Every fall, millions of people tune into their flat screen TVs, purchase their season tickets, or make plans with friends to attend their team's home opening night. MLB's opening day isn't quite as special to these people. These are the individuals who anticipate the beginning of arguably the most underestimated gem that competition has ever given birth to.

1. Breaking it down, the sport is borderline suicide if you think about it

When you watch hockey, have you ever contemplated what is taking place? Take a step back and realize these are grown men gliding on a slippery surface with knives on their feet. But while they're doing that, they're guiding a rock-like chunk of rubber across the surface and sending it at speeds over 100 mph.

So while most people are usually wanting to stay away from situations that resemble taking a bullet, hockey players are sacrificing themselves in them. In the midst of all this, you’ll see some of the most elegant and graceful displays of skill, dexterity, and intensity.

The possessing player has to keep his head up, skate hard while remaining agile, handle the puck without looking at it, and attempting to completely obliterate and slice past, or through, multiple defenders.

2. No team can win on the shoulders of just one player

Unlike some sports, hockey requires a team of outstanding players. They cannot rely on just one player. And even then, a hockey game can still be won by the underdog on any given night.

How good are Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, or more recently, Connor McDavid? They're three of the top players in hockey. Their teams could arguably still be successful without them. It’s arguable that Sidney didn’t win his cups based on his own play. He’s won the cups due to the likes of Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, and most notably last season, Jake Guentzel. Ovechkin has yet to win a cup, all due to the fact that he just hasn’t had the right team around him to win in the playoffs.

He has put up statistics and played like one of the best players in the NHL just about every year, but he has never finished a postseason on a win. Connor McDavid with his speed and athleticism is young. Many thought that he was going to be best player to ever enter the NHL at such a young age; he has lived up to the hype, but the Oilers still have yet to reach a finals series.

3. With the amount of talent and the number of leagues in NA, watching good hockey is everywhere

Anywhere in the USA or Canada, between the ages of 15 and 30, you can find solid hockey just about anywhere you look. The USA has the USHL, the NCAA, the ECHL, the AHL, and the NHL. Some of these leagues share teams with the neighbors to the north which only make it more competitive. Canadian leagues add an even more broad range of talent. The CHL, OHL, WHL, QMJHL, and obviously the ECHL and AHL affiliates of their respective Canadian NHL teams.

This isn’t even all of them.

In just about all the lower southern provinces where there are people to inhabit the area, there are hockey leagues, and those leagues consist of very talented players. You can move anywhere in the northwestern hemisphere and find hockey of some sort that’s both competitive and worth your while.

4. When players become professionals, they still play like they may be cut tomorrow

Guys with aspirations in the sport will go all over in order to make it to their ultimate goal: the NHL. Plenty of players from all over the world will venture off into the Canadian leagues in order to get noticed by an NHL scout. Even if they don’t get noticed by an NHL scout, they’ll get noticed by another team in a higher league if they stand out.

So, every single player in the NHL has a story of where they’ve been and how they made it to the NHL. No matter how big the splash they make in the NHL, they can never take their situation lightly, or else they may see their future with the league diminish. The number of players in this sport is so large that it creates a competitive market in all leagues. You’re either picked up if you play well, or sent down or cut if you’re not.

Teams find those available to them that will play the best no matter what weight their name carries. If a player only has one impressive season, it will not be enough to keep him around until he retires. If a player stops performing as expected on a given night or secedes into a slump, they’ll be sent to the minors and a minor league standout will be brought up to get a chance to prove they can fulfill the position.

So even at the top, you’ll see the dedication and the maximum effort being displayed every single game by every single player.

5. Most NHL teams are admirably deeply rooted in their residing communities

Talking of the Washington Capitals, for an example, they have a program called “Caps Care.” With this program, they do multiple different programs in order to give back to the D.C. community. They have Hockey Fights Cancer, Hockey is for Everyone, Special Hockey, Hockey School, Military Hockey, Street Hockey, a food drive, and multiple individual player programs that standouts on the team organize themselves.

This isn’t a rarity by any means in the North American hockey standards. Plenty of teams in the highest leagues all have something along these lines similar to the Caps Care initiative.

You can’t dislike any aspects of this sport. It’s just not possible.