It's here — hockey season is officially back. All the goals, celebrations, crazy fans, and, of course, fights, are all back and in full swing and I personally could not be more excited.

The NHL season is always a tale of unpredictable events mixed in with a bunch of crazy. Hockey is slowly growing in popularity in the US. More and more people are following the sport and are realizing how great being a fan of the NHL is. Hockey is seriously non-stop action; it is the one sport in which there are barely any stoppages and for three 20-minute periods, fans are gifted with watching a hard-nosed sport being played by people who don’t care if they lose a couple of teeth or break a leg. In my eyes, the one difference between hockey and the other three major sports is that many of the players aren’t making tens of millions of dollars to play the game they love. They are getting paid less while playing, even though hockey is in my eyes the toughest sport to play professionally.

As mentioned before, these players have to be OK with losing teeth or breaking bones every time they step on the ice. It takes a tough person to play hockey, and the players who make up the NHL are the epitome of tough. Throughout the season, fans can find themselves on a rollercoaster of emotions within any game they are watching. With goals coming at a premium every time your team scores, it is a must to stand up yell and give a high five to the person sitting next to you.

It's special each time your team scores a goal because points do not come as easy as they do in baseball, football or basketball. Also, watching a player from your favorite team fight may be the best thing to watch in sports. When hockey players fight, it is not slow pace like in boxing; it is two men on skates flailing their fists into each other's face, tackling them down to the ice. They are literally fighting until they bleed. What makes it even better is the refs circle around the fight and watch, which does not happen in any other sport. Hockey has allowed fighting to be apart of the game, which makes the game even more intense.

Another great aspect of the hockey season is watching a game live. In my opinion, there is no other sport which is better to watch live than hockey. Hockey arenas are usually on the smaller side, so most of the time you are right on top of the action. There is an atmosphere like no other, and every team has a goal horn and song so when your team scores, you get up with the other 10 to 15,000 people and sing a song in unison. I mean, seriously, if you have not experienced a hockey game, go to one — it will be worth every dollar.

The one downfall about the hockey season is that it is too long; it starts in October and does not end until the middle of June. So, if you are a fan of a team which is a contender, you could possibly sit around watching hockey for nine months. But, hey, it's a tough game to play, and if you can deal with a long season, it is totally worth it, because hockey is seriously like no other sport.

However, the hockey playoffs are the best as it's four rounds of best of seven series where teams absolutely beat the crap out of each other and you can tell they really leave it all on the line. What makes it even better? After playing a long, gruesome series where you grow to hate each other, it ends in a handshake. What?! That is, in my opinion, the definition of class. The players play hard for the team, but when it's over, they acknowledge how tough the series was and end it with a handshake out of respect for the other team. They respect the game, and that is why they call the Stanley Cup the greatest hardest trophy to win in all of sports.

So, to all you hockey fans out there, get pumped get hyped because hockey is BACK!