Ten Reasons to Love the NHL

By Brodie Wheeler Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 | No Comments
The NHL regular season starts this Saturday and I for one can’t wait. We thought it would be a good idea to get in the mood for some hard hitting, face paced action with ten reasons why we love the greatest game on earth.
  1. The Stanley Cup – The greatest trophy in sports, not only do theSC Ice Cream winners get their name engraved on the cup for all eternity, players get 24 hours “alone” with the Cup to do with what they wish. This offseason the Stanley Cup took a swim in Mario Lemieux’s pool but the cup has been misplaced, stolen and had all number of beverages drank from it. Chris Chelios is a man after my heart; he filled the bowl with Ice cream and had a sundae with his kids.
  2. The Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby debate – Both are great for different reasons do you like pretty goals or beautiful passes. Do you like the flashy Russian or the good ole Canadian kid?
  3. Don Cherry – As the guy gets older his suits get louder.  He’s like that Don Cherry Suituncle that comes over for Christmas dinner, drinks way too much, insults everyone, blames the foreigners for screwing up the world but he’s your mom’s brother and he bought you your first porno magazine. So you’ll always hold a soft spot in your heart for the drunken xenophobe.
  4. Fan Hatred – Whichever team you are a fan of you have a natural hatred for at least one other team in the league. I was born a Leaf fan, I’ll die a Leaf fan and if you are a Montreal Canadiens fan, I don’t think I would like you as a person.
  5. Bashing Gary Bettman – No matter what team you support and which team you hate, fans can all agree on one thing, we all hate Gary Bettman check out this clip

  6. 5 for fighting – What other team sport can you pound the crap out of your opponent and only get a 5 minute “Time Out”?

  7. Workaday Heroes – Hockey player are some of the most humble athletes you’ll ever meet. If they weren’t playing hockey most of these guys would be working in construction or driving a truck.
  8. The National Anthems – If you hear it at an arena I guarantee you get goose bumps, check out this clip

  9. The Speed – It’s literally the fastest team sport on the planet.
  10. The Handshake – It doesn’t matter that 5 minutes ago you were trying to take your opponents head off his shoulders, when a playoff series if over everyone lines up at center ice and shakes hands.