Hockey

     My last post from last week was about soccer being a wildly underrated sports. The same goes for hockey, maybe even doubly so. I want to preface this by saying that I know very little about hockey. I know the general rules and have a little bit of feel for the game but not much. I don't claim to know much about the sport other than the fact that I think its electric. 

    The Utah Hockey Club gets going on opening night, tomorrow night, and I really couldn't be more excited. I do feel bad for Arizona hockey fans as they've watched their team get paraded around that can only deepen the heartache that they surely have been feeling all summer. But with that being said, LETS TALK SOME HOCKEY!! 

    UHC takes on the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow night. Both teams are really entrenched in a rebuild. The Blackhawks have Connor Bedard who has been crowned as the next generational player that can come in and completely change the trajectory of the franchise. We will see how that goes as apparently Chicago has a ton of issues, mostly stemming from some of the lawsuits filed over the past few years. I don't know enough to comment on those, so I won't. Connor Bedard is definitely a can't miss kind of prospect. He's definitely lived up to all the hype that has been thrown around him. Last year he missed a bunch of time with a broken jaw but when he was on the ice he was electric. 

    UHC starts the season as a brand new franchise. It was a quickly thrown together effort but Ryan Smith and company to get the team ready to go since the Spring. Most new franchises need multiple years to get everything ready but here we are with the team ready to skate out on the ice and start the 24-25 NHL season. A bunch of critics have thrown Ryan Smith and the front office under the bus because the Delta Center isn't a perfect viewing experience for hockey. There's no denying that. So many comments made about taking the team from a tough stadium experience in Arizona to another tough stadium experience. These commenters just don't know what they're talking about. Playing in a tiny college arena, and struggling to get home fans in that arena, compared to playing in a professional sports arena is vastly different. Even with some 'obstructed views' in the Delta Center, the difference is immense. Not to mention that backing that the community, and the local government for that matter, have given to the organization is something that they just didn't have over the last few years in Arizona. The stadium will get figured out, slowly but surely it will come together and become a legit stadium for both NBA and NHL games. 

    I am so amped up for this hockey season. It's definitely an imperfect start with temporary team names, logos, and uniforms (although I hope the sweaters stay even with the new uniform cause they're AWESOME) but the community has been starved for more professional sports in Utah and the nation is going to be put on notice with how Utah supports its teams. Looking at you MLB. LET'S GO HOCKEY CLUB!!