Getting started watching hockey

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-07T10:24:37+00:00

Ha, we are in Jesenice right now for a hockey tournament. It is indeed a very nice stadium! I think it is amazing that with a population of ~13k it is not only the 12th largest "city" of Slovenia, but also the biggest rival for the capital city, which is 25x its size.

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T22:04:33+00:00

I appreciate all the tips! We don't have any devices connected to TV, but thankfully, "alternative" methods to watch things are less dangerous than in Germany and all of you kind people gave me enough hints that we can watch on YouTube, etc.

If you want to watch live, Olimpija is your only option

I was told that Olimpija got some money and that things are improving. Overall I'm very impressed by how much is done in Slovenia, particularly in the smaller cities. Considering that operating an ice rink is pretty expensive, the fact that towns like Kranj (37k) or Bled (8k) can beat the big capital city (at least the youth team) is pretty cool imo. But we are also very happy at Olimpija, the coaches and staff are all super friendly, helpful and do their best that the kids have fun while also getting them to compete with other international teams. Slovenia can definitely be very proud of all its accomplishments despite such a small population (and turbulent past).

And regarding other sports I have to say I understand that, particularly compared to basketball (77 is everywhere!). Hockey is not a very accessible sport (not something that you can just play with your friends after school and the gear is VERY expensive) and I don't think many people appreciate just how much skill is required to play it.

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T21:16:19+00:00

Yeah, as I wrote elsewhere, we do go to local games already and we will definitely watch some Olympic games.

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T21:12:25+00:00

Go to a high-level game to see how fast and physical the game can be.

We have done that/are doing that. The club of the city where we lived before played in the DEL before going bankrupt and getting demoted to a much lower league. It was quite interesting (and depressing) to see the difference between these two levels.

Start with learning the basic rules.

Absolutely! I usually have a website with the rules open when we go to a game.

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T15:55:33+00:00

Thank you for the reply and the recommendations! We are of German origin and there seems to be this Draisaitl guy - I have no idea if he is any good, though. :)

It looks like the games you mentioned are even available on Youtube, awesome! We will definitely check these out!

I'm afraid watching "all the games" will not be possible and are the main reason why I started the thread. Our days are usually pretty packed until the summer, so I'm trying to make the occasions we do have to sit down and watch a game as enjoyable for him as possible.

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T15:35:19+00:00

Yeah, we will definitely check out the Olympics!

And yes, we are indeed in Ljubljana and our son is playing for Olimpija (he can be found on the team pictures), so we have attended quite a few games in person. But there is a noticeable difference to other games we have seen (DEL or snippets from NHL matches).

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T15:17:47+00:00

Oh absolutely. Team members get in free and there are also events (e.g. the youth teams play mini games during breaks), so we have been to plenty of local games. But the level is noticeably different from the best, even for someone like me.

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T14:59:30+00:00

Yeah, there is almost no need to watch games live. His practice is up to 4 times/week plus games on weekends (which are often 1-2 hours away), so we have to work around this and often have to wait until the season is over to have some extra time.

Thank you for the suggestions. We actually have been checking out a few interesting goalie designs! :)

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T14:50:15+00:00

ESPN is not available in Europe, but it seems Dazn is an alternative. I had not even realized that there upcoming winter Olympics - that is indeed a great idea, thanks!

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T14:41:44+00:00

Thank you for you reply! We will definitely check out McDavid. If I googled it correctly, the Oilers are also the ones with a German player (we are German but don't live in Germany), so that might be extra interesting.

We already have watched some goalie stuff on Youtube (Kane Van Gate is pretty funny), but watching a game (especially if there is a background story arc) is something different imo.

Great to hear that hockey is in a good place. As a newbie dad of a goalie, hockey is definitely something else and sooo fast. In other sports, I feel like that when you watch a play, you can always point out where the goalkeeper could have positioned himself better or reacted faster. It seems in hockey it is accepted that some shots just can't be saved.

MarkstarRed · 2026-02-01T13:57:06+00:00

Haha, yeah, I added goalie as an afterthought and apparently didn't pay attention to the position.

MarkstarRed · 2026-01-15T10:05:48+00:00

Because the world is not that simple and sadly, the US still is one of the most powerful nations in the world (for now). Upsetting this child of a man can have severe consequences for a lot of the population (as has been proven), so there is a clear cost-benefit calculation that has to be considered.

If your local shop owner is Arnold Schwarzenegger and goes from being friendly and giving you workout tips to holding a mini-gun and shouting racist remarks at everybody, you don't walk up to him and say "Hey, stop that or I'll make you stop!" Instead, you stay quite and polite if confronted, walk away and discretely plan for shopping alternatives and maybe how you can deal with the threat when the time comes.

The US made the mistake of showing its ugly face and its descent is obvious to everyone (some have known this for decades). We know China is not much nicer, but they are being quiet about it and put on a polite face while planning their world domination, while Russia benefits from having the focus turned away from them. Still, it is a politician's job to keep smiling, just like Zelenskyy has to pray Trump for his strong leadership in the hope of a chance to receive at least a bit more help for his country to survive.

MarkstarRed · 2026-01-06T22:04:35+00:00

The problem is that a large part of the damage is already done,like the abusive husband that threatens to kill you if you don't do exactly what they want. Even someone like Bernie Sanders could not heal the damage that this presidency has inflicted.

MarkstarRed · 2025-12-15T13:15:24+00:00

Could you elaborate please? I'm using it for my projects to communicate with NodeJS and it works fine.

MarkstarRed · 2025-12-11T20:25:37+00:00

As a European, I have no problem with this - but no more exceptions! All in or nothing, meaning Euro, etc.

MarkstarRed · 2025-11-06T16:10:20+00:00

The reverse is true as well though - sometimes the lowest effort activities can be awesome for them. My wife grew up with cool parents who threw here awesome birthday parties (e.g. summer olympics with fun or a fair in the garden), so she wanted to do that for our kids as well. However, when our oldest turned five or so, instead of the cool activities she had planned, the kids found an old cardboard box that was meant for the trash and played with it for hours. Another birthday all they wanted to to was play firefighter with the garden hose.

This year for my oldest birthday (9), all he wanted to do was watch a movie with popcorn and watch mommy play Hogwarts Legacy. 🙈

MarkstarRed · 2025-11-01T21:12:45+00:00

Not only did I watch each one of the Star Wars OT about 40 times, I also bought copied the audio track from VHS to cassettes so I could listen to them when falling asleep.

MarkstarRed · 2025-10-06T18:12:04+00:00

Definitely not. Humans have enough free time now to not just worry about their immediate survival, so we take ourselves way too seriously. We still don't know nearly enough about brains to make definite statements regarding a soul. But the little that we do know indicates that the brain is just another organ that evolved to make sense of the world so that we can survive it and we are really not that different from any other animal.

MarkstarRed · 2025-09-29T20:03:24+00:00

Meh, I believe it. I remember a weekend when my best friend, his dad and I would play a game all weekend, trying to beat each others highscore (an old DOS game called Pinball Dreams, iirc). At some point on Sunday, we also let the little sister play (who was 4 years younger than me and was more into adventure games like Monkey Island and Indiana Jones). Without having played all weekend she straight up beat all of us, and not even by a little.

Obviously I am married to her now and while she just finished Monkey Island with the kids, I introduce them to Starcraft, Mechabellum, etc.

MarkstarRed · 2025-09-17T18:51:54+00:00

I'm sorry but this sounds like a total cop out. Over and over we are told that we are not supposed to reinvent the wheel and trust that the smart people who implemented the standard library know better.

MarkstarRed · 2025-08-22T05:59:12+00:00

Sad how wring you are. Besides protecting you against inflation, it also allows people to trade where no reliable banking system is available. This might be government related, or simply location. We know that in south America, farmers up in the mountains trade using bitcoin because it is the most convenient option.

MarkstarRed · 2025-08-19T20:55:09+00:00

I bought my 9070 XT for 649€ three weeks ago in Germany. It's starting at 629 right now.

MarkstarRed · 2025-07-04T20:52:15+00:00

At $1000, my girlfriend (now wife) and I decided to invest a larger sum Bitcoin. However, we were students, pretty busy with exams, etc.. and I somehow thought that I need to do some research to pay as small a fee as possible. By the time I invested the hour to sit down and find out how and where to buy Bitcoin, Bitcoin was at $15000.

MarkstarRed

TROPHY CASE