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Published: April 7th 2006
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Johan
Yeah okay so he's sweaty and nasty and doesn't look the greatest.. Okay-so before coming here I had never experienced hockey. Funny huh? They have the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are Stanley Cup winners, and the Knoxville Ice Bears, and I had never done hockey. The closest I had ever come was probably watching The Mighty Ducks. Well, I come here and let the fact slip and Johan decides he's going to rectify it. So here we go. First, he took me to his game. The school gym is called Stil and they sponsor intramural teams, exercise classes, and all this other stuff like Ski Alpina, which takes ski trips. So, he plays on the Stil team.
Stil Hockey If you go to the profilen bit, and click on #84, you'll see him and his stats. So anyway, he drives me down to the small arena. The Lulea team plays in the big one. I get in there, sit, and realize I am one of maybe 5 people come to watch. Sad, huh? So anyway, here I am, knowing nothing about hockey except get the puck in the goal and there is ice involved, and the game starts. There's music, which is good, and then there's Swedish commentary. So I'm lost. I cheered when the others cheered, but otherwise, froze to death silently. But, they did play Dolly Parton's "9 to 5". That was cool as all get out. Seriously. So, Johan did good and made an assist. Bless his little heart. I got to see him in his hockey get up which involves what I call foofy pants, because of the sound they make. So basically, the boys wear all this padding so when they get knocked up or go sliding or whatever, they don't hurt. But they still get bruises and stuff. The foofy pants are like the material they made puffy jackets out of. They're great. So afterwards, we came home and he explained what was going on.
So here's my quick guide to hockey:
1. Get the puck in the goal
2. There are referees
3. There is music
4. The boys wear jerseys
5. There are 2 teams
6. There's a lot of violence (pushing, shoving, hitting with sticks, knocking into walls, etc)
7. The players are on ice skates cause they're skating on ice
8. They have sticks which are used to get the puck in the goal
9. Players can get badly injured, including concussions (hence the padding)
10. There are three periods, then overtime if score is tied
11. Each team has a goalie, who stands in front of goal, protecting it
12. There are penalties, so if you do something wrong, you get one
13. If you get a penalty and a player goes to the box, then you are short that player on the ice. For the team that ends up with one more player on the ice, it's called a powerplay
14. When you are short a player on the ice, it's called a boxplay
15. There are lines on the ice to separate the two zones
16. When one team has not yet made it to the other zone, but they shoot the puck there, it's called an icing
17. There are 6 men on the ice at all times for each team. This includes the goalie
18. When one man doesn't get off the ice fast enough and one gets on, it's called by the referee
19. You also have off sides
20. There are lot of face-offs in hockey, where the ref throws the puck down and someone tries to get it
Some quick hockey facts.
Up until this year, the US Women's Hockey team had won bronze or gold for a number of years. Unfortunately, the Swedish women's hockey team beat them in the Olympics. The Swedish men's hockey team won the gold medal this year too. However, the NHL is the best hockey league in the world and they have many Canadians and Swedes in their teams. 😊
Allright so, I've watched a lot of games on TV now, though not many in reality. Johan's fave team is from his hometown-Skelleftea, Sweden. They're in the higher league now that they won the Swedish hockey championship a few days ago. It's hilarious watching him watch it on TV cause he makes noises, then screams things in Swedish as if he remembers to speak. I can hear him from the kitchen room in my bedroom. The middle school kids here have a rink. Sometimes, the exchange students get together and play some games. I've played roller hockey, but it's not the same. However, I can't ice skate enough to play real hockey yet and probably won't be able to for a long time.
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