Missouri Mavericks forward Derek Pallardy is a native of Chesterfield, Mo.
Although he wasn’t born wearing a pair of skates and carrying a stick, he came close.
“I started skating when I was 2 and couldn’t join a league until I was 5,” said the self-proclaimed “hockey fanatic.”
“I’ve loved hockey for as long as I can remember. My folks took me to St. Louis Blues games when I was a kid and a lot of the Blues alum worked with the youth hockey leagues.
“I know there are a lot of fans out there in Independence and Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs who might be intimidated by the game. You don’t know the rules, you don’t know the players, you don’t know what to expect at a game.
“Well, let me tell you one thing. If you come watch us play, you’re going to want to come back. And when you come back, you’re going to want to bring your friends.
“And they’re going to thank you for bringing them. It’s a complicated game at first, and it might take some getting used to. But once you get in the flow, and begin to understand what is going on out on the ice, you’re going to have so much fun you won’t ever want the game to end.”
Welcome to The Examiner’s Hockey 101, a five-part series that will deal with all aspects of our newest professional sports franchise – the Central Hockey League expansion team Missouri Mavericks.
Over the next week, we are going to provide an inside look at the world of professional hockey through the eyes of the players, the coaches, the officials and the fans.
If you don’t know the difference between a puck and a waffle pad or icing and being offsides, don’t worry.
You’re not alone.
“What I’ve found in the past five or six months I’ve been in town is that we have a solid core of knowledgeable hockey fans who have followed the sport and know everything about it,” Mavericks coach Scott Hillman said, “and we have the group of fans who are excited about the team but don’t know a whole lot about the sport.
“We want to welcome both groups of fans, because when the newcomers come watch us play, they might not know what’s going on at first. But it’s an easy game to pick up and if you love the sport like we love the sport, you will want to become familiar with all aspects.”
To give the fans a bit of an insight into the rules of the game, what better person to ask than six-year CHL linesman Bobby Collier, an Overland Park, Kan., resident who will be working the Mavericks home opener Nov. 13.
“I can tell you one thing about the sport of hockey,” said Collier, who began playing hockey when he was 5, “and that’s the fans are going to love the game in person. It’s not a sport that translates well on television. But in person, I believe it’s as much fun to watch as any sport you can name.
“And I don’t want anyone to be intimidated by the sport. Don’t feel like you shouldn’t come to a game because you don’t know all the rules. I’m 35 years old and I love to watch the NFL, but I don’t understand all the rules. But I know the basic rules, and everything is pretty much explained by the announcers.
“In hockey, for instance, everything is pretty self explanatory. A trip is a trip. If a player is breaking away from the opposing team and you’re chasing after him, you can’t trip him.”
There, don’t you feel better already?
“Hooking is a hook. You can’t hook an opponent with your stick. A hold is a hold – just like in football. There are a lot of technical terms but so many of the terms are basic and anyone can understand them.”
If terms like offsides, icing and goal crease create shivers up and down your spine, then simply take a look at the glossary of terms that accompany this installment of Hockey 101 (see left).
Cut them out, get a magnet and attach them to your refrigerator next to that A+ grade card or your personal reminder to take the trash out on Monday morning.
“The game is fun, the game is fast and the game is unique,” Hillman said. “There are five players and a goalkeeper on each team and the object for one team is to put the puck in the other team’s net and the object of the other team is to stop the opponent from putting the puck past their goalkeeper.
“It’s really pretty simple.”
One aspect of hockey that is different from any other sport is the take on fighting.
Everyone has heard the old joke about two men who went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out.
Well, fighting is as much a part of the sport as hard knocks into the glass, visiting the dentist to replace a missing tooth and 20-hour bus trips to Hidalgo,Texas (the home of the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees, where the Mavericks are playing this weekend).
“We don’t encourage fighting,” Collier said, “but it is accepted.”
Many of the fans love it. The two main combatants are hit with a penalty, spend a few minutes in the penalty box, where the visitor is abused by the hometown fans, and they soon return to the ice to join their teammates.
“I know the fans are going to love what they see Friday night,” Mavericks veteran forward/assistant coach Jeff Christian said. “People ask me all the time about what to expect and what hockey is like and I just tell them, ‘It’s the greatest sport in the world.’ You’ll learn the rules, you’ll learn about the game and you’re going to learn to love it.”
In Tuesday’s Examiner we will take a look at game strategy in the second installment of Hockey 101.
Independence, MO —
