Hockey is the greatest sport in the world why do some people disagree?
102560
What other sports do you have concussions, broken bones, teeth yanked out, and little pieces of rubber flying around everywhere at 94.6 miles per hour?  This is the sole reason why hockey should be more popular than it really is in America.
134148
True because shot-outs are awesome; and it is a faster moving game.\n\nFalse more goalies are getting hurt (Goalie Here)
1129792
Not just in the playoffs; fans do that at all levels of hockey all season long.  As others have said, fans do it to question the eyesight of the on-ice officials, implying that poor eyesight is why they make bad calls.
804103
Hockey players are young men picked right off the frozen ponds of "anywhere the water freezes" They are not - would-be-lawyers.... They are not would-be-doctors or dentists or shoe-polishers... / They don't have the luxury of a back-up career if this one doesn't work out...... / They don't spend 4 years in college negotiating a pro career.............\n\nTHEY KNOW!!! That this is it!!! This is all they ever wanted to be... and that this is what they were born to do. Without it... they'll be flipping burgers at their hometown McDonalds so they give everything they have. EVERYTHING.\n\nThis is also what makes hockey the greatest sport on planet Earth!
458227
It is popular in India because other international team sports are either not popular enough in other countries or too competitive.  For instance soccer and basketball may be more popular internationally and offer bigger salaries but they are  highly competitive and India is unlikely to win a World Cup or World Championship.  Hockey is not popular enough and there is no money for players.  Cricket is the right balance, enough countries play it to make it a lucrative career and India is competitive enough to win World Cups and even become the number 1 ranked team.
1150687
Hockey is also having its own fans and followers. Why can't you become one.
935377
A lot of it has to do with tradition - the same reason Americans love baseball, and Canadians love hockey; soccer has been the traditional and national sport of most countries in the world and children are raised in an environment of soccer fanatiscm and reciprocate that in adult life.\n\nAnother aspect is that soccer is the most inexpensive sport to play. Hockey, football, etc. all require expensive pads and the likes, whereas soccer is dirt cheap, so poorer nations and people can afford to play it.
412389
Its not violence. Really you think that???? Thats silly. They are trying to get the puck if that means to slam your oppenent into the wall then so be it.  Just like football when you tackel. There is alot more violence out on the streets we should worry about b4 hockey.\n\nHockey is the coolest sport, it goes to show how much a team really cares about their team mates, when someone gets checked then a fight breaks out its cuz that persons teammates are like H*ll no you ain't taking a cheap shot on our guy.\n\nGuess you gotta love it to get it.
194575
shoot outs are not really telling of who really won the game. I remember in the Olympic when Canada lost to Czech republic in a shootout Canada was all over then in the first over time Czechs had nothing Canada would have stomped a mud hole in there butts but the shoot out saved them. Hockey is a team game teams win not one guy and the goalie. Shoot outs are for the fans only. Just picture yourself giving it your all you have the other team on there heels in over time you know just a few more minutes and you've got em beat then buzzer sounds its shoot-out time you lose. down with the shoot-out go to one 20 minute over time if no score then shoot-out. Not very often does a whole period go by without a goal in the new NHL and certainly not in overtime play.
887299
It is fast and many people can't follow the puck.  Others do not like the fighting that is sometimes involved.  \n\nHockey is a 'cold weather' game and a lot of the US and southern hemisphere countries don't have the availability of ice rinks to play/practice on and it can't be done outside.  Thus is wasn't something they played as a kid and hold on to fondly as an adult.\n\nAnd let's face it, girls in volleyball uniforms are much cuter than guys in oversized shorts and lots of pads.
1008191
First because is the ONLY sport that is played in all the countries except the Vatican City and Some Overseas Possessions (French Guyana, and some other islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean). Is also the most played sport in Europe and South America.\n\nSecond because even tough Brazil have won more cup titles, is always a fair sport, because we have Italy and Germany with tree titles and other worth two or one. So really there is no best country, and the dispute is good (As some good teams were left behind in this cup: Uruguay, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Turkey, Nigeria, Cameron...)\n\n\nThird, is not like other sports as tennis and golf, where you need a whole lot of equipment, in soccer you only need a ball, and two rocks to make the goals, so poor countries in South America and Africa can afford their players to play and improve.\n\nFourth, is the only sport to be prove to unite countries, and to make their fans love their country and fell patriotic. If you see all the games, at the end they shake their hands and they exchange T-shirts, something that is not common, specially among nations from other continents and other cultures.\n\nFifth, Is fun to see your country playing with other teams, and to get this vision of how everyone enjoys goals more than Aces(tennis), and other things in sports.
510320
You already received some really good answers here.  In checking your other question, you probably went just over the line in criticizing those who play/love to follow baseball.  And, people can be touchy and defensive about anything that they really love...\n\nIf you just wrote sonmething on the order of "Can someone explain to me the greatness of baseball.  I just don't get it", you may not have gotten the occasional p'd-off response.
238917
I'm both a hockey player and hockey fan. Hockey is soo fun to watch but nothin compares to goin on the ice with newly sharpined skates and scorin a few goals.  BUT mostly I'm a hockey player......\n\nHOCKEY RULES   HOCKEY RULES   HOCKEY RULES   HOCKEY RULES
589138
Ice hockey is played with two teams having six players on each side on the ice at a time.  Each team has five skaters and one goaltender, who stands guarding a net at each end (a red line called the goal line).  \n\nThe object of the game is to gain possession of the puck (a disc of vulcanized rubber that's deceptively small and alarmingly hard when you get smacked with it (inevitably on the two inches of your body that aren't currently covered by padding)), and work with your team to get the puck into the other team's net.\n\nMuch like in other games like soccer and basketball, the strategy of the game is two-part:  offense and defense.  The five skaters on the ice are designated as either forwards (offense) or defense (defense), with two of each of those (right wing, left wing and right defense and left defense (usually you say right or left D)).  The fifth skater is a center, whose job is to cover both ends, assisting with defense in front of the net, and driving plays coming out on offense.\n\nThere are far too many rules in hockey to cover here.  They have to do with everything from the face-off -- where the puck is dropped by the ref where play stopped or at center ice -- to what kind of contact is illegal versus legal -- you can push and shove in front of the net but you can't whack somebody with your stick, for example -- to what can be done where on the ice, which is divided up by lines.\n\nThe lines are what really differentiate regulation hockey from "pond" hockey, which is hockey in its simplest (and some might argue purest and most fun) form.  The lines are the goal line where the net is, and the two blue lines, which form a "neutral" zone in the center of the ice.  The zone where your goalie is, behind the blue line closest to you, is "your" zone.  After you cross the neutral zone over the other blue line, you're in enemy territory (aka "their zone" or for real, the offensive side (and believe me, some teams are move offensive than others)).\n\nIf you think the lines are confusing now, just wait until you hear this next part.  Ready?  Coming out of your zone, you can do anything you want with the puck.  Go back, forth, across the blue line, up and down the blue line, anything you want.\n\nBut when you get to "their" blue line, the puck carrier has to cross first.\n\nThis is apparently the single most difficult rule to understand in hockey, for players and spectators alike.  So let me explain it again.\n\nIf you're coming out of your zone towards the offensive zone, the person with the puck *has* to cross the far blue line first.  If anyone else does, they're "offsides" and play stops and everyone gets all crabby and if you're the one who blew a really good play by getting your skate ahead of your linemate who had the puck, you're all embarassed and some girl in the stands is going "wait, why did they stop play, now?" and it's just bad all around.\n\nThat's just one rule that has to do with the lines.  There are others.  Icing, which is basically just an excuse for the ref to blow a whistle after you've sprinted end to end, and then gloat while you limp wheezing to the faceoff.  There's also a rule called a two line pass rule, which is basically an offsides rule and everyone ignores it anyway.\n\nThere are also rules about what you can and can't do around and with the goalie, most of which you get thumped by the goalie for doing anyway, and if not the goalie his or her enforcer.  Not that I'm speaking from experience.\n\nEvery time you get the puck in the net (their net, not yours) you get a point.  Regulation games are played in three 20 minute periods, which usually wind up being longer on account of all the time people spend between whistles arguing their case with the refs.\n\nHockey is played with sticks, and there's rules around what you can and can't do with your stick (e
703098
It also depends on where in the world you are wheither it is refered to ice hockey or field hockey.  In Canada and the US as well as the Nordic countries like Sweden, Finland etc... the ice form of the sport is the more popular form practiced so it is known as hockey.  In Britain and in most of the rest of the Commonwealth countries field hockey is more popular so that sport is referred to as hockey by most people.  It's all what people are used to - it's the same way with football/soccer.
1172873
Of course.  Isn't hockey everyone's favorite sport?
1092069
I really don't care what their favourite sports are or are not. That is their choice. They have the right to enjoy whatever sports they like just as the rest of us do. I'm not obsessed with America or it's people. There are good and bad everywhere. I do not see them as superior to me or my country in any way, shape or form. With that said I can see why others get annoyed sometimes. While there are many wonderful people there are also those that are surrealistic and cannot praise any other country or achievement or accept anything less than being dominant and it's a shame they give the majority a negative appearance. I was annoyed at their attitude to Australia in relation to qualifying. and not to unhappy that those responsible are eating their words or suffering from foot in mouth disease. Why can't we all just respect each other and our differences.