Hockey

On Sunday I went to a Dallas Stars NHL (National Hockey League) game with Ian and his friend Ross (and Ross’ baby Liam too, if we’re getting technical about the guest list). I’d never been to a hockey game before, I guess Albuquerque either doesn’t have a team or I was never aware of one if it does. (OK I just googled ‘NHL New Mexico’ and it came up with a list of National Historic Landmarks so I think that pretty much confirms the lack of ice hockey in NM!) So anyway, I’d never been to a hockey game, and in fact my only knowledge of ice hockey comes from watching Mighty Ducks when I was younger, so I was very excited for a new experience. And I really enjoyed myself!

Granted, some of my excitement stemmed not so much from the sport, but from the fact that we watched the game from a private box, which belongs to Ross’ company. That was pretty cool. We got to go through the Platinum entrance, we were in our own room, we had comfy seats and weren’t just one of the crowd – we made our own crowd! We got a great view of the rink (?) - not sure if that’s correct NHL terminology but let’s go with it – and were about mid-level height so could see enough of the game without relying heavily on the big screens.

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed the game so much is that it’s much more fast-paced than most sports. American football is slow to the point of watching paint dry (yes maybe you did just run the length of the field, but why are you now stopping for a ten minute coffee break while some random men run out onto the pitch with a tape measure?); baseball - yawnsville; golf – even worse; real football is definitely more fast paced than the Yank version but the pitch is so huge that it still feels slow, as most of the action takes place in the middle and no-one cares about that part, just get inside the damn box and score already. It may just be that I have a very short attention span but hockey suited me very nicely. The rink (still unsure about this) was small enough that everything that happened seems to be full of action and excitement; the game isn’t separated in two but in threes, so you have two opportunities to get the beers in, between periods (official hockey vocab – they couldn’t exactly call it a game of three halves could they?!); and the scoring system was simple enough for my small brain i.e. one goal equals one point. This may sound like a stupid point to some people but in American football, basketball, rugby etc, there are all kinds of ways to score a differing amount of points depending on your techniques. I like it simple.

The arena where we saw the game is also a basketball court for the Dallas Mavericks. It switches between basketball court and ice hockey rink and apparently takes 8 hours to go from one to the other.

The Stars unfortunately lost 4-2 to the LA Kings but I think I’ve found a sport I actually enjoy watching!