I'm a massive sports nerd based out of KY, and I've been involved in sports my whole life but mainly basketball and football. I've been trying to watch NHL and get into hockey for about 5 years now but it's usually a 2 to 3 week period where I eventually move on or just forget.
One major factor is there really isn't any tier system (to my knowledge) in terms of leagues leading up to the NHL that makes it easy to follow hype trains and upcoming talent. In football and basketball there is pretty much 2 to 3 farm leagues for rookies or underappreciated talent. NFL has Canadian Football League, NCAAF and UFL, and NBA has Eurobasket and NCAA mainly but also G-League and NBL in Australia. One large part of my involvement in sports is being a college football scout for a few years, going to high schools big and small and making scouting reports on players. It felt really good, even when I wasn't a scout, but as a fan, to find the diamond in the rough and watch them develop into the crucial role player, glue guy or even center piece of a team you hoped them to be. From my understanding alot of hockey prospects are international talent (outside of the US), so to be up to date on prospects do you have to follow 20 different international leagues & NCAA or is it easier than that?
Another problem, which is not as important but I never had and still struggle to be a fan of a team. I grew up in Kansas City so most people I knew growing up liked the Blues, the first piece of NHL merchandise I ever owned was a Blackhawks Patrick Kane jersey, and the first championship I watched was the Colorado Avalanche winning a few years ago. Right now my favorite player is Igor Shoresteiken (I probably spelled that wrong) the Rangers goalie. So I'm kinda a fan of like 4 different teams right now. I'm not sure if any of those teams are rivals or not but it absolutely breaks my heart that days like today 2 of my teams of interest are facing off (Blackhawks vs Blues Oct 15th @7p) and most sports fans don't have this problem as being a fan of multiple teams is a cardinal sin.
Last obstacle, very short, I'm not caught up with the NHL timeline, the only names I recognize are mostly because of Sportscenter/ESPN and they are Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Patrick Kane, Igor Shoresteiken, Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard. If anyone can catch me up on what the Hockey landscape is at the moment (brief or in detail) I'd love to read it and get informed.
2 comments
It sounds like you’d really enjoy some hockey podcasts to help with following the league in general and especially new players etc. there’s a bunch of good ones and hopefully other folks chime in but I personally like 32 thoughts and spittin chiclets which both touch on some of the things you mentioned and help me follow storylines and teams I don’t normally follow closely.
In regards to your feeder league comment, the NHL has a full minor league system in the AHL, there’s the KHL in Russia for Russian prospects, there’s the CHL where the young Canadian players cut their teeth, and the NCAA hockey program. There’s tons of lower league developments to follow.