New York Rangers

"She's got ice hockey hair
It's instamatic and it has such flair
And when the puck hits the back of the cage
She feels the tingle of a quiet rage"
[Super Furry Animals, 1998]

Fresh from my basketball experience last night, I was dragged back to Madison Square Garden kicking and screaming to watch the New York Rangers take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in a key NHL battle. The Rangers eventually triumphed in a shoot-out after fighting back from 2-0 down to force overtime (for which I assume they were paid 'double time').

It's impressive the way the arena is converted from a basketball court to an ice hockey rink within 24 hours, but then again if they left the ice in place, the basketball might be a tad more interesting. However, if the transformation in the arena was impressive, so was the transformation in the make-up of the players, begging the question: if 'White Men Can't Jump' then 'Why Can't Black Men Skate?'

The NHL consists of 30 teams separated into two 'conferences' of fifteen teams (Eastern and Western), and within each 'conference', there are three 'divisions' of five teams. Each team plays 82 games with a bias towards playing the other four teams in your division. At the end of these 82 games, the three division winners in each conference plus the next five teams (per conference) with the best records proceed to the play-offs and ultimately towards the Stanley Cup. So in short, each team plays fully 82 games but 16 of the 30 proceed to the play-offs anyhow; go figure.

The New York Rangers last lifted the Cup in 1994, but have triumphed ten times in total. Their near-neighbours the New York Islanders (who play on Long Island) and New Jersey Devils have lifted the Cup five times and four times respectively.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the teams are most heavily concentrated in Canada, the North-East and MidWest although even the desert-based Phoenix Coyotes are represented these days, having once been better-known as the Winnipeg Jets (American franchise sport - don't you just love it?). Interestingly virtually every arena is similarly-sized, holding between 16,000 and 20,000 people.

Despite some fanatical fanbases, particularly in Canada, the sport is a distant fourth in terms of popularity behind American football, baseball and basketball. Its status wasn't helped by the cancellation of the 2004/05 season after the failure to resolve differences between the 'franchises' and the players mainly over the concept of 'cost certainty' (ie. salary caps). As a result, a number of European leagues benefitted from the one-off windfall of an influx of top-class NHL players seeking somewhere to show off their talents.

As for the sport itself, it clearly has plenty in common with football (soccer) and much of the movement 'off the puck' is very similar. However if I had to describe the experience of watching ice hockey, I would compare it to watching football on TV whilst pressing the fast-forward button. Sure, the speed is electric but where are the subtle changes of pace and the other facets of football that gives it such near-universal appeal? However in fairness, having seen the football rulemakers do their best to ban virtually all physical contact, it was refreshing to see the hockey players slamming each other into the hoardings with reckless (and fair) abandon.

And one final observation, or lack thereof......the key moments of the game (ie. the goals) are actually extremely difficult to observe because the puck is so small, moves so quickly and has to somehow be squeezed into a tiny goal guarded by a giant padded goaltender. As a result, you tend to have to rely upon the reactions of fans far closer to the goal than you are to determine what has transpired which must lead to interesting post-match discussions down the pub, "Did you see that crucial second goal?" "No." "Me neither."