The Five Best and Worst Things About the NHL

Hockey is the greatest sport in the world, but there is no doubt the NFL is run much better. In this article, I will showcase what is great and what is not about the NHL.

You will note that all the good things are about the game, and all the bad things are about the league.

Top five reasons to watch:

1. It really is the fastest game on earth. Players fly down the ice at speeds unprecedented in any other team sport that involves actual scoring, with players skating at speeds faster than anything but sprinters. A good game will feature many times going up and down the ice, taxing players' endurance. No other sport has this, and it is non-stop; in football, there are 10-second plays followed by 25 seconds of huddling and lining up.
2. It involves artistry and skill, but it is still physical. There is no other sport that features as much of a balance of these things. Even at full speed, players are capable of performing incredible feats of skill like reaching behind them and dragging the puck forward, no-look passes between their legs, and 360-degree spins on ice at full speed with enough strength to fight off a hit.
3. Scoring is difficult, but chances are plentiful. There may not be many goals scored (usually just over five per game between the two teams), but there are usually about three dozen moments in a game where there is the anticipation of a score.
4. The unpredictability of the playing surface and components. Because one is on a slippery surface that gets scarred over the course of the game trying to hit a tiny puck with a stick, strange things happen. This is why I always loved seeing Patrick Roy and Eddie Belfour duel in the Western Conference: a funny bounce early in the game could determine the winner, and you always have to be on your toes. In what other sport could a team of players who mostly did not ever make it to the NHL (Team USA in 1980) beat a team that dominated that league's All Stars (the Soviet Union)?
5. You have a recourse when officials are not doing their job. As a child, I hated how the NBA favoured stars, leaving my small-market team at a disadvantage in the playoffs. Moses Malone would get away with a cheapshot against Bob Lanier, and we just had to suck it up. In the NHL, when someone tries that against my Sharks, Jody Shelley skates out and tosses the gloves, either against that player or his teammate. I would rather referees actually did their job because I know fighting drives some fans away (it is mostly hard-core fans who like it, and they won't leave if it stops...they watch the Olympics that do not allow fighting), but at least you don't just have to take it.

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