EYE-OPENING HOCKEY GAME EXPERIENCE

On Sunday (Jan. 19), I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a Western Hockey League game between the Portland Winterhawks and the Kelowna Rockets.

Admittedly, my family never emphasized athletic skill, instead emphasizing and encouraging academic prowess. As a result, I grew up having an interest in games such as chess or trivial pursuit. I did have a brief yet passive interest in sports, especially baseball, though that was only a result of my interest in history and fascination with Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, and Jackie Robinson. My family did enjoy sports, especially basketball, American football, and MMA, but only occasionally.

Hockey to me seemed to be a sport that only gets appreciated in Canada, just like how soccer is hugely popular in Europe. My only acknowledgement of hockey prior to Sunday as in 1982, where Clint Malarchuck (coincidentally, a former Winterhawk) suffered a life-threatening injury, and when NHL Hall-of-Famer Wayne Gretzky acquired the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card in 1992 for $451,000.

Needless to say, I went to my first hockey game (and first athletic contest) with no preconceptions. Although my interest in and knowledge of sports was very limited, I knew I had to take the chance to see it with my own eyes.

I was lucky to have the chance to sit in the front row right behind the penalty box, extremely excited to see what how good the Winterhawks really were since I heard much about their reputation as a top-tier WHL team.

As for first impressions, I was pretty entertained as the arena started playing club music shortly before the game started. The first moments of the game started off relatively quickly, though I was mostly focused on trying to use my rudimentary understanding of ice hockey to observe how the game functions. That was, until the first minute where there were player collisions against the glass on the ice rink. From then on, it was a flash of intense hockey plays.

During the first period, the Winterhawks were notably far more aggressive in their attempts to score a goal, while the Rockets were a lot more defensive. Unfortunately for the Rockets, defense is not the best offense, resulting in the Winterhawks scoring two goals during the period.

While the first period was very aggressive, the second period was not so much. Both sides were very passive in their attempts to score, and no goals were achieved. Perhaps both sides had given up trying to score more?

Nevertheless, the third period had a contradictory attitude of the game, compared to the second period. The Winterhawks scored an additional goal in the first two minutes, but the Rockets throughout the third period nearly turned the tide – nearly. Kelowna scored the game’s final two goals, resulting in a 3-2 Winterhawk victory.

One of the things about sports and particularly hockey (at least, stereotypically) that fascinated me is the zeal and emotional expressions that sports fans exhibited during the games. My family has yelled at the TV during Blazers basketball and Seahawks football games, but hockey had the reputation of a very passionate fanbase. Though I thought that it was an exaggeration, I came to find out firsthand how much passion the hockey spectators truly have. In Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, they would scream in satisfaction as the Winterhawks scored, they would brood when the Rockets scored; they would call their own team “idiots” when the Winterhawks failed to score an “easy” goal; and they would shout death threats against the referees whenever they made an unpopular call.

It was almost as if the stereotype was an understatement.

I still do not claim to be an avid enthusiast of sports nor can I see myself purchasing hockey game tickets (partly due to my college costs) in the near future. However, I am grateful for the opportunity to have attended my very first sports game and wouldn’t trade my time on Sunday for anything else.

In the few hours that I watched from the front row, I would come to appreciate the rigorous skill it took to score a goal. In the end, even though I had a longtime disinterest in sports, I am beginning to understand what makes hockey such a popular game.