Treat yourself with the playoffs coming Aug 1. Obviously it's gonna be different with no fans and the weirdness of covid, but still should be fun. There's absolutely nothing in sports like the NHL postseason.
The thing with hockey is it requires many more players than the other sports to play the game, so it's difficult for the players and the coaches and staff to get TOO political during the season, or worry about anything else really. There's just too much going on and too much to do. (Also, a lot of the players come from other countries, notably Canada and many Euro countries, so there isn't really a "this is a USA thing" vibe, which I think keeps politics chatter less relevant. Also you have a lot of players from Russia or Eastern Europe so they have a seemingly "clearer" vision of politics). The players are already are pushed to the brink schedule-wise and barely have enough time to fully recover between games, and they often will play back-to-backs and have to fly to one of the games. Match that with the parity in the league right now and you could be fighting for a spot in the playoffs 5 months before they happen. St. Louis was the worst team in hockey last year halfway through the season and they won the Stanley Cup. They went on an incredible run to achieve that, but there are 4-6 teams every year that absolutely could have made it in if they didn't bungle a stretch of ~5 games out of 82 at some point in the season. Hockey is basically like football and soccer combined. The game is almost exactly like soccer in terms of the field, player types, and object. The only real difference is the hockey "field" is a shrunk-down piece of ice and everyone is wearing padding and ice skates and using sticks instead of their legs. It's like football in that every moment of a hockey game is 100%. Unlike soccer where they can slow the game down to catch their breath or think, hockey is constantly in motion. Perfect hockey is 100% effort for 60 minutes. The only way this is possible is with lines shifting, which is why the game requires more players than average. Typically 45 seconds is the length of a shift, although this can vary slightly based on team structure/how they utilize their "all-stars." On top of all of that, the coaching staff is wielding their lines like a chess match against the other coaching staff. Package all of this up and you have the most high-octane, aggressive, physical, yet elegant and intelligent sport of any.
Treat yourself with the playoffs coming Aug 1. Obviously it's gonna be different with no fans and the weirdness of covid, but still should be fun. There's absolutely nothing in sports like the NHL postseason.
The thing with hockey is it requires many more players than the other sports to play the game, so it's difficult for the players and the coaches and staff to get TOO political during the season, or worry about anything else really. There's just too much going on and too much to do. (Also, a lot of the players come from other countries, notably Canada and many Euro countries, so there isn't really a "this is a USA thing" vibe, which I think keeps politics chatter less relevant. Also you have a lot of players from Russia or Eastern Europe so they have a seemingly "clearer" vision of politics). The players are already are pushed to the brink schedule-wise and barely have enough time to fully recover between games, and they often will play back-to-backs and have to fly to one of the games. Match that with the parity in the league right now and you could be fighting for a spot in the playoffs 5 months before they happen. St. Louis was the worst team in hockey last year halfway through the season and they won the Stanley Cup. They went on an incredible run to achieve that, but there are 4-6 teams every year that absolutely could have made it in if they didn't bungle a stretch of ~5 games out of 82 at some point in the season. Hockey is basically like football and soccer combined. The game is almost exactly like soccer in terms of the field, player types, and object. The only real difference is the hockey "field" is a shrunk-down piece of ice and everyone is wearing padding and ice skates and using sticks instead of their legs. It's like football in that every moment of a hockey game is 100%. Unlike soccer where they can slow the game down to catch their breath or think, hockey is constantly in motion. Perfect hockey is 100% effort for 60 minutes. The only way this is possible is with lines shifting, which is why the game requires more players than average. Typically 45 seconds is the length of a shift, although this can vary slightly based on team structure/how they utilize their "all-stars." On top of all of that, the coaching staff is wielding their lines like a chess match against the other coaching staff. Package all of this up and you have the most high-octane, aggressive, physical, yet elegant and intelligent sport of any.