A sports prejudice revisited

As some of you may know, I (Patrick) am a sports fan. This fandom, however, does not extend to all sports. Football, in any of its many forms, is worthy of being showered with praise and honor. Basketball is an undeniably fun sport who's playoffs and finals can justifiably be watched on TV. Baseball's history combined with the mental aspect of the game make it a sport that, while boring at times, is great if your team's competing. I have nothing against soccer and played rugby in college.
That said, there are some sports that are not worth getting out of bed for (Note: I am talking here about watching these sports, not participating in them). I realize that by evening mentioning them on this little-read blog I am wasting your time and mine. These sports are, in no particular order: car racing of any kind, animal racing of any kind, bowling, women's collegiate sports (sorry ladies), rowing, body building, the WNBA, billiards, and many other "sports" that occasionally appear on TV. You are probably thinking that many of the activities I just listed don't even count as sports. You are correct. And I didn't even mention poker.
All that to say that I have firm opinions about every sport. Almost. Hockey has always been difficult for me to categorize. I enjoyed floor hockey in P.E. Activities where i furiously hit things and people repeatedly with sticks usually go over well with me. But the NHL has continually confused me. The sport is fast, very athletic and physical, and requires excellent team work. And yet somehow i was never interested and even bored by it. Here are my main beefs with hockey:
1. The fighting seems like a silly side show. Sports should be interesting and not need drama to punch up the story lines.
2. The goalie and his padding take up 7/8 of the net. I'm sorry, but when your job is best accomplished by laying down and hoping for the best you lose me.
3. There's no way to follow the puck (But read more on this later). The fact the hockey has a spinning red light to let people know their team has scored clues you in that the action is hard to follow.
4. It's not a sport you can just grab a couple friends and go play. Unless you live near a frozen lake. Which not even most polar bears do these days.
Last week a friend here invited Kim and I to an NHL game. The response "I'd rather eat the pencil I'm holding" was almost on my lips when he slipped in the twist: It was free. All of a sudden my curiosity was piqued. I had never been to an NHL game. I could put my long held prejudices to the test and surround myself with people actually interested in hockey. We immediately accepted the invitation while I prepared some of my best hockey-scorning facial expressions.
We arrived at the game (Washington Capitals v. Ottawa Senators) right as it started and found our seats, which, despite being as far from the ice as possible, gave a great view of everything. The only bad thing about our location was that we were out of range of the t-shirt cannon. Seeing the game in person, several things struck me immediately:
1. The puck is (mostly) visible. You can basically follow all the action. Slap shots are still invisible. If the red light goes off it means the shot went in the net. If another player mysteriously appears with the puck somewhere else then the shot must not have gone in the net.
2. I like sports fans no matter what they're rooting for (does not apply to car racing). A family behind us was coaching their 3 year old daughter to say things like 'Go Caps!' and 'The Caps are so good!' Cute.
3. The fouls in hockey are like penalties in football: they can be called at anytime for just about anything. The definition for hooking (which flashed on the jumbotron) is "using your stick to impede the movement of another player" The definition of holding is "holding an opponent from moving with your hands or stick". If both of these weren't happening all game then I must have been watching something else.
4. The intermissions are HORRIBLE. One 15 minute half time is bad enough to sit through in any sport but in hockey both intermissions are 17 minutes. I should have brought a Dostoevsky novel.
5. The most fun part to watch is skirmishes near the goal that usually involve the goal tender, totally unaware of the puck's location, flailing on the ground like a beached whale. Every time the goalie ended up on his back making ice angels I giggled to myself.
I have to admit, barring the endless intermissions, I had a good time at the game. The action was fast and skillful and the fans were fired up. I would still rather go to almost any other sporting event but at least next time I'll know to bring a long novel. And $140 if I want to buy a jersey.