UK Hockey

I'm an avid hockey fan, but it's not nearly as popular here in the South as it is up North and in Canada. Still, we love our Dallas Stars and there's quite a following here. Now I know there are leagues in Sweden, Finland, Eastern Europe, etc... but I thought I'd ask since we've got so many brits here; does anyone in the UK care about hockey?? I imagine it's hard to compete with soccer (er, football) over there....

I'm not into sports, but as far as I'm aware it's no where near as popular as football, cricket, rugby, tennis etc.
I only know of my local hockey team which I think is pretty popular, 'though mainly because my town doesn't have much else.
I had a friend who was pretty into hockey but I think he mostly followed American teams.

That's a shame, but it's nice to see some people like it! It's a great sport that's fast-paced and even crappy games are exciting. Not many sports require you to do something as complicated as handling a small black puck around 5 opponents, being able to shoot that puck into microscopic scoring zones, and dodging 200+ lb. guys that want to smash you into the wall... all while on ice skates moving at 30 mph.
Plus, what other game expects you to punch guys in the face?

But to be fair, I've never really given soccer much of a chance even though the entire world outside the US seems to love it.

I find football/soccer realllllly boring.
I imagine hockey would be more exciting. Especially to watch live
rather than on tv. More fast paced... you said that didn't you? lol.

tdawg wrote:

Plus, what other game expects you to punch guys in the face?

Ha! Love it.

i've got mates (guys) who play field hockey but not the kind of hockey you're thinking. it's definately not anywhere near as popular as football or rugby or tennis, i wouldn't even know of any team names over here and how good they are. i took my boyfriend to a rangers match when we went to new york for his birthday a few years ago which was ace! didn't know anything about the game before that but i'd definately go again if i had the chance.

Good to hear! Yeah, that's great the thing; everyone I've taken to for their first hockey game has loved it.

glad to see another star's fan around

How's the Stars lineup look for next year?

The Oilers got two head coaches (Pat Quinn and Tom Renney) and Khabibulan...the Bulin Wall...so yeah we'll probably make the playoffs next year.

Let's see.....

New GM - Joe Nieuwendyk!!
New Coach - Marc Crawford (bye Tippett )
New backup Goalie - Alex Auld

Everyone's pretty much healed up, so we get Richards, Morrow(!), Ribeiro, Ott etc back on deck. Modano's returning... our D-men have some more experience and we've got a few new faces... Zubov's probably going to go to another team, sadly.

All in all, it looks like a hopeful rebuild. But it's a very untested team in a lot of ways, so we'll see. I thought for sure we'd make a run for the Cup last season, and that crapped out.

About a decade ago in the UK I remember Ice Hockey going through a phase of being quite big, but some of the teams went bust and it doesn't seem anywhere near as popular now.

im not from the uk...but my brother plays hockey (well roller hockey, not ice) and i like going to his games once in awhile, its more entertaining than other sports.

Inline hockey is fun, I actually used to play it until recently. Just hard to do in the Texas heat :\

talk to me about heat...its one hundred fifteen degrees here today

Yeah, you got us beat temperature-wise for sure.

NHL needs to have some pre-season games in Western Europe to promote hockey.

Yeah, the NFL has done a promo game over there from time to time, and it really caught the curiosity and interest of people. Seems like there's no harm in the NHL doing the same. If nothing else, they can encourage more domestic leagues in W. Euro.

khchausk8er wrote:

NHL needs to have some pre-season games in Western Europe to promote hockey.

Definately. I'm not really a hockey fan but if it came near me, just like with NBA or NFL, I'm sure me and a few of my buddies would go and watch it just for the experience.