18 skaters and 2 goalies, with no more than 5 skaters and one goalie at a time on the ice (but exceptions are made when the goalie is pulled).

Similarly to basketball, you play 82 regular season games. Then in the playoffs you'll play 4 best of 7 series to become champion. That's no less than 98 games of hockey, and that's if you play a perfect 16-0 Stanley Cup run. So realistically hockey players who are relatively healthy will play anywhere from 95-105 games of hockey in one season. The only sport that plays more games is baseball, which I'll be fair is literally twice as much regular season games. However the post season is a little bit more tricky because of the wildcard games. But that's a different topic for a different article.

As for the games themselves, they're a grueling 60 minutes of regulation (similar to football). But hockey is broken up into 3 periods, that are 20 minutes each period. And there are no ties (anymore, unlike soccer where ties are very common).

So why does hockey need more love?

Physicality

We all remember the bash brothers from the Might Ducks growing up. Hockey is an incredibly physical sport, for those of you unaware hits are a statistic that's accounted for both on an individual standpoint and team stand point. Then of course is the fighting, which is allowed. But you'll be rewarded with a 5 minute penalty to cool down in the penalty box.

But physicality doesn't have to just mean hitting your opponent. In hockey you have to use your whole body; of course simply just skating uses your full body and that's before we even start talking about crazy deeks and dangles. Then slap shots require use of your full body, with wrist shots being more focused to your upper body but still require some crazy dexterity. Then of course on defense, if you're like Alex Martinez, your whole body will constantly hurt from all the shots you're blocking before they get to your goalie.

Speaking of the goalies their: flexibility, reflexives, and of course their crazy vision. It's super human to me.

Drama

From the Boston Celtics and LA Lakers, to New England Patriots and Pittsburg Steelers, to the New York Yankees and LA Dodgers, to Chelsea and Real Madrid. Sports can be incredibly boring at times because they've just become way too predictable. As much as I respect the legacies of; Lebron, Curry, Kobe, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Bill Russell, Tim Duncan. Basketball has become the worst culprit of becoming way too predictable. And that's not even me bringing up combat sports, but that's a different topic for another day.

Sure: Montreal, Toronto, and Detroit have an insane amount of Stanley Cups throughout the years. However hockey is incredibly unpredictable. It's very, very rare a team repeats in the Stanley Cup let alone threepeats. The last franchise to do a threepeat was the New York Islander's, in the 1980's. Then there's of course my Vegas Golden Knights winning their division and going to the Stanley Cup in their inaugural season. There are very few sports that are this unpredictable and have this much drama.

Multinational sensation

Granted nearly all sports are slowly but surely becoming more and more international, Hockey's reach is insane. From: Canada, US, Russia, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, the list goes on and on of countries that love hockey. The only rivaling sport I can think of with further reach is basketball and football.

Prestige

Trivia time. I bet you didn't know that the Stanley Cup is the oldest North American championship, having been first given out in 1892. The fact that we're still competing for the Stanley Cup to this day says it all.

Fans

I've attended many sporting events in the past both professional and amateur; basketball, football, wrestling, etc. However, there are no louder fans relative to their size than hockey fans. Every cheer and every boo I felt in my chest when I went to both AHL and NHL games. Hockey fans are insanely dedicated. Just take a look at "The Green Men".

Salaries

It's really sad to see; in soccer we have like Ronaldo making over a billion dollars in his contracts alone throughout his career. In the NBA; Steph Curry, Lebron James, Kevin Durant, so on and so forth are making over $40M a season. Mike Trout in the MLB signed a contract for nearly a half a billion dollars just last year. Yet here's poor old hockey. Vegas is seen as the land of no salary cap. However from our captain Mark Stone, to our leading scorer in Max Pacioretty and even hall of fame goalie Marc Andre, if a hockey player makes even $10M per year it's seen as absurd. For the crazy amount of abuse put on their bodies hockey players are severely underpaid relative to other sports leagues despite everything I just told you. Hockey deserves way more respect.

TL:DR

I think Blue Mountain State perfectly summed up why hockey is insane. But good insane.

Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoyed what you have read today. I have plenty of different articles on many different topics. Feel free to give those other articles a read or two. Also if you'd be so kind, I'd greatly appreciate a heart and if you really feel so inclined tips are always appreciated but by no means required.