1. True love for the sport. You don't find the level of respect found in hockey in other sports. It seems a lot of other players in other sports play for the paycheck and not because they enjoy playing the game. Some hockey players play though serious injuries to keep giving their team all they have. The level of passion players have for ice hockey is incomparable.
2. Tradition. Playoff beards, the Winter Classic, throwing hats in celebration of a hat trick, octopi at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, the late great Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" at Flyers games...these are just some of the traditions in ice hockey that are second-to-none.
3. Rabid fanbases. Hockey fans are the most dedicated, most loyal, and craziest fans out there. Passion may be mistaken for lunacy, but fans just want three things: to have fun, see their team win and, most importantly, see their rival team lose.
4. Unpredictability. Hockey is a real nail-biter. It can leave you on the edge of your seat from start to finish, because truly anything can happen in the span of a game. Crazy passes, saves and goals can leave you either cursing up a storm or running around your house in celebration. There's no real telling what can happen.
5. Sudden death OT and shoot-outs. These are also why hockey is such a nail-biter. Two teams can play a great game for sixty minutes, but after that, it can all be over with one goal. It all comes down to who can get it in the back of the net first. If nobody reaches the net, the most stressful part of hockey is played. Shoot-outs are actually the worst, because one-on-one hockey can go either way, and can go on for what feels like forever.
6. Fighting is legal (kind of)! Nothing riles up hockey fans more than a good dance on the ice, especially between rival teams. If you're really lucky, you'll witness a line brawl. It's almost worth the five minute penalty when your team wins the fight.
7. The playoffs. No other professional sport's playoffs can match the intensity or level of excitement that the Stanley Cup Playoffs reach. Each series can go to seven games, and a fair amount do, leaving the success of an entire season riding on a single game. Players fight through tons of injuries just for the chance to hoist Lord Stanley.
8. Lord Stanley. The Stanley Cup. A century-old trophy that drives grown men to tears when they win it. Hoisting the cup is something every hockey player has dreamed of since they were a kid. It's unique in so many ways. Each player on the winning team gets to spend a day with it, doing with it whatever they'd like. It's had cereal eaten out of it, beer drunken from it. Babies have sat in it, and people have swum with it. This is what players play every game for, from October to June - the one in thirty chance to raise and take a lap with the Cup.
