Why Not Hockey?

As a New Jersey Devils fan, it was an absolute thrill for me to go see them play for the Stanley Cup in Game 3 of the 1995 Finals. I had never been to a hockey game before and it was a time in my life where I was experiencing a lot of sports firsts. A year later I saw Charlie Hayes catch a foul ball to give the Yankees their 23rd World Championship, coincidentally tying them with the Montreal Canadians for the most sports championships in America's four major sports. That same year I saw the Giants play the hated Eagles on the rough and tough AstroTurf of the Meadowlands. It was an exciting time.

I have to say though, walking through the doors of Brendan Bryne Arena, now of course the Izod Center, and formerly Continental Airlines Arena, and feeling the playoff atmosphere surrounding the rink, the smell of the fresh ice, and the sound of the skates chipping away, it was a surreal moment. The Devils ended up winning that game 5-2 against the Detroit Red Wings, and to this day I still cheer whenever Detroit loses, although it seems to be rarely (thank you Pittsburgh). But hockey since then has fallen out of the public eye, an eye that gives the majority of its attention to a 17 week football season and a 162 game baseball season. I think this country doesn't know what it's missing.

If you were one of the few that witnessed the 2009 Stanley Cup you saw one of the best 7 game series of all time. After crushing defeat in the 2008 Stanley Cup by of course, the Detroit Red Wings, the Pittsburgh Penguins, lead by two of the most dynamic and best players in the NHL today, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, clawed their way through the Eastern Conference to battle once again the perennial favorites Red Wings. It was a thing of beauty to watch the story lines unfold, as Marian Hossa, who played for the Penguins in 2008 switched teams and joined Detroit as a free agent to win a Stanley Cup. It looked promising when Detroit won Game 5 to make the series 3-2, but Sid the Kid and Malkin had something to say. They came back and shocked the NHL fans with impressive wins in Games 6 and 7. It was exhilarating to watch and those that tuned in, instead of American Idol were given a great 3 periods of hockey.

In high school, I played basketball, but my school always had a dominate hockey program. Consistently ranked in the top 5 in the state, in 2005 they finally brought home the hardware at Continental Airlines Arena, where I saw my first game, and were rewarded by the enormous following of fans that came to watch them play. We were there for support of our fellow students and best friends of course, but the game of hockey made it so much more. The fast paced game ended in a 4-1 victory for Morris Knolls over Chatham. We saw fights, we saw hitting, we saw break aways, we saw the stars shine, we saw swift passing and hard slap shots. We were constantly in a cheering battle with the other school which made it all the more interesting. It was a great game and a great experience and it had me wondering why I didn't play the sport and why so many kids today don't.

I came to realize that was the problem. It was the opportunity to play the sport. When I was a kid I always saw signs for football sign ups or Little League sign ups, but never hockey try outs. Maybe it is the advertising of the sport in local towns. Maybe it is the fact that hockey equipment is just so expensive to purchase each year as kids grow that parents in this economy cannot afford to keep their kids in the sport. Maybe its the ice times that are constantly at the break of dawn or late at night. Maybe its everything. But most of all its the opportunity to play that keeps hockey and the NHL away from the public eye.

My father watched every sporting event I ever participated in. I played football, soccer, basketball, and baseball. He swam in college. He always loved football but was never a big baseball or basketball fan. When I had the opportunity to play the sport though, he took an interest. He started watching games on television, learning about the game so he could understand and appreciate it, and started getting involved in coaching. So when a die hard hockey fan asks himself why their sport is not as prevalent as football is, look to the local levels. Football enrollments and basketball tryouts and Little League opportunities are abundant in small town U.S.A., not to mention pretty cheap. Hockey is not and by every means not cheap. This is a sport that basically aroused my curiosity in sports to begin with and today it is quickly becoming more of a video game fad than an actually source of competition. If we want to bring hockey back to center stage and bring back Lord Stanley's trophy to its proper position on the pedestal of sport trophies (at the top), we need to give our kids the chance to play, we need to give them the opportunity to experience the game first hand, to smell the ice, to feel the excitement. We need to give them what my father gave me, tickets to a game.