The sweet smell of….ice. The wonderful sound of….teeth being knocked out. The awe-inspiring sight of….a fistfight. These are the things that partly comprise the great sport of hockey. It doesn’t sound great, but come mid-April every year America is lit on fire with Hockey Fever. The final two weeks of the regular season shake down, and we enter perhaps the most exciting postseason play in any of the four major sports. Only the true fans watch the regular season, but even the most casual fan brings out their sweater to watch their team try to capture Lord Stanley’s Cup. But why? Why does everyone drop what they’re doing to watch what could be mistaken for Soviet Russia On Ice? Why did last year’s Finals average 5 million viewers a game when it was only two cities? Well, since Y is a crooked letter that can’t be straightened, maybe it’s time for some answers. Alexander Ovechkin, leading goal scorer in the NHL, and owner of one-too-few teeth.

Hockey is terribly brutish. This is the only league besides the NFL where hitting is not only allowed, but is vital to the game, and hits are actually kept track of. Fistfights are common on the ice, and as the crowd cheers, the referees let it go on even longer. The best thing about hitting in hockey is that they’re called “checks”, like a player is making sure that no one else is doing something wrong. Hipchecks, bodychecks, shoulder checks, forechecks, backchecks, crosschecks, bank checks. Just kidding on the last one, but watching nasty hits in hockey is just plain awesome. Which is partly why we as a race love and are drawn to hockey;  the brutality of it is human nature. Since the dawn of time, we’ve had to beat our prey in order to kill, eat, and survive. Many studies show that if placed back into the wild, a group of humans would resort back to this savagery (just read Lord of the Flies). The crunching and smashing in hockey tugs at some of our most guttural strings; those same ones that tie us back to nature. We love hockey partly because it reminds us of our natural state.

Hockey is also accessible. Almost every playoff game can be seen anywhere on some sort of major network. If you want to get a taste of your first hockey game on TV, it’s no problem. If you want to get your first crack at a live game, it’s not hard either. The cheapest tickets for a playoff game at Nassau Coliseum are around $100, and as the game gets closer, the team wants to sell them, so the price generally goes down. There have been times during the season where I have gotten tickets as cheap as $10. If you can’t afford a hundred bucks to go to a playoff game, stay home, turn on MSNBC, and enjoy. Maybe you want to try your hand at playing. No problem. Online, beginner’s hockey nets sell for as low as $30 brand new. A hockey stick costs $20, and if you’re playing in the street, a single street hockey ball is around 2 bucks. Not bad, considering getting started in baseball, our national pastime, costs well over $100. Hockey is economical and easily accessed by everyone.

Total estimated cost of hockey equipment in this picture: $130. Total cost of an Easton Mako Youth Baseball Bat: $250-$300.

Lastly, hockey is exciting. The nature of the game is fast-paced, with the fastest players racing down the ice at almost 30 miles an hour. A regulation NHL hockey rink is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide, much shorter than a 100 yard football field or a baseball field that can reach 410 feet to dead center field. This, obviously, leads to faster gameplay and more possession changes. Pucks are shot upwards of 90 miles an hour, so even down the the nuance of the game is fast. If there’s 20 seconds left in a game, you can’t just run out the clock, like in basketball or football, because if you just stand there with the puck someone is going to steal it and score, and you will feel like an absolute jerk. Playoffs are even more exciting than just a plain ol’ game of hockey, too. The 2013-14 opening rounds led to more lead changes than ever before. The LA Kings, down in the series 3-0 to the San Jose Sharks, came all the way back to win the series 4 games to 3, and ultimately were crowned champions of the NHL. The New York Rangers, who the Kings beat last year, played two seven-game series in their first two rounds of the playoffs. In total, 93 playoff games were played last year, breaking the previous mark of 92 set in 1991. There is never a boring moment in hockey, and there are plenty of moments to be had.

Whether you’re rooting for the Islanders, Rangers, Penguins, or Blackhawks this spring, just remember that this great game that the nation latches on to every year is something special. There isn’t a sport in the world where you need skills and smarts quite like you do to play hockey, let alone understand it enough to watch the game and scream at the television in support of your favorite team.