A winter sport continues on

Although there are many signs of spring starting to show up, one winter sport does not die out when all the snow has melted, unless you play this sport outside. That's right, I'm talking about ice hockey. Ever since my senior year of high school, I have been intrigued by this sport. Some of my wonderment came from trying to understand the rule and the other came from how fast-paced the sport is. It was during the playoffs for the NHL in 2003 that I got really hooked. The Minnesota Wild played two best of seven series to game seven and these series were not back and forth, the team came back from a 3 games to 0 deficit each time and won 4 straight hockey games. I was up into the early hours of the morning watching these games and it was a blast. Fast forward to last year, my senior year at the minor seminary. I had been living in the "state of hockey" for a few years and in between semesters one of the University of St. Thomas hockey players ended up joining the seminary and so a few of us went to the games to support our new brother. Soon the crowds of seminarians got bigger and the team won ten in a row. I have been very impressed watching different teams and seeing how much they give to the game, they are well-conditioned athletes and they work very hard to improve their skills. It can get very physical and some watch games to see if a fight will break out, but more and more I enjoy watching the game because of how well the players can pull off some amazing plays. Sometimes the professional athletes play year round and never get an off-season. The playoffs for the NHL can sometimes go into June and are called the second season because if a team goes all the way to the Stanley Cup finals, they may have played between 20-30 games. In a recent story I read, the fan-base for the NHL is growing and coming to new areas like Nashville and Phoenix. Hockey is a growing sport and I can only hope that it keeps getting positive attention in the years to come.