Hockey, and Why I Don’t Like Following Sports
June 3rd, 2010 | Categories: Entertainment | 10 CommentsEver since the semester has ended and I’ve moved back home, I’ve been watching hockey games. More specifically, I’ve been watching the game whenever my team, the Chicago Blackhawks, is playing. I watched them beat the Vancouver Canucks and I watched them sweep the San Jose Sharks (that one was particularly satisfying as one of my friends is a diehard Sharks fan). Now the Hawks are against the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup finals and I’m suddenly being reminded of why I have steadfastly avoided following sports my entire life.
It’s stressful being a hockey fan! You are glued to the game, pulse racing with every move, afraid to breathe whenever either team is about to score, bellowing in frustration whenever the other team scores, cheering with joy whenever your team scores… the tension, anticipation, anxiety and unadulterated joy when it comes to sports is really unparalleled. More often than not I’ve found myself alternating between wanting to cover my eyes at the truly tense moments (usually whenever either team is about to score) and not being able to take my eyes off the game. (I realize that wanting to close my eyes is silly because those moments can be part of the best or worst moments of the game.)
Part of the reason why I’ve become interested in hockey recently is that it’s just a fun game to watch. I’ve tried watching numerous sports over the years and the only ones I’ve found interesting are AFL1 and hockey. (My friends that are fanatics about American sports will be disappointed to hear that American football and baseball are among the sports that bore me to death.) I’ve been able to pick up a surprising amount about hockey in such a short amount of time, both in terms of how the game is played as well as background about the Hawks players. Also, it is not a bad time to start watching hockey when your team wins the Western Conference and has a 50/50 chance of winning the Stanley Cup. Just putting that out there.
But yes. Even though I don’t like following sports in general, and even though I’ve discovered it is very stressful towards my health to start becoming a hockey fan, and even though last night’s overtime against the Flyers in Game 3 almost killed me…
GO HAWKS!
- I’m a West Coast Eagles fan and yes, I know they are doing horribly but I don’t care. [↩]
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Hi, I'm Manda. I'm a college student studying communications and languages. I like to read, shop, bake, and travel. I have a tendency to listen to my favorite songs on repeat for hours on end. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in a language other than English. 
MANDA! I’m so proud of you!! Hockey is the best sport! And only sport I care about. :P I’m 100% with you baseball and football. So boring. And golf. Ugh. I don’t know how people can watch that! I’m a relatively new hockey fan (this is only my second season of actively watching) but I come from a long line of hockey fanatics, so it was bound to rub off on me sooner or later. :P My team’s already out of the playoffs which I was very disappointed about (though they deserved it; they played shitty) so I’m going for Chicago now too. Sort of by default though simply because I hate the other teams. XD I’m bummed Chicago lost last night. :( Though in all honestly, I’m also a bit pleased because that means the series will last longer. :P As long as they win game 7, it makes no difference to me. My mom made me shut the game off last so she could sleep so I didn’t see from the end of the 2nd period on. Overtime, eep!
Are you going to go to a game?! That would be rad. I wish where I lived a) either had a hockey team (NS), or b) had a hockey team that didn’t suck (Toronto), because I would go all the time. Hockey is such an exhilarating sport to watch.
*stops babbling*
I can’t afford to go to a game with tickets running up to $350USD! I imagine going to a game would cement my hockey fan status though, because in any sport there energy at a game is incomparable. But you should come stay with me in Chicago or DC sometime and we can go to a Hawks or Caps game!
This is super belated (for some reason I haven’t been getting e-mail notifications of blog comments any more… it’s weird), but anyway, TOTALLY! If I’m ever in either of those areas, we will of course have to meet up (that’s a given) and see a game. :D
I forgot about the ticket prices being kind of crazy. That makes for a valid reason not to go. It’s too bad though because I’ll bet it would be pretty rad! Don’t these hockey players know weren’t starving students? :P When my parents went to the Olympics in February, they said tickets for the gold medal men’s hockey game were selling for up to 10 000$!! Isn’t that insane?! As much as I would have wanted to go, I would have sold my ticket in an instant!
End digressing/rambling.
I can’t watch sports events that last more than a few minutes because I get WAY too into it and it really stresses me out. :P
I don’t want the Hawks or the Flyers to win, tbh. I’m mad at the Hawks for kicking the Canucks out, but I’m madder at the Flyers because they kicked my actual team out, and I’m holding a grudge from… 2004? :P So, I guess I’d rather the Hawks win, but I’m not going for them. YEAH I am a hardcore hockey fan. Not that I watch games anymore – too much for my feeble heart to handle. I watched obsessively when I was about 10-12, though. Honestly, I’ve kind of given up because our teams suck.
I’m with Krissy – I know I’m lucky to live in one of 6 Canadian cities with a team, but WHY do they have to suck? :|
I have a cousin who studied abroad in Vancouver and when it was Hawks vs Canucks, family tensions were VERY high. Obviously my brother and I were ecstatic when the Hawks won, but then my cousin pointed out that Canada won the gold in the men’s hockey in the Vancouver Olympics :P
[...] website; I have made absolutely no progress on building my professional digital identity; and I am breathless with anticipation for tonight’s Hawks vs Flyers hockey game (Game 4 in the series, 2-1 [...]
That’s exactly why I don’t like following sports, either! But my school’s a NCAA basketball Sweet Sixteen regular and the excitement is contagious. I think it’s worse though because you see those athletes around school – every loss feels so much closer to home. But anyhow, the only sport I really followed in the past couple years is tennis which is especially nerve-racking because it’s an individual sport. I can’t imagine how they handle the pressure. This past year though NFL football grew on me… I think it may be because my home team did respectably well for the first time in a while but I used to make fun of football as a ridiculous sport (okay, it’s still ridiculous, I mean what is all this piling up on each other and TACKLING, really?! HAH.)
Anyhow, back to hockey, my friend won tickets to a Dallas Stars game this season and I got to go with her! Aside from it being so cold (understandably), it was awesome! I loved it! One of my favorite movies as a kid was The Mighty Ducks (I don’t care what the critics say.. I thought it was amazing) so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I like hockey. Unfortunately, the Stars aren’t that great so I didn’t follow the season.. Perhaps I will get sucked in eventually.. Best of luck to the Blackhawks!
(Oops, I suppose I got a little too excited about posting my first comment in so long! Heh.)
Wow, I never knew that AFL was even KNOWN in other countries. (I’m from Australia.)
I’m rather a big netball fan myself. I used to hate it, but ever since I was forced to play, I’ve eventually grown to love watching it. I totally get what you’re on about!
I lived in Australia for several years; that’s how I know about AFL :P
[...] had. I explored new areas of DC. I watched the Hawks win the Stanley Cup with one of my friends (YAY HAWKS!). I stayed in the most luxurious hotel I’ve ever been in (it was paid for, score!). I caught [...]