I realized this while watching Game 6 of the Stars-Ducks series, Sunday night, and I've been thinking about it for the past couple of days. Let me say first that I didn't grow up around hockey, and I don't claim to be a hockey fan, but I do love the playoffs, and I do pull for the Stars.

Hockey is special because it creates a strong emotional tie between the game and the viewer. If you have a real, vested interest in the game or your team, it's nearly impossible to look away. Sunday's game was so very important, with Game 7 in Anaheim looming if they lost. When the game is that important, every goal is huge, every possession has significance, and every turnover could turn a player into the playoff goat. As long as the game is tied or a 1-goal difference, it could change in an instant, and with that brings a game-long tension that other sports just don't have.

This makes hockey very unlike the other of the three major sports (and any argument about whether hockey deserves to be among the "big 4" of major sports can wait for another day). In baseball, you can afford to take breaks as a fan. If your team is ahead by a run, and up to bat, then you know it's impossible for the other team to score; no matter what happens, when the inning is over, your team will still be ahead. Basketball and football will have spectacular moments throughout the game, but the real tension doesn't come until late in the game. Hockey will have its 1-0 games - not a lot, but enough - so that when you're watching, you KNOW that the first goal you see scored could possibly be the game-winner. And the pace of the game doesn't allow you to take a break while it's happening. There are fewer commercials, fewer breaks in the action, and hardly any team time-outs.

Normally when I watch sporting events, I'll have the laptop on, reading e-mails or on-line articles. Sometimes I'll have a book or magazine while the TV is on (I am notorious for needing to have more than one thing going on at the same time). But during these playoff hockey games, it is incredibly difficult to multi-task, and the only reason I sometimes do is because of DVR - if I miss the goal, I just hit that button that takes me back 15 seconds and watch it again. As long as it's a close game, it's exciting from start to finish, and that makes hockey unique.

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