Now that the football season is over, what now? Wait for baseball? I can only just watch people talk about what they think is going to happen so much. Watch basketball? I guess, but it's not always the action packed sport that can fill the void football leaves for a lot of people. Watch NASCAR? Give it a go, but NASCAR is changing a lot this year and who knows how great the racing will be. So, what are you supposed to watch? I'm glad you asked reader! During the slow time of sports, hockey is the way to go.

Hockey is nonstop action!! Above, Chris Kunitz scores a powerplay goal on a backhanded shot. When people hear hockey they think of fights. Fighting is a very small percentage of it, but they do occur. When engaged in a fight both players sit in the penalty box for 5 minutes. Do the fights have an impact on the game? Yes! The crowd can get fired up which gets the players fired up. The only times a game slows down is a stoppage of play (if the puck goes out of bounds) or to address a penalty. In an interview with Mike "Doc" Emrick, a play-by-play announcer for NBC Sports said in an interview that he once was calling a game that went for nine minutes straight without a stoppage of play. It is nonstop.

For the basics of hockey, the game consists of 3 twenty minute long periods. If they are still tied after regulation they will go to overtime, which is 3-on-3 (4-on-4 if you include goalies) and it is sudden death. If there is still no winner a shootout occurs. The shootout rules are too much for one article so you can look them up. After each period there is an intermission. Teams change players on the ice for forwards and defensemen every minute and a half to two minutes because of how hard they are playing. Typically, your goaltender stays in unless they have given up about 5 goals or more.

As you can see above, Ryan McDonagh, a defenseman for the New York Rangers gets plowed over on the ice! When football players go down they land on grass or turf which is more often than not softer than ice! The competitive aspect is a lot bigger because there are fewer people on the ice versus the football field so your mistakes are that much more noticeable. Additionally, penalties play a huge role because that is 2 minutes that your team is down by 1 player and can swing the momentum. The gif at the top of the article is a powerplay goal (a powerplay is when you have the 1 man advantage because the other team drew a penalty) and Chris Kunitz was able to come up with a quick goal.

Just give hockey a try. Find a friend or someone who knows hockey and can help you understand the game. There is a lot of action throughout the whole game, the strategy is interesting and momentum can swing at any time. Hockey is more than just a bunch of dude on skates punching each other so give it a shot.