Why I'm buying tickets to the Coachella Valley's new hockey team, the Firebirds

The day The Desert Sun reported an ice hockey team was coming to Palm Springs—to be a minor-league affiliate of the Seattle Kraken—I put in my deposit for season tickets. The brand-new arena’s location has changed to Palm Desert, and marketing hoopla has begun.

The Coachella Valley Firebirds will be a smashing success, I predict, and its fans will mostly be hockey-hotbed transplants and seasonal visitors. For locals less familiar with the game, I want to suggest its attractions and then give one reason not to attend Firebirds games.

Ice hockey in person is a thrilling spectacle; hockey on TV far less so, and the better the players, the more pronounced the discrepancy. TV flattens the action, robs the game of speed and dynamism, and makes it hard even for experienced fans to follow the puck. By contrast, NFL football is far better experienced at home than in stadiums where it takes forever to get in and out, you’re too far away from the action, and TV timeouts strip the game of rhythm and momentum.

Hockey, by contrast, is virtually non-stop, showcasing a unique athleticism. The players are so speedy and secure on skates; resilient and tough yet so artful in handling the puck. Leaving a game, exhausted just from watching that much action, you’ll be amazed to recall they play again tomorrow.

To the newbie fan, hockey looks free-form and helter-skelter. Shortly, though, you’ll detect the movement patterns and specialized positions: balletic, laser-focused goaltenders behind gritty defensemen and agile forwards snapping and slapping shots just past the goalie’s reach. You’ll also appreciate the skill and organization it takes to move the puck up ice: the intricate passing; the hustle toward open space; then the battle at the net between forwards blocking the goalie’s view and defensemen moving them away, never gently.

A word now about minor-league sports. Decades ago, I regularly attended Birmingham A’s baseball games. A subsidiary of the Oakland A’s, this Birmingham team was loaded with young, raw talents, and in the relaxed, cozy confines of Rickwood Field, I could take delight in watching them develop. Years later I still felt connected to their ongoing accomplishments. Expect the same with the Firebirds: promising young kids from wherever—Sweden, Canada, Cleveland—winning your admiration as they grow into their adult bodies and professional mindsets.

Finally now the kill-joy part. Don’t go to Firebirds games to watch fighting, a hockey tradition that has outlived any utility it may have had. “Goons” exchanging bare-knuckle punches end up regularly as 35-year-olds with severe brain damage. Nothing intrinsic to the game justifies fighting in hockey any more than fighting in baseball, basketball, golf, or chess. If you like watching fights, great: Watch MMA or WWE.

I don’t yet know the stance that the Seattle Kraken and their business partners will take toward on-ice brawling in Palm Desert. For now, then, I’ll say just this much: Nothing will turn me away faster from their product than if they turn a blind eye toward fighting’s toxic effects on the game, the players, and the fans, particularly children.

Email Jeff Zorn of Palm Springs at jzorn@scu.edu.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella Valley's Firebirds hockey games may not be what you expect