5 Things To Know For New Hockey Fans

(specifically Black People)

Written by Troy Ewers

There’s 2 months left until the hockey season starts and data shows that hockey is growing, with the NHL draft this year being the highest rated NHL draft in the league’s history. Some would say that is because it was televised on ESPN instead of the usual NHL Network, but whatever the reasoning, hockey is growing in America, especially within the Black community, so with that being said, I want to give new fans 5 important things to understand about the sport of hockey before this upcoming season. By the way, if you’re a “hockey purist” and you think my tips are bad… Go watch Phil Esposito highlights and have a coke and a smile, because this is what I personally think new hockey fans need to know before they get into this sport that was invented by Black Canadians.

1. Pick A Team And Stick To It!

Even though there are stars in the NHL who can draw in sell out crowds in any city, hockey is all about love of a team. The sweater or jersey of a team is the most important thing. The player in the jersey can be amazing, but the logo on the front of the jersey means everything to a hockey fan. Whether you choose your hometown team like I did or you choose a team that interests you like my friend Anthony McBride did with the Pittsburgh Penguins, you have to stick to the team you choose, because every team in the league has a storied history. The “Original 6” (Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs) were the first teams of the league, teams like San Jose and Arizona with their representation in places where hockey doesn’t have a history, teams with die hard fan bases like Seattle, Edmonton, and New York Islanders, every team has its own history that creates these incredibly romantic stories and creates fans that become dedicated no matter the circumstances with their teams. This dedication is why you should stick to whatever team you pick. This isn’t basketball or football where it’s easy to just choose favorite teams based on players, when Sydney Crosby retires people who love the Penguins will still love the Penguins. As a Sharks fan, my dedication gets deeper as the team's hunt for the Stanley Cup becomes a more rugged terrain. If you stick to the team you choose in hockey, you’ll be rewarded with a true romance that can result in the peak of celebration… A Stanley Cup parade.

2. Don’t Expect A Fight Every Game, But Expect A Fight Every Game.

I went to a game with my friend Manuel and it was his first hockey game. Now he got lucky, because for his first game I was blessed with box seats for free from a work situation, so already his appreciation is a little skewed, but all he wanted to see the whole time we were on our way to the arena was a fight. I told him the moment we walked into the arena that a fight was gonna happen, just because the Sharks were playing their rivals the Ducks and I wasn’t wrong. Not only did we see Timo Meier get a hat trick, we saw 3 gloves off fist fights, alongside the usual scuffles that happen in the games. When we left the game, Manuel left ecstatic and not disappointed, still something he talks about when I bring up hockey around him. This great story is cool, but one thing I tell all my friends who watch hockey for the first time, “A fight will happen every game, but that’s not why we’re here.” I say that because if you watch enough hockey games you learn pretty quickly, a fight will happen damn near every game, because these teams are way too passionate to not fight no matter how close the score is, the reason you go to the game is because it’s a combination of the passion which results in the hard checks and fights and the skill and athleticism which results in scoring and beautiful highlight reel moments. Fighting might get you in the door to be a hockey fan, but it becomes like a side of fries when you watch enough games.

3. You’ll Get Used To How Fast The Game Is And The Rules… I Promise!

This one is a short rule, because you have to watch hockey more than once or twice to get what I’m saying. The game of hockey is the second fastest game as far as action compared to “dead time”, the only game with less “dead time” is basketball, which means these games have the least amount of dead balls and whistles that slow the game down. The game with the most “dead time” is football, with more dead ball whistles than any sport out of the 4 major sports in America. Hockey is a fast game with a small puck and on television can get hard to follow, I promise you it will get easier to pay attention. It’s the only thing my grandma doesn’t like about hockey. Just like how fast the game is, you’ll get used to the rules. Offside is player first, then puck. Boarding is knocking a player with his back turned into the boards. Icing is a way to prevent cherry picking and “dead time”. All the rules are very clear, but when you’re just starting to get into hockey, these rules might as well be Dungeons & Dragons to you. I promise if you watch hockey after a couple weeks the pace and rules of the game become simple to where you can watch hockey and play a video game at the same time and never lose a piece of action.

4. Don’t Trip About Pronouncing Players’ Names.

This is mostly a complaint amongst my fellow Black people. They all joke with me and say they can’t pronounce the players names (ironically funny to me by the way), so they can’t really get into the game. I’ve been watching hockey for 18 years and still can’t say players’ names. The Sharks have a couple players that I gotta give my own nicknames because pronouncing those names will give me anxiety. Once you watch the hockey games and you hear how the name is actually pronounced by the eloquent broadcasters, it becomes easier for you to pronounce, but at the same time new players come in every year and you have to be a full time hockey analyst who researches every aspect of the sport to get no names wrong. Playas mess up too.

5. Every Game Matters!

The NFL makes every game matter because there’s only 17 games in the regular season. The NBA and MLB have a problem for some consumers, because with so many games, players don’t treat every game with the same effort in the middle of the season to preserve themselves for the end of the season and hopefully the playoffs. The NHL makes it to where every game matters, simply because of what I said in the other 4 parts of this list. The storied franchises and the dedicated fans make every game seem bigger than they are. The passion and skill I brought up in point #2 makes games where the 2 worst teams can play each other and be just as entertaining as the two best teams in the league playing each other. The fast pace of the game makes the game of hockey unpredictable. Even the fact that you can’t pronounce some players names makes the game even more interesting, because you’ll discover a player from a whole other country and new things about that whole culture all from a game. The stakes are always high in the NHL and every game raises the stakes. If games stop mattering to your team, then your team sucks. That’s hockey and between October and April, every game is a brick to build stairs that lead you to the Stanley Cup. If you are just starting to watch hockey, give it one season like I did and maybe you’ll be obsessed like I was. Every person I ask how they got into hockey always sounds the same. They watched some hockey one time and became obsessed with their team, from there it was all about seeing your team hoist Lord Stanley’s Chalice (you’ll understand after you watch more hockey).