I like the idea of hockey

As mentioned in an earlier post, I enjoy reading the blog entitled Stuff White People Like. I find lots of eerie parallels with the items on their list and my own life. The one that inspired this post today was item #80: The Idea of Soccer. Except in my case, it would be hockey instead of soccer. I still think soccer is pretty lame and not even a trip overseas will change my mind. But let me explain why I like the idea of hockey and not just hockey by itself.

I grew up in rural North Dakota. We had a little outdoor skating rink in the winter, but no indoor facilities to play year round. As a kid, I'd goof around and play some pond hockey with friends after school in the winter. But we never had any official games, coaching, or suitable equipment. Even if we did have all of that, we would never have had enough kids to form a team.

In small schools, you barely have enough athletes to put together a solid basketball and wrestling team during the same season. These two sports dominate the winter in North Dakota small towns. If they started a hockey program at these schools, all three sports would see a decline in quality players. So I never was exposed to playing organized hockey. I played baseball, basketball, and football; three sports which I now watch and follow with an obsession today.

Not to say there's no hockey in North Dakota. There is. But it's only played at the larger Class A schools that we don't compete with in sports. And of course, there's UND college hockey. But I never really watched it on television because I didn't really know or understand the sport. The closest I got to watching hockey back then was when I'd play Blades of Steel on Nintendo (and later, Stanley Cup for the Super Nintendo).

These are the reasons why I never really liked hockey. Now on to how I grew to like the idea of hockey.

It started with my move to college in Minnesota, the self-proclaimed State of Hockey. I got a job working down at the Xcel Energy Center where the Minnesota Wild played. I started to see the loyal following that this sport has in the Twin Cities and feel the excitement.

This excitement was compounded when the Gophers won the NCAA championship in men's hockey my freshmen year. I watched the game, but mostly I was just chatting with friends while the TV was on and only looking at the screen when I would hear the foghorn blast after a goal was scored. After they won, my friend Elliot and I took to the streets of Dinkytown. We celebrated by singing the Rouser multiple times that night with drunken students while we constantly ran to avoid clouds of tear gas that the police were shooting at us. We finally found a good place to hang out and watch the chaos unfold while a female friend of ours would sneak into a frat house and bring us out drinks. This night ensured the idea of hockey would forever be held in the highest regard in my mind.

In the following years I would start to recognize Friday and Saturday nights in the winter as hockey nights. If I was hanging out with friends at my apartment, the TV was always on in the background with the Gophers game. I even check scores, standings, and schedules just so I can sprinkle "The Wild won last night," or "The Gophers got a big series with St. Cloud State this weekend" into my conversations. It makes me feel superior when I talk to my friends back at home who went to NDSU and didn't have a college hockey team. I even went as far to consider buying a U of M hockey jersey, and I still might do it.

Yet I really don't like hockey as much as the idea of it. I don't know if I'll ever really follow a hockey team the way I religiously read every news tidbit about basketball, football, and baseball teams. I can sit down and watch an entire game, but at the end not be able to give any type of insightful analysis of what I just saw. But I still like the idea of hockey, and maybe someday it will click with me. Until then, my biggest hope is that we win another championship with the Wild or Gophers so I can watch another riot.