Why not hockey?

I've got the Bruins/Islanders playoff game on as I type, and...

WAIT! DON'T LEAVE!

I can hear the click of the mouse/touchpad already. I can sense your fingers swiping to something else. Stick with me.

In all that I do in sports, nothing is more challenging than interesting people in hockey (baseball is sadly second).

The thing -- as it is with any sport -- is that people don't understand it.

But here's the thing about understanding a sport: you don't need to know every last rule. You don't need to know the intricacies of icing or offside.

You just need to watch and listen. Take in the fact that these players are skating while controlling a puck (or battling for it) as they try to push it into a net that is 6x4.

Appreciate the physicality of it along with the gracefulness of it.

Listen to the skates on the ice and the sound of the puck hitting the stick. Pay attention to the whistles. You'll pick it up. You'll gather that (in short) if a defending player dumps the puck to the other end of the rink, passing the opposing red line (or end line) then you'll likely see an official put his hand up before blowing the whistle. You've just witnessed icing (again, I'm being very basic here).

If you're watching on TV or the internet, pay attention to the broadcaster. You might pick up a few things there also (at least from the good ones). Doc Emrick alone could make you care just through his passion alone while Ed Olczyk gave you just enough to explain the game.

For me, it started with Jiggs McDonald on Islanders broadcasts on channel 9.

I was a kid in the late 1970s when the Rangers made a run to the Stanley Cup Finals. I was too baseball mad to truly grasp it, but I cared. I cared more when the Islanders won the Cup the next year and, of course, the Miracle happened in Lake Placid.

Those Islanders/Rangers teams are the reason that I don't hate the Islanders, despite being a Rangers fan. I also have a healthy appreciation of the Devils. I know that's strange but that's my logic and I'm sticking with it.

Still, I was mostly about baseball, and my football love was growing rapidly. But I began watching more hockey on channel 9 with those Rangers and Islanders teams. Part of it was a form of peer pressure with some -- dare I say? -- FOMO. Most of it was wanting to understand more and embracing it.

I'd learn more as I watched Gretzky and Messier and those great Oilers teams after they took over from the Islanders in the 80s. Eventually, I began going to games -- we'd sit at the very top of the Nassau Coliseum which was not ideal but the tickets were cheap.

Of course, the 90s brought Mark Messier to New York (and, eventually, Brunswick) and the Stanley Cup was secured on Broadway.

Nirvana.

I can still remember someone who didn't think I'd make a good talk show host because I couldn't really talk hockey. Ouch, but, OK, so you can imagine how terrifying it was when former WGCH sports director John Connelly asked me to fill in for him on hockey call.

He called early that Monday -- Jan 24, 2000 -- and I resisted. I didn't have rosters. I was uncomfortable.

I was scared.

I went. I probably sucked. I can guarantee I wasn't particularly good but I took my lumps and learned from it. I learned from great analysts and friends like Harold and John Spang and Sean Kilkelly and others. I just listened to them. 

As a broadcaster, I did why I do. I described and reacted. I reported with passion and energy.

I'm not sure that I'm great at it but I learned I could hold my own. I didn't embarrass myself when Mike Richter was my analyst (talk about terrifying). 

Instead of trying to avoid calling hockey, I began to yearn to call it.

I've called 11 FCIAC hockey championships -- girls and boys. I've called several state championships. I've called two Worlds Selects championships. I've called the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (now the Bridgeport Islanders).

I can't skate. I can't coach hockey. But I can talk hockey.

And I love the sport.

And, especially now, during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I'd be thrilled to see you try to love it too if you don't already.