As the 2017 college football season is in the books and the NFL playoffs wind down to their super conclusion, Ohio sports fans seek other solutions to scratch their sports itch. Hockey satiates that desire with its high-speed, heart-wrenching and physical action action that rivals basketball in it’s speed of play and football in its physical nature.
What many may not know is that Ohio provides some of the best hockey available to viewers with a bevy of options. But before I explain why Ohio hockey is exceptional, I must explain the beauty of this Canadian pastime so as to demystify what is often seen as a complicated and confusing feat of athleticism.
To best explain I will compare and contrast with other sports in hopes to build common ground upon which to win your affection.
First
Hockey’s main objective is most similar to that of soccer, get the round thing in the net to score a point. Unlike other sports this doesn’t happen as often as in basketball or football where points are scored as easily. Each goal is harder to come by and therefore more exciting when it happens.
It is actually quite remarkable that there is as much scoring in hockey as there is because of how difficult it is to physically propel the puck (ever wonder why it’s called a puck?) past a heavily padded individual with a glove (think about having to catch a line drive in baseball but on every shot attempt) who is almost as big as the goal. Do this while traveling at around 20mph on a pair 4mm thick blades over ice and only allowed to touch it with a stick with a curved blade on the end and you have one of the most difficult feats in sports. NHL players make this look easy which is why it is difficult to comprehend the majesty of what they are doing on a nightly basis unless you step on the ice and realize it is hard enough to skate without falling down, let alone move in space and get in position to score.
Second
Hockey combines the passing and speed seen in basketball and dials it up to 11. The average skater travels at over 20 mph up and down the ice all while trying to stay onside in an area slightly larger than half of a basketball court. When you bottle up 11 people(sometimes 12 when the attacking goalie is substituted out in exchange for an extra skater, another awesome facet of hockey) into an area that small it gets pretty chaotic and difficult to know what is happening.
Basically it’s like high speed chess or attacking a zone in basketball, where the attacking team is trying to move the puck to the point where the defense (and ultimately the goalie) is exposed to take a shot. Keep in mind that play only stops whenever the puck goes out of the rink, a penalty ( including icing )/goal occurs or the goalie freezes the puck.
Last
Hockey is like a marathon that is made up of 100m dashes. Skaters rotate about every minute to stay fresh (less or more time depending on the game situation and position, defenders usually spend more time during each shift), but are skating as fast as they can for almost the entire duration of that minute.
Imagine watching the world’s fastest athletes run a mile by breaking it up into 100m exchanges and you can begin to understand the strategy behind switching out players so often in order to get the best players as much playing time as possible. This is one of them most unique aspects of hockey and can seem quite turbulent to the novice observer but it is essentially like substitutions in other sports just at an alarming rate.
Now that you completely understand the draw of hockey and are well-versed in the rules and exceptional athleticism involved we can move on to why hockey is great in Ohio.
Not only does Ohio have a competitive NHL franchise (coming off and exhilarating shootout win) in Columbus, it also has a really good farm team that feeds into the Blue Jackets in Cleveland. Aside from the pro level Ohio houses 3 major hockey schools in Miami University, Ohio State University and Bowling Green State University (OSU and BG are currently both ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA).
If you couple the pro, semi-pro and collegiate levels with budding local HS and club teams around Ohio, you can watch future NHL players like East Palestine, Ohio native J.T Miller develop and see high quality hockey right in your very own backyard.