I think it's no secret that I'd choose football over basketball any day. Football games were hard to come by while growing up although I did get to see my fair share of it along with baseball. But hockey... people thought that it was an odd choice.
Much of my early affair with the sport was through an almanac that my mum gave me as a kid. And later on, I began to follow the New York Islanders. Ironically though my first ever live game was by the New Jersey Devils. Then it was the intra-city rivalry between the Islanders and the Rangers. You'd be hard-pressed to find Asian fans of the sport especially when basketball, American football, and baseball are so popular in the big city.
What made me love the sport? Let me count the ways...
-- watching those Islanders teams of Mike Bossy, Dennis Potvin, Butch Goring, and Clark Gillies was like watching scenes out of Slap Shot. They remain an indelible part of my childhood.
-- you get a rush any time you step on a field of play, but try it on the ice as you pick up speed and that's something else.
-- the sport has the coolest kits!
-- the Power Play. Isn't that cool when you're a man down and the clock is winding down and you're either waiting for your side to score while the other is undermanned or your team is on D and you're waiting for your teammate to leap out of the box to go on the counter offensive. No sport has this.
-- the rituals. When teams applaud the efforts of one, they beat their sticks on the sides of the wall. all other teams claps and cheer. In hockey they do that and more. If the fans of soccer's Boca Juniors throw the remains of departed fans on the pitch (and that's wild), in hockey, they throw underwear, octopi, beanies and hats, and roses on the ice.
You must be surprised I didn't list fighting. Sorry but that is uncool.
Much of my early affair with the sport was through an almanac that my mum gave me as a kid. And later on, I began to follow the New York Islanders. Ironically though my first ever live game was by the New Jersey Devils. Then it was the intra-city rivalry between the Islanders and the Rangers. You'd be hard-pressed to find Asian fans of the sport especially when basketball, American football, and baseball are so popular in the big city.
What made me love the sport? Let me count the ways...
-- watching those Islanders teams of Mike Bossy, Dennis Potvin, Butch Goring, and Clark Gillies was like watching scenes out of Slap Shot. They remain an indelible part of my childhood.
-- you get a rush any time you step on a field of play, but try it on the ice as you pick up speed and that's something else.
-- the sport has the coolest kits!
-- the Power Play. Isn't that cool when you're a man down and the clock is winding down and you're either waiting for your side to score while the other is undermanned or your team is on D and you're waiting for your teammate to leap out of the box to go on the counter offensive. No sport has this.
-- the rituals. When teams applaud the efforts of one, they beat their sticks on the sides of the wall. all other teams claps and cheer. In hockey they do that and more. If the fans of soccer's Boca Juniors throw the remains of departed fans on the pitch (and that's wild), in hockey, they throw underwear, octopi, beanies and hats, and roses on the ice.
You must be surprised I didn't list fighting. Sorry but that is uncool.
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