The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Wednesday in the National Hockey League. 
Guided By History happily gives a stamp of approval!
Whether or not you're a hockey fan, you should take a look at the sport. Hockey is cool and has all the elements you love. There's the video game element, for starters: Teams race back and forth trying to put a small projectile in a cage using cudgels. The cage is protected by a Cerberus-like figure.
Hockey has the basketball element: Graceful, speedy strategy and playmaking — even speedier, though. But it's without all the silly officiating, where the whistle interrupts everything all night long. Hockey has the football element: Shoulder pads and helmets, big guys plowing into each other — even slamming each other into a wall! But it's a smaller field of play, and hockey players exercise all this skill and hard contact while on ice skates.
Pretty macho.
Hockey also has a baseball-like history , with great games and legendary players and a Hall of Fame and dynasties and everything. To cap it all, the Stanley Cup quest is a total saga every year. The winning team overcomes every possible obstacle — only the very best can survive to claim the Stanley Cup.
I say all this not because I'm a fan — I'm a fan because of all of this, which made me a fan. Hockey is cool. Chuck sez check it out!
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