Hockey: A Review
- Alex Tarves
- Sep 29, 2024
- 3 min read
Hello, I’m Alex Tarves and welcome back to the Anthropocene Review. Today, we will be looking into the sport of ice hockey. At first thought, it may seem strange that a globally known sport is played on something you put in a beverage to cool it down. To an unenlightened person, the ludicrousness of the sport of ice hockey itself is enough to raise an eyebrow. I’ll let Brendan Shanahan, a former National Hockey League player, introduce you to the game of hockey through his perspective. Shanahan, in an interview, once said “[Hockey players] need to have the strength and power of a football player, the stamina of a marathon runner, and the concentration of a brain surgeon. But we need to put all this together while moving at high speeds on a cold and slippery surface while 5 other guys use clubs to try and kill us. Oh yeah, did I mention that this whole time we're standing on blades 1/8 of an inch thick? Is ice hockey hard? I don't know, you tell me.”
While obviously hyperbolized, a response like Shanahan’s makes someone with a sense of logic question why anybody would want to participate. Well, as someone who has played hockey for north of a decade, I have seen my fair share of dangerous moments and I know firsthand the physical, mental, and emotional difficulty of the game. But hockey, in a sense, is a paradox.
The truth that I have found from my time devoted to hockey is that the game is more beautiful than anything else. In my perspective, hockey is far more than death by wooden club. Hockey is the unpredictability of a puck sliding on ice through bumps and ridges carved by skate blades. It is the chemistry and communication of five teammates, traveling at least twenty miles per hour, trying to strategically move that unpredictable puck while the opposing five counters them at the same speed to defend. It is goaltenders willingly pairing inhuman reflexes with gymnast-like flexibility to be hit thirty, forty, even fifty times a game, with frozen vulcanized rubber traveling as fast as a speeding car. It is players slamming the plexiglass boards and each other like a wrecking ball, and getting right back up without a second thought. It is the rivalries of teams dating back far longer than 100 or even 150 years. It is the jubilation of teammates and fans when a player manages to rip the puck past the goaltender with the accuracy of a marksman.
However, the beauty of hockey is personified by something that occurs beyond the game itself. To me, above all else, hockey is the relationship between teammates. Strangers almost instantly become brothers with a nearly impenetrable bond. Hockey is the epitome of a team game, one where stars and scrubs are equal in the eyes of their peers. In hockey, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows are experienced almost every game multiple times. Injuries and costly mistakes paired with important goals and great saves, all happen so often that teams have to find ways to recuperate and persevere, done so by the support of each other.
Shanahan can take hockey and spin it to sound like the perfect place for someone with a death wish, and while I don’t entirely disagree, I want to emphasize that hockey is more a game of skill, finesse, athleticism, and intelligence than brutality. It is one of poetry, it is the great equalizer. The only other game besides chess where an athletic specimen can be put to shame by a scrawny 130-pounder that has superior knowledge and feel for the game. It is so entertaining that unseasoned watchers become new fans in a split second because they immediately recognize not a single sport takes more skill than hockey does. It is a magnificently unique game played by the best athletes in the world wearing knife shoes on frozen water. I rate hockey 5 out of 5 stars.
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