Reason I Love Hockey #3

Cult Status

This relates somewhat closely to my #2 reason, but one of the 106+ reasons I love hockey is that not a lot of other people do. In a family of such all-American sports as baseball, football, and basketball, hockey is the red-headed stepchild. It's a well-documented fact that the NHL is consistently failing to draw a national audience in America, while quickly relinquishing it's coveted "Fourth Most Popular Sport" title to NASCAR, of all things. Knowing that their favorite sport has been kicked aside in favor of a left turn marathon sends many hockey fans into tail-spins, asking dismayed questions of "Was it something we did? What do we need to change?" I am not one of those fans. Beyond the fact that I find most of the suggested adjustments (more fighting, less fighting, bigger nets, four skaters, more goals, etc.) to be both idiotic and almost-assuredly ineffective, I just don't really care all that much who is, or how many are watching. Maybe its because I have a thing for rejects (see Reason #1), or because I like feeling that my taste in sports is more refined than everyone else's (see Reason #2), but I find the fact that hockey is decidedly unpopular to be just one of it's many charms. And I sincerely hope that someday (soon) the NHL will embrace this quality and stop trying so damn hard to get everyone to like hockey. It's not going to happen. And frankly, who wants guys like the one who wrote this cheering for our great sport, anyway? As long as there is hockey to watch--which there will be, as long as Canada is around--and fans to talk to about it--which there will be, as long as the internet is around--I've got everything I need.