A WHOLE NEW WORLD - MY JOURNEY INTO ICE HOCKEY

My friend Martyn Royce has been to two ice hockey games in his entire life, both in the last two weeks. His first in this country was last Saturday's 5-1 defeat to Hull, but his first game overall was at German side ERC Ingolstadt. Quite a contrast. Martyn is a very eloquent man and jumped at the chance of writing a comparison between the two. Bear in mind that before the game in Germany, he'd never been to an ice hockey game.

It's fair to say my venture into the world of ice hockey has been... well, spontaneous at the very least. If it wasn't for having a free Wednesday evening to myself during a friend's birthday celebrations in Germany at the end of February, I wouldn't be writing this blog today. However, the decision to go and watch my maiden ice hockey match around 700 miles from home on that Wednesday evening was a very, very good one.

I have known Liam via my girlfriend Kelly properly for a few months now. He and I see eye to eye on a lot of things, a fact all the more remarkable bearing in mind I'm a Newcastle United fan and he supports... that other lot who play in red and white (choice words there just so he still publishes this blog). I was only vaguely aware of the passion that he has for ice hockey before, but not least through this blog do I see just how much the Steelers and the sport mean to him and so many other people. Through what remains my infancy in a newfound love for the sport, Liam has been a guide I'm most grateful for. I want to take this chance to thank him for that guidance and for welcoming me into the fold with the Steelers - a point I will elaborate on a little later.

I came home from Germany as a new fan. Not someone who enjoyed a random sporting night out. A fan. Someone captivated by a new sport for the first time much like the first football match you see as an awestruck 7 year old. I was craving more and I was going to get it sooner rather than later whatever it took. Such was my lack of knowledge on ice hockey in Great Britain that I had no idea at all of the geographical whereabouts of the other teams in the league aside from Sheffield. Upon research I discovered that Hull, not far at all from Scarborough in the grand scheme of things, had a team. They were playing the Steelers, by sheer chance, on Saturday just gone and both me and Kelly were free. She wanted to see what all the fuss was about herself, so she happily came with. Therefore, fast forward ten days from that Wednesday night in Germany and I found myself at my first Elite League match. I was well and truly on the slippery slope of ice hockey (no pun intended, I promise you).

In the knowledge that I was attending another match, Liam came up with an idea. From the eyes of a complete novice, someone totally new and unfamiliar to the sport, he wanted me to put my two experiences of ice hockey from both here and on the continent into a blog and compare them. I felt quite honoured that he wanted to let me loose on this blog. Imagine going into an exam where you have to write an essay on something you've been far too lazy to revise for. That's the slight worry I've got coming here and stealing the limelight for a few thousand words, but I hope to do myself justice commenting for the first time on this new world I've found.

Upon reflection of both games, I will talk about the ease of access of both arenas, my pre-match experience and ambience, the value for money for my matchday experience, and the quality of the hockey I witnessed. There may be other smaller points I will touch on as I write this article, but those I feel are the four things that I valued most on my first two match days. I'm not going to mark each point as such - I will let the words do the talking so you can make your own conclusions from it all. I can only hope I wind up with a balanced if not frank article about both matches and show you that the love you all have for this sport is a love I now share too. So, if you'd care to take a seat, let me tell you my story.

ERC Ingolstadt 0:1 Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg
Wednesday 26th February 2014
Face-off: 1930 CET (1830 GMT)

EASE OF ACCESS
Being let loose in a foreign country might be daunting for some. Attempting to find a location in a town you'd never set foot in before is a different story altogether. However, my sparse grasp of the German language (I can string some basic conversational sentences together but I'm far from fluent) helped me in getting places during my trip. I work for a train operating company and one of my staff perks is discounted rail travel in Europe, so I arrived into Ingolstadt with plenty of time to spare. I had passed the arena on the train just the previous day, but could gather very little in terms of a walking route to getting there. I left myself a good hour to get there knowing it should take me 25 minutes at worst. After two wrong turns and winding up stood behind a billboard on a main road with no pathway in sight, probably with a lot of confused German commuters looking at me whilst in their respective traffic jams, I finally made it to the Saturn Arena after nearly 50 minutes. With about 25 minutes to go to face-off, fans were starting to steadily stream in and congregate outside the arena. I approached a group of four gentlemen conversing in German, raised a welcoming arm and said "Entschuldigen Sie mich, kann dein Herren English sprechen (translating as [at least pretty close to] Excuse me, can you gentlemen speak English)?", dearly hoping that one could. Thankfully, one did. He politely pointed to the north entrance and explained that I can purchase a ticket from there. I thanked him and, with more comfort, was on my way to part with my hard earned.

PRE-MATCH EXPERIENCE
Once I'd purchased my match ticket, an army of 8 to 10 security officers were waiting to search spectators before letting them into the main building. This threw me a little as I wasn't sure if such an event would draw such rigorous checks, but there they were. I obliged in letting them search me and knew they would look in my bag. I did have two full bottles of water (I always carry a lot around with me - Kel will vouch for that) which I thought they might pull me up on, so I made it clear my German wasn't great before they mentioned it. Thankfully, a member of the security team spoke excellent English and went on to explain that I could either surrender the water or leave my bag in a free cloakroom-style facility. I don't know why, but this was a novel touch that I wasn't expecting. I took a short walk around to identify where the toilets and food stalls were and then proceeded towards the standing area.

Yes, that's correct. Standing area. So much for all-seater arenas that we are so used to in this country. Much like the proposed safe-standing areas in football news of late, the standing area had its seating locked back so as to allow fans to stand. I walked in during the teams on-rink warm up and shooting practice and then the atmosphere hit me. The loud music, the constant stream of blades cutting through the ice, the vibrance and sound resonance in the arena - I had walked into a party. The white and orange of Wolfsburg skating on the far side of the rink, the dual toned blue of Ingolstadt nearest to me. Once the players had left the rink, two ice machines came on to glaze over the cuts made in practice, swiftly making their way around the rink and off again in a flash. Following this, a group of assistants started inflating a giant panther's head in one corner. I soon realised, with Ingolstadt nicknamed the Panthers, this was for Ingolstadt's grand entrance to the match. It looked funny at first but it did help in bigging up the team I would wind up calling my own. The stage was set, the fans were in incredible voice, and probably the only Englishman in the crowd was buzzing his tits off with excitement.

VALUE FOR MONEY
Having looked on the ERC Ingolstadt website prior to departing for Germany, I felt it sensible to search for ticket prices just so I wasn't caught short on the day. I bargained for the worst and was pleasantly surprised to see that matchday prices came to just €17 for an adult ticket (roughly £14). For what I witnessed I was over the moon with that price. Just from the pre-match build up I could tell that I was getting value for money. I'm a big rugby league fan and, like a lot of others, I'm a little disillusioned at the greedy ogre that modern day top flight football has become. I consider my day out at the rugby to be good value and know that other sports also take pride in following suit. You're never going to get much variation in price of merchandise (replica Ingolstadt jerseys were around £65, and scarves [of which I purchased two, one each for Kel and myself] set you back about £12.50), but the price of going to watch a couple of hours of sporting action is key to my enjoyment. I paid £52 not long back to see the black and white army (no more references Liam, I promise) away at Chelsea in a match we lost 3-0. For the 90 minutes of footballing action that I parted £52 for, I could have watch THREE Ingolstadt matches and very nearly have enough left over to buy another scarf. I rest my case.

QUALITY OF HOCKEY
Before I talk about this, two points. Firstly, on the rare occasions I had watched ice hockey on television prior to this (you've got to love the Winter Olympics haven't you), I've paid very little attention to how good the teams actually might be. Secondly, the fact that I can't skate to save my life always puts me in awe of players by default seeing as they go round the rink with the grace and pace that they do. For what is ultimately a full contact sport, I was in awe to finally see the game and the aforementioned grace happen in person. Despite the 1:0 scoreline (Liam confirmed to me just how rare that is when I interrogated him after the match), the game was very much attack focussed. Ingolstadt's defense were lacklustre for the most part and it was only goaltender Timo Pielmeier that kept them in it with some tremendous blocks. Him aside, I caught very few names from the night but am slowly adding them to my vocabulary now. Wolfsburg's offensive players were simply overpowering and, for my money, deserved at least one more goal. They very nearly got their reward when, with 90 seconds left of regulation time, Pielmeier left the rink to allow for a six man offense in a desperate attempt to break the resolute Wolfsburg defense and force the game into overtime. The puck was tossed around like a pinball and wound up coming back up the rink only to hit the post. There was no time left on the clock for Ingolstadt to mount another attack, and the final few seconds drifted off to give Wolfsburg a deserved victory

I should add that since watching this match, Ingolstadt have played three matches and scored just one goal whilst conceding eight. Their second play-off match against Berlin takes place tonight (Wednesday 12th), and by the time I finish writing this I will know if my newly adopted team's season is over. Regardless of this, I was and remain blown away by what I watched. The club and sport gained a new fan that night, a fan that couldn't wait to feel that buzz again back home...

Hull Stingrays 5:1 Sheffield Steelers
Saturday 8th March 2014
Face-off: 1830 GMT

EASE OF ACCESS
It was inevitable upon my return to England that, when looking for a match to watch over here, it had to really be in Yorkshire. I'd been to Hull a number of times before so know the city relatively well. Kel, Yorkshire lass as she is, had been even more often than me and so directions for getting to the arena was no problem at all. Again, I ensured that attending the match by train wasn't a problem and, as we were staying away in Bradford that night, trains favoured us well in getting back there after an 1830 face-off. 

We saw a number of fans walking towards the arena as opposed to travelling by car, certainly more so than I spotted in Ingolstadt. I had perhaps expected a few more to be driving, but the car park looked pretty full upon us arriving with around half an hour to spare. Perhaps this is a regular occurrence and dissuades people from driving, but by whatever means of transport it's easy to get to. There is also a bus stop literally right outside the arena, but you're not going to spot me catching a bus if I can help it!

Purchasing tickets was painless enough and, as you'd expect, we coerced in English (even if that East Riding accent is a little curious to some). The receptionist dealt us our tickets like lightning, and so we went to take our seats.

PRE-MATCH EXPERIENCE
Kel and I immediately went through the double doors into the arena to be greeted by Hull's stingray mascot walking around. She had actually been to the rink before with a skating contingent so knew more of what to expect than I did. The two teams were out having their pre-match practice like before, the music was blaring loudly as expected, but the fans were just milling around and talking amongst themselves. At this same point in Ingolstadt the fans began chanting and singing so, perhaps naively, I was expecting something similar here. Ironically, after doing a little research, I discovered that Ingolstadt and Hull both have the second smallest arenas in their respective leagues. In a nutshell, both are small and aren't even remotely full arena size. However, the atmosphere and noise coming from the Ingolstadt fans would have put the Hull fans to shame. ERC Ingolstadt are a bigger club than Hull Stingrays, of that I've no doubt, but the vocality of the supporters is a huge difference. Both teams were/are in the doldrums of mid-lower table medocrity, but Ingolstadt's fans were singing as if the league title was up for grabs that night.

It might have been helpful having my girlfriend in attendance for company because the atmosphere, whilst still good, wasn't a patch on what I felt in Germany. I spent a few minutes of the pre-match trying to explain what I'd gathered regarding the rules to her. It wasn't far off of a 'blind leading the blind' scenario, but I think I sold it pretty well. She was having the same giddy feeling I got when I was waiting for the match to begin in Ingolstadt, but I was certain there was more to what I'd watched before and could tell that there wasn't anywhere near as much of a clan atmosphere in Hull. Given how small the Hull team and its arena were, I knew it wouldn't quite be the same. A thought soon entered my head. ERC Ingolstadt have an arena based on a team, Hull Stingrays have a team based on an arena. The Hull team have to share, like a number of teams in the Elite League, a rink also used for general public skating. This simple difference couldn't help but change the atmosphere a little, but I wasn't too fussed personally. Nonetheless, the fans turned up in adequate numbers at the very least and were all eagerly awaiting the start of play like the two of us were.

VALUE FOR MONEY
There isn't a great deal here that I haven't already put bearing in mind that much the same applies. Match day tickets were £15 at Hull whether purchased on the day or in advance, but as we'd already been adopted by the Steelers (as Liam kindly tweeted about on the night just in case Hull were getting any ideas...) we didn't think to go into the club shop and buy merchandise from a team we didn't support nor were going to.

The best way of gauging the value for money over in Great Britain, I felt, was to do some snooping on the Steelers website instead. These were figures that would bear a little more relevance to me in the event of me attending a few home matches either next season or, whilst unlikely, during the playoffs. Pretty much everything was the same here as it was there - match day tickets about £15, merchandise priced around the same too with the exception of replica shirts being about £10 cheaper here. What did impress me was season ticket prices. For committing yourself to the Steelers before April 1st, a 25 game season ticket costs just £320 if paid upfront. That's £12.80 a game in other words. For what I've witnessed so far that's an absolute steal, and and offer I'd certainly consider if I was remotely local. Compare this to a Huddersfield Giants season ticket for £199 (£15.31 per game for 13 games) or a Sunderland AFC (one moment - need to fetch my mouthwash) season ticket for £370 (£19.47 per game for 19 [Premier League] games, and the value speaks for itself. I consider my Huddersfield season ticket to be good value, and indeed some football season tickets offer decent value themselves as mentioned above, but this tells me that ice hockey is a cheap and accessible sport that prides itself on being a family game and a fun day/evening out.

QUALITY OF HOCKEY
This, again, was a little difficult to judge. I could only compare with one previous hour of hockey watched. I still haven't got used to the unlimited substitutions during a match so, aside from goaltenders who stay put indefinitely, I'm finding it hard to analyse any individuals with a critical eye. I am a goalkeeper in a 5-a-side football team at my place of work, so keeping net is something I always bear in mind with other similar sports. As a result, my attention quickly settled on Hull goaltender Ben Bowns. His counterpart at the other end of the rink, Frank Doyle, had less work to do and let more past him. Bowns, on the other hand, had an absolute blinder. I was rooting for him to keep a clean sheet with a few minutes left to go in the final period, but when Rob Dowd finally broke the deadlock with less than a minute to play I did feel a bit gutted for Bowns. Still, 51 saves on the night is no mean feat. The attacking style, especially in the opening period, was a lot more gung-ho than what I witnessed in Germany. Players weren't afraid to have a pop on goal rather than the more elegance passing style of play on the continent. In Germany, passing the puck around seemed far more common. A slow, steady movement up the rink and biding your time when you get goalside, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. That's not to say the same didn't happen here, but I certainly saw more of a 'give it a pop and see where it stops' attitude from both sides. Whether that's a correct analogy or not is yet to be seen. There's only one thing for it - more games!

SUMMARY
If I am guilty of one thing in all of this, it is underestimating how popular and well loved ice hockey is across the continent. I gather that the top tier of hockey in this country has been through the mill a bit in the last couple of decades, but having a presence in British sporting culture is essential for a sport of this magnitude. Ice hockey is a sport crying out to be loved by more people. It will randomly take in fans from time to time, myself now included in this category, but the accessibility of the sport is an issue. It isn't a major sport here unlike it is in a number of other countries in Europe. The geographical spread of teams across Germany is fantastic. Over here? Not so much. That the sport is represented in three of Great Britain's four capital cities is certainly no bad thing. However, when someone who lives in Norwich can claim their nearest Elite League team is a tossup between Coventry and Nottingham, you then know the spread is a bit skewed. All the same, the sport has a structure that I can't wait to learn more about and take in.

Just to briefly explain what might have been construed as a forced allegiance to the Steelers, allow me to explain something briefly. Outside of my day job I'm a snooker referee and, as some of you might know, the World Championship is held in Sheffield every year as it has done since the late 70s. It is snooker city. It is a beautiful city. It is almost a halfway point between Kel and I. It's a little over two hours from my place of work. It's Yorkshire. Henceforth, it's the home of my team. I love sports in general and what clubs and places stand for. I love meeting new fans making new friends. With a little luck I will do just that within realms of hockey now. If you've made it this far, then I salute you and sincerely thank you for taking the time to muse over my experiences. I only hope this insight has been of interest to you and if you see me at a game some time soon and want to say hello, look for the tall man who keeps asking Liam questions about things. My education in this sport has only just begun, but I don't think I ever want to stop learning.

Big thanks to Martyn, kind of threw him in at the deep end but this is a fantastic read. You can find him on Twitter @MartynDRoyce