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My favorite teams
Sup diehards
I really want to learn about hockey so I can understand the awesomeness I see when I watch the Hawks play. Can you guys help me out with the basics? I've watched both playoff runs the last two seasons, but obviously that is not much hockey experience for the purposes of understanding how the game works. I can usually tell when icing will be called...that's about it. I want to watch a lot more hockey this year and it'd be super awesome if I could understand what is going on.
A few quick questions to start I suppose...
What makes a good hockey player? Scoring lots of goals is nice, but obviously there's much more than that. I assume passing and puck handling ability is much like passing and dribbling in basketball. But what other skills does a player bring to the table other than those that makes them valuable to a team?
I've seen talk of the lines. I'm assuming they are your substitution rotations for the offensive guys. What makes a good line? What does one look for in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd lines (or whatever they're called)?
Defense...I'm not sure how it works in hockey. Obviously the goalie can be judged on how many saves he gets, but from all the stats I've seen (granted not many) all the goalies have save percentages in the mid to upper 90s. At what point is a goalie considered good, mediocre, and bad? Also what makes a good defensemen? Are there "lockdown defenders" like there are in the NBA or certain NFL cornerbacks?
Thanks for bearing with me on this. If I am going to talk hockey, I want to do it properly.
I really want to learn about hockey so I can understand the awesomeness I see when I watch the Hawks play. Can you guys help me out with the basics? I've watched both playoff runs the last two seasons, but obviously that is not much hockey experience for the purposes of understanding how the game works. I can usually tell when icing will be called...that's about it. I want to watch a lot more hockey this year and it'd be super awesome if I could understand what is going on.
A few quick questions to start I suppose...
What makes a good hockey player? Scoring lots of goals is nice, but obviously there's much more than that. I assume passing and puck handling ability is much like passing and dribbling in basketball. But what other skills does a player bring to the table other than those that makes them valuable to a team?
I've seen talk of the lines. I'm assuming they are your substitution rotations for the offensive guys. What makes a good line? What does one look for in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd lines (or whatever they're called)?
Defense...I'm not sure how it works in hockey. Obviously the goalie can be judged on how many saves he gets, but from all the stats I've seen (granted not many) all the goalies have save percentages in the mid to upper 90s. At what point is a goalie considered good, mediocre, and bad? Also what makes a good defensemen? Are there "lockdown defenders" like there are in the NBA or certain NFL cornerbacks?
Thanks for bearing with me on this. If I am going to talk hockey, I want to do it properly.