Back from the dead but in this case it's relevant I guess.
We moved from TX to WY many years ago, and more recently from WY to AK (IOW, zero exposure to hockey). For some reason, during our time in WY the boy child got really into the idea of playing hockey. Had no opportunity to play the until we moved to AK. Last year was his first year, and overall I was very impressed (as a parent) with the sport in general, although I still don't know much about it.
So I guess high school hockey in AK occupies the same place that football in TX holds... and last night my son and I attended our first high school game.
HOLY SH*T.
It was so freaking fast and brutal... seriously cool to watch though. It was 5x faster than football, and just as violent. But now I feel like I'm throwing the boy into a damn meat grinder. He'll be high school age in a few years, and frankly it scares me. I hope that kid has good bones...
But I'm definitely gonna check out a few more of those games because that was some serious entertainment.