Hockey is Just Alright With Me

So tonight I went to my first hockey game. Notre Dame’s team is doing pretty well this year (I hear they’re ranked #1) and tonight they hosted the Bulldogs of Ferris State. Some of my dorm girls were going, so I thought I’d check it out. It turns out that hockey is pretty fun in person. It’s a very fluid sport; the smooth way the men move around the ice is really a sight to see. It’s also a very violent sport; a fight broke out with 6 minutes to go in the first period that sent 4 guys to the penalty box. The dichotomy between the smooth and the rough is actually kind of cool. I feel like hockey may go the way of golf and soccer. For more explanation and pictures, follow me…

When I was young, I always used to feel like golf and soccer were both really boring sports. I would see them on TV and they just seemed unexciting, nothing like football or basketball. Baseball also seemed a little dull on TV, but since I played it (well, softball, but you get the idea) I knew that it really was exciting and I just had to get into my team more. However, once I hit high school my brother started to play golf and in the summer he would travel to tournaments and I would go with him sometimes and be his caddy. I started to appreciate the sport and now I’ll sit down 4 days in a row and watch the Majors on TV.

Soccer was much the same until I spent the summer in London this past year. I was there for the World Cup excitement and I got all caught up watching with Englishmen in pubs who were so into it that I couldn’t help myself. In fact, after only 3 weeks of enjoying World Cup play in London, I was bound and determined to get to a city in Germany on the day of a game, just to experience the atmosphere. I ended up going to Dortmund and wrangled my way into a ticket to arguably one of the best matches of the entire tournament, the Germany-Italy semi-final.

So, hockey may be going the way of golf and soccer. I had a great time at the game, and it was much easier to follow in person (on TV sometimes I have a hard time telling where the puck is). Perhaps I will follow NOtre Dame through their run in the post-season and maybe I’ll even pick myself out an NHL team to root for. Maybe another hockey-hater has been converted tonight.

The following two pictures are of the game, which was knotted at 0s when I left, even though ND had 20 shots on goal and Ferris State had 4. The last picture is of the first intermission entertainment and I gotta tell ya, it was about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. #1 looked so befuddled (he’s in blue on the far left) and he just kinda skated around, tra la la. I wanted to take him home with me!