Column: Aggies … on ice

Last year, I remember talking to someone in a class from Minnesota. Specifically, we talked about sports.

We talked about everything from the Twins to the Vikings. We eventually reached the sport Minnesotans are most known for – hockey.

One of the first things he said was how impressed he was with Californians when it comes to hockey. He was surprised by both the passion and knowledge of us Californians – specifically northern Californians.

And his statement and the current Stanley Cup Playoffs got me thinking – Californians can go crazy for their hockey.

UC Davis and the Davis community are just one of the many locales across the state that get intense about its hockey. The Davis Grad is consistently packed during the Stanley Cup Playoffs with fans supporting all 16 teams involved.

UC Davis also has a club hockey team that’s been very successful in the past. The squad finished the 2010-2011 campaign winning 11 of 12 and had a good showing at its conference playoffs. Its roster boasts 22 hard-working individuals. The UC Davis club hockey team’s success shows that California is not just about the sunshine sports.

This year’s National Hockey League Playoffs are another perfect example of California’s hockey craze.

For the first time in the history of the tournament, all three California teams – San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks – qualified for the playoffs.

Furthermore, the Sharks and Kings matched up in the first round and have put on quite a series that saw the Sharks comeback from four-goals down to win in overtime.

Being a Bay Area guy, I’m clearly rooting for the Sharks. But I’m nowhere near alone. The Sharks sold out nearly every home game at HP Pavilion this year. San Jose fans are consistently some of the loudest and most knowledgeable when it comes to the sport.

When I think about, I’m not that surprised as to why hockey is so popular across the world and in California.

I’m probably oversimplifying, but Californians stereotypically like four big, non-hockey sports – baseball, football, basketball and soccer. Hockey combines aspects of all three.

It has the thinking and planning of baseball, the hard hitting of football, the fast action of basketball and the teamwork and passing of soccer. Therefore, Californians should be all over the sport. And for the most part, they are.

However, for the select few who aren’t on board, it’s mostly because of the low scoring. I’ve noticed Sportscenter doesn’t give much airtime to sports with low-scoring outcomes like soccer and hockey. For all sports, and specifically hockey, the outcome and outputs aren’t the same at all.

For hockey, the outcome is the final score. The output is the fast-paced, hard-hitting, don’t-have-time-to-go-to-the-bathroom game play you see every time the players step onto the ice.

I strongly encourage everyone to watch hockey. It’s fun and it’s exciting. As the man from Minnesota observed, a lot of Californians have already discovered the awesome-ness that is hockey. The UC Davis club team has found some athletes that want to play the sport, as well. And the three California NHL teams have garnered the attention of a lot sports fans across the Golden State.

Maybe we Californians aren’t as averse to the cold as thought.

JASON ALPERT can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.