Hockey Friday: Why Hockey Is Charming

Now that we're a few weeks into hockey season, Susan and I would like to introduce a non-candy feature: Hockey Friday. We're both hockey fans and we both think it's pretty charming. Why is hockey charming, you ask? Well, we reply:

• The game moves faster than most and the skill level the athletes show is a combination of grace and strength and speed that takes our collective breath away.
• Neither of us can get over how much work it takes to balance on ice on just a thin piece of metal, let alone pass and shoot a puck. Maybe this is just restating the first point, but let me reiterate: talented athletes.
  
• Playoff beards can transform the most ordinary looking players into gentlemen (Joe Thornton and Scott Niedermayer, I'm looking at you).
• The decorated goalie masks are pretty awesome.
• Pee-Wee hockey is adorable.
  
• Hockey players do a good job taking care of their own. Sidney Crosby was taken in by the Lemieux family when he started playing for Pittsburgh, and that's not an uncommon story in the NHL.

Those are just some of the reasons that we like hockey and will be posting about it once a week for the NHL season.