Winter in Colorado usually means only one thing: Skiing and Snowboarding. However, there is one sport that lies under the radar. That sport is Hockey. It’s finally time for another winter sport to have its moment. Hockey is one of the oldest sports and can be dated back to the 1500s. Despite its age, the sport remains relatively unpopular.
Hockey is a speed-of-lightning game. The puck barely ever stops moving. The game is in constant motion; even substitutions are made while the puck is in play. In other sports, such as football and baseball, the actual ball is in play for only 11-18 minutes. You are getting less than 15 minutes of game time for a 3-4 hour-long experience. Meanwhile, in Hockey, there are three 20-minute periods almost all of which are spent playing resulting in a nearly full hour of action.
The actual stadium gives an amazing experience while watching the game. When the players first enter the rink, the lights go wild, and music blares as they warm up. Throughout the game, they play all sorts of music and play interviews and little games with the players. Even the intermissions are filled with little events and giveaways. There are moments where announcers tease the other team and their fans. Not to mention our local arena for hockey, Ball Arena, is a massive and beautiful stadium. At Ball Arena, there are many food options as well as clean facilities and seats that go all the way to the ceiling.
The nature of hockey is a perfect balance of elegance and brutality. All sports require a tremendous amount of time to build up skill and talent, but hockey lives on a different level. First, players must master ice skating at speeds up to 20 mph and perfect all the tricks including crossovers and skating backward. Once players are proficient in skating, a puck and a stick are added. If you have ever played air hockey, you know how hard it is to keep track of the puck. On a large scale, it is even harder. In a hockey game, a puck on average reaches speeds of 60 mph, and the size of the goal is relatively small.
The culture of the game is also superior to other sports. I have never seen fans shout out “Yeah, mess ’em up!” or see players throw down their gloves and start punching each other in the jaw other than in hockey. There is an unofficial role in hockey called “The enforcer” where a player is sent in after the other team plays dirty. The enforcer then finds the cheapskate player and roughs him up. Hockey fans are beyond devoted to their teams and players. Despite the violence of the sport, the players are extremely friendly. They love to throw their pucks up to kids who sit in the front row.
Living in Colorado, we have one of the best teams in the NHL with three players ranked in the top 10 in the league. The Avalanches won the Stanley Cup in 2022 and are currently the favorite team to win the 2024 Cup.
Hockey is such a unique sport that is underappreciated due to the popularity of more mainstream sports. While the weather is cold, consider heading to an ice rink or catching an Avalanche game instead of hitting the slopes.
