Hockey has been slowly, very slowly, rising in popularity over the past few years in America, yet it still doesn’t hold a candle to the major sports like football, basketball, and soccer. Hell soccer might even be a more watched sport than hockey. I feel like hockey is an easy sport to follow and even the most novice spectator can enjoy watching it could find some enjoyment in it. That is why I decided to list some of the reasons why you should watch hockey.

It’s fairly easy to understand

I feel that hockey is a very easy sport to watch and understand, even by people completely new to the sport. Players scoot around on the ice and try to get the puck into the opposing teams net. Pretty simple concept right? Along with that, there aren’t many penalties or infractions that you have to know to understand what is going on. For the most part, most penalties or infractions will either be fight related or icing. Icing is possibly the hardest thing for new spectators to understand, including myself when I started watching. An icing infraction is when a player shoots the puck across the center line and it passes the opposing team’s goal line without being touched.

The fan base is awesome

While every sports fan base has its bad apples I think hockey has one of the best bases I’ve been around. Every match I’ve been to has been awesome. The fans are loyal to their teams but unlike many sports, will not berate you for having another preference. The atmosphere they create at games is also a great part of hockey. They love their chants and love to get into the entertainment during intermissions. The atmosphere during the games is worth the tickets alone– bonus points if you add beer to the equation.

Fewer penalties and infractions

One thing that has always bothered me about the bigger sports is that there are numerous infractions which teams end up using to try and get and advantage over the other team, whether it be trying to get a free shot or to simply delay the game and run down the timer. I understand the tactics behind exploiting fouls but on the other hand, it slows the game down and makes me lose interest. This isn’t much of a problem in hockey. One of the most common infraction you will come across in hockey is icing, but they are fairly infrequent and they are quick to drop the puck and get back to playing. Another slightly common infraction is for fighting. This one also doesn’t take too much time out of the game but has the added benefit of some entertainment that most sports will never have.