The season is fall, a favorite for many. Fall is known for the start of a lot of things people love: cold weather, pumpkin spice latte sales, and the beginning of numerous sports seasons. On an average American teenager’s facebook feed, you can find multiple memes and cartoons about the upcoming NFL seasons, the MLB playoffs, or even the approaching NBA season. But what about the NHL?

  Hockey, especially in Missouri and the rest of the southern United States, could be regarded as somewhat foreign. Although the NHL has various teams in the sun belt, ice hockey is the fourth most viewed sport in the USA, behind basketball, baseball, and American football. The American sports media’s coverage of hockey certainly hasn’t helped either. ESPN, one of America’s top sports news networks, generally only covers NHL news during the NHL playoffs. During the rest of the year, however, the channel focuses primarily on the NFL and the MLB. American hockey fans have shown their frustration with this lack of coverage, with the creation of the hashtag #PleaseLikeMySport on social media websites to voice their complaints.

  One of the main arguments against hockey’s loss of popularity is the fact that hockey lacks the personal, cherished connections that the other sports of the “big four” has, with it’s origins in the cold landscape of Canada, and the conditions needed to play the sport, which our country doesn’t have. Here in America, we’re lovers of things that give us a deep sense of national pride, or things we’ve created by us, for us. Hockey is just the opposite; an unfamiliar game created by Not-Americans. However, these objections haven’t stopped the NHL from even planting teams in the south, and certainly shouldn’t stop us from paying attention. What most people don’t realize is how hockey (and the NHL), though it does have definite differences, carries similarities to some of the more popular, more “American” sports.

  One of the favored things about the NHL season among it’s fans, is the length of regular season. Bearing 82 games a season and the extra 16+ for the post-season, the NHL is regarded as having one of the longest sports seasons. However, the MLB has 162 games a season. Most sports fans realize that less does not equal more, and can appreciate these long seasons.

  A noticeable quality in basketball is speed. It’s a fast-paced sport that keeps you on your toes. Hockey is the same way, with it’s fluid movements and action-packed games, the two sports are comparable. Hockey and basketball both had rises in popularity in the 1970s, with basketball in America and hockey in Canada, and with good reason. Both games are quick and keep the first time viewers and avid fans alike on their seats, which is a valuable quality in sports. Some other advantageous similarities the NBA and NHL share are the time of their sports seasons are both during the winter, and don’t experience frustrating game delays because they’re both indoors.

  Whether one admits it or not, an attention getting part of football is the physical edge. Offense is a big part of football, and also hockey. In football, the tackling, blocking plays are necessary for the defense to stop the offense, whereas in hockey, the extra level of ferocity is a tool for stopping plays, as well as a warning to the opposite team. Of course, with any good sport, there are penalties. In football, when something or someone goes out of line, they enforce the rules with a penalty to ensure that the rules are still being followed, and that the game is still fair. The penalties in hockey are alike, although they are followed out slightly different with power plays, where the penalized player sits out for a certain amount of time, giving the opposite team an advantage. Strategy is a key role in football as well as hockey; it defines how play will be executed. Although football is more in depth with their tactics, it’s still found in hockey, such as the shoot-outs, which takes it into consideration while still allowing plenty of play time to be left.

  Though hockey may not be in the top three sports in popularity here, it doesn’t mean it’s unworthy of the average American sports fan’s time, and it definitely doesn’t mean it should go unnoticed. The NHL is rising in attendance, and with the success of their teams, the sport is growing even more in nontraditional areas all throughout the United States despite the claims that it doesn’t belong there. Hockey really is a fascinating, skillful sport and despite the numerous factors playing into its obscurity, it should continue to rise in popularity, despite the problems with coverage.