Hockey... there's a sport I never really got into. I have no real loyalties to any team but I am hoping Pittsburgh loses just because most Pens fans are also Steeler fans.
Hockey seems fun to play, although I was never exposed to it as a kid and never have played.
Now, this is a controversial take, just one watcher's opinion, and I don't want to offend anyone: I know I don't really "get" the game but the sport seems pretty luck oriented to my eye.
No doubt those guys are great skilled athletes but as a sport the game seems to be decided many times on luck. The puck is not round, so it takes unpredictable bounces all the time, many shots take weird unplanned deflections before going into the net. So, a lot has to go right for a really beautiful, legit goal to happen. Which is fine, it's like soccer in that regard. But then a lot of garbage goals seem to happen which make it look more exciting as far as the scoreline is concerned, but those garbage goals just leave me shaking my head wondering how a fluke goal like that could decide a game.
Another thing that I find tough to take is the repetitiveness of the game. Seems all possessions boil down to the same template: Battle for and recover puck, pass up and out of zone, gain scoring zone (carry/pass/dump), fire puck on net if you have a prayer, if not cycle puck around until a defender is out of position and then fire and hope you beat the goalie. All the while praying that none of your difficult passes take a weird bounce or go astray. Again, occasionally the game will dictate a really juicy scoring opportunity that is awesome to watch. But it's almost like watching the laundry in the spin cycle for two hours and waiting for the one or two interesting things to happen.
