I went to a Chicago Wolves game with my friend Amy this weekend. The Chicago Wolves are the local AHL (American Hockey League) team. The AHL isn’t as well-known as the NHL (National Hockey League), which includes teams like the Chicago Blackhawks. However, it’s still a lot of fun to go to a game – it is hockey, after all!
I don’t consider myself much of a sports buff. I certainly can’t play sports, due to my absolute lack of any athletic ability. I do love to watch hockey! I was excited to find fellow “crazy cat lady” Amy, who I knew through volunteering at a local cat shelter, was a hockey fan as well.
Hockey is the absolute best sport ever. I don’t see how there can be any debate about it. I can tolerate watching football – but there’s no sport that I enjoy watching as much as ice hockey.
Let’s look at it rationally. Hockey compared to football, for example. Unlike football, hockey players don’t stop every time they get possession of the puck, regroup, and discuss what they might do next. No, they don’t. They get the puck and they keep playing. Their objective is to get the puck in the opposing team’s net – every time.
Unlike baseball, hockey players don’t take turns with the puck. (Well, unless it’s a tie-breaking shoot-out, which is another story – and that happens fast and they get ONE try.)
A high-scoring hockey game might consist of eight goals. I fail to see how ANYONE can get excited about scoring in basketball. Okay, so your team made a basket. They’ll probably make twenty or thirty more baskets before the game is over. What is the big deal about one? I went to a college basketball game with my boyfriend and his friends last week. Not only do basketball players get “time-outs”, they actually bring out folding chairs so the players can sit down and take a break. What is up with that?
If you change players in hockey, there’s no stopping the game to let the teammates switch out. No. The hockey players going out jump over the boards to the bench while their teammate jumps over and on to the ice. No stopping. No waiting.
If a hockey player incurs a penalty for breaking the rules, they have to go sit in the penalty box and think about what they did – and they don’t get to play for several minutes. This strategy works well for punishing children, I don’t know why it wouldn’t work well for athletes.
The sheer grace of hockey players is amazing. Not only have they the athletic ability to shoot a little puck using a stick into a goal (guarded by a well-padded goaltender) but they do this all on ice skates. I can’t ice skate in a circle, slowly, facing forward, without falling down. They skate forward and backward and in circles and avoid opposing teammates and handle a puck with a stick the entire time. Amazing.
So, two crazy cat ladies were at the Wolves game last weekend – and had an awesome time. Amy’s fantastic and was only mildly embarrassed at the obscenities coming out of my mouth, loudly. She said she was only embarrassed at all because the gentleman seated behind us was wearing a clerical collar. Yup, Amy is a fellow “crazy cat lady” and a fellow hockey fan.
Submitted for publication in The Greeley Citizen.
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