Anyone who has known me longer than, oh, 5 minutes expresses shock and surprise to find out that I love hockey. Even after a couple of years as a fan of the sport, my own parents still sometimes ask, “Who are you, and what have you done with our daughter?” (To be fair, that’s largely payback for asking them the same in reverse when they became football fans.) Truly, it is rather inconsistent with everything else about me. At least…on the surface.
I grew up dancing. I was the epitome of a band geek, and the only thing football was good for was the halftime show. I didn’t mind basketball, but growing up in Indiana meant that was kind of required. Other than that, I never had any more interest in watching sports than I had in playing one. Until about 3 years ago.
I really had no intention of becoming a hockey fan. The only reason I even started watching hockey was because I got killer foot rubs from my husband if I’d watch a game with him. Being in the Tulsa area, Dallas Stars games were (and are) on TV the most regularly. He had been something of a Stars fan years before but had fallen out of watching around the time we started dating. (I don’t think the two things were related.) Since one of the stipulations of the foot rubs was that I had to actually watch the game…no reading or playing on my phone, I asked a lot of questions. I started reading about hockey and the Stars online to learn more about what was going on. I was hooked.
The thing about hockey is that it’s different than what people who don’t follow the sport think. Yes, it’s a physical game. It gets rough. But what casual observers don’t seem to realize is that there are rules. I don’t just mean rules like you can’t ice the puck or whack another player with your stick. I mean there are rules about when it’s appropriate to fight, and a protocol for when it is time to throw down. There’s an etiquette to the more violent part of the games, and everyone is expected to adhere to the rules. The players stick up for each other. Most of the time a fight is about the team, whether it’s standing up for a teammate who was wronged or lighting a fire to get the team going.
Another thing about hockey that I don’t think people consider is that it’s a graceful sport. The way guys fall and get back up requires a certain amount of elegance. The game moves so quickly that it’s easy to overlook those elements. If you really watch the players, though, there are a lot of similarities with watching a modern dancer performing falls or rolls.
Strangely, perhaps, one of my favorite things about hockey is the sound of skates cutting through the ice.
So maybe it’s unexpected that I’m a hockey fan, but maybe that’s only because you haven’t really paid attention to the game.
