Of all the live sporting experiences you can experience in the United States and Canada, I believe that NHL hockey is the most unique.

Let’s start with perhaps the most obvious reasons: The game is played on a sheet of ice and requires its players to wear skates, which to many are foreign concepts. Hockey is also played not with a spherical ball like practically every other team sport, but with a disc-shaped puck.

The game is also notoriously difficult to watch on TV, thanks in no small part to a puck that moves too quickly and is exceedingly tough to spot for the casual viewer.

So when many fans who are unfamiliar with the game get their first opportunity to watch NHL hockey live in an arena, they have very little idea what to expect.

I understand your pain. When I attended my first NHL game as a teenager, I was awestruck by all of it: The environment, the pace of the game, the noise — and most memorably, the thrill of it. Hockey just felt different.

While other sports were played in small but frenetic bursts of activity, hockey was just nonstop, end-to-end action. The players moved incredibly fast, hit each other surprisingly hard and made skating and stickhandling moves that I could only dream about executing.

And the noises! From the puck smacking the glass to the ear-splitting goal horn to the spontaneous roar of the crowd, it was an overwhelming assault on the senses — in the best way.

From there, I was hooked. And decades later, hockey remains hands-down my favorite sport. I relish the opportunity to introduce new fans to the game of hockey and watch them enjoy their first live NHL experience.

If you’re considering checking out live hockey for the first time, I implore you: Please take the plunge. But you might want to prepare for what you’ll experience, so keep reading for a few tips on what to expect and look out for when you attend an NHL game for the first time.

Note that while this post specifically focuses on NHL games, minor-league hockey and major college hockey can also provide the same experience — after all, the game in its basic form is pretty much the same!

The experience starts at warmups

When you attend your first NHL game, it’s best to show up early — not just to familiarize yourself with where your seat is, where the best food and drink is, etc., but also because watching the players warm up is a great first impression into the game.

First, most NHL arenas allow fans to walk into the lower bowl during “warmies” no matter where their seat is. You can sit and/or stand wherever, as long as you yield if the rightful ticketholder of the seat you’re occupying shows up and you leave the section when warmups end.

You’ll find plenty of other fans hanging out in the lower bowl, with many staking out spots along the glass so they can hold up signs and try to attract their favorite players’ attention.

Lots of players will interact with fans as they prepare for the game, and often they will flip pucks over the glass for spectators to keep (usually kids, but sometimes adults as well).

Warmups typically begin about half an hour before the game start time — players begin to come out when the arena clock is at somewhere between 15 and 18 minutes. The warmup period ends when the clock hits zero, and then resets to around 16-18 minutes to prepare for the game.

No, it won’t be THAT cold

A common question I hear from first-time fans preparing to attend their first NHL game is: “Do I have to bundle up? There is ice, after all.”

It is certainly true that the arena has to remain a certain temperature to maintain the ice surface. However, that doesn’t mean the building is freezer-cold.

Especially if you’re sitting in the upper deck, you should find that the arena is at or near room temperature, as the body heat of thousands of fans typically cancels out the cooler-than-normal environment.

But everyone is different, so if you’re worried about being cold, do bring a light sweater. Many seasoned hockey fans come in long-sleeved jerseys anyway, so that solves the problem for them!

Be sure your senses are ready

At NHL games, the pregame presentation prepares you for what’s to come: Loud, bass-heavy rock music, flashing lights and slickly produced videos.

Plenty of NHL teams go further than that. The Vegas Golden Knights are famous for their live-action pregame show at T-Mobile Arena where an actual actor dressed in knight’s armor battles a character representative of that night’s opponent.

And many buildings, such as the Montreal Canadiens’ Bell Centre, use the rink itself as a projection screen, displaying game highlights and graphics as part of their pregame hype video.

This continues throughout the game, as arenas will blare rock or electronic music during nearly every stoppage in play.

And even during play, it can be loud. Many first-time NHL fans express surprise at how loud the puck smacking the glass can be, for example. And the spontaneous roar of the fans when the home team scores, while often deafening, is usually the best part of the experience.

By the way, every NHL arena blasts a horn in response to the home team scoring. Though the horns vary in pitch and how they’re employed, a lot of savvy hockey fans can identify teams based on simply hearing their horns.

In addition, every team has a hand-picked song that it plays after goals. Some were written especially for the club, while others were chosen due to either the song’s or the musical act’s significance to the region. Many of these tunes are now instantly identifiable with the team that uses them.

No matter what, watching the celebration when the home team scores is an essential part of the experience! Unless you’re rooting for the visiting team, of course.

Appreciate the speed

The thing I hear most often from fans after watching their first live hockey game is their astonishment at how fast everything is. How fast the players move, how quickly the puck goes up and down the ice, how suddenly the game can go from mundane to thrilling, and so on.

The players are on skates, after all, and the fastest NHL players can skate up to 25 miles per hour. The hardest slap shots, meanwhile, routinely travel in excess of 100 mph.

But to me, the best part about the sport of hockey is how quickly games can turn on a dime. A standard NHL rink is 200 feet long, and the players can cover that length in the blink of an eye — meaning exciting scoring chances can develop in a flash.

Keep in mind that the whole game is designed to emphasize action. Play can continue for several minutes without a stoppage. Hockey is the only major team sport in which substitutions are allowed while the action is in progress.

And each team gets only one timeout to use for the entire game! Many newbies to hockey are astounded by that fact.

Yes, there are two ‘halftimes’

Often, fans attending their first live NHL game are surprised to find out that hockey is divided into three periods, meaning that there are two intermissions — usually 18 minutes in length.

And yes, these operate the same way halftimes do in other sports, with fans usually heading to the concourses, and activities taking place on the videoboards and on the ice.

The difference, of course, lies in what happens for much of the intermission: Two vehicles called Zambonis enter the rink to resurface, or smooth out, the ice.

There are a few practical reasons why hockey is divided into three 20-minute periods. It was determined many years ago that two intermissions were necessary to maintain the quality of the ice throughout the game.

Additionally, because the two team benches are alongside each other on one side of the rink, playing three regulation periods allows for teams to be closer to their defending zone during the first and third periods.

Close game? Buckle up!

As mentioned above, hockey games can go from mundane to thrilling quite quickly. This makes for especially exciting atmospheres when the game is close in the final minutes.

Games routinely are decided late, with winning goals scored close to the end of the match, or trailing teams scoring the equalizing goal as the clock is winding down — sometimes with their goalie pulled from the net in favor of having an extra attacker on the ice.

Say what you will about overtimes in other sports, but hockey has to have the most exciting way to break ties. OT periods are sudden death, meaning if a goal is scored, that team wins. And it can truly happen in the blink of an eye.

During the NHL regular season, teams are forced to play overtimes with three skaters per side, a rule introduced about a decade ago with the intention of opening up the ice to create more scoring chances. OT periods are five minutes long, and if the game remains tied, the teams go to a shootout — three guaranteed chances, with any necessary rounds added on until a winner is decided.

Is your first live NHL hockey experience a playoff game? Then you’re in for an edge-of-your-seat treat. Overtime hockey in the Stanley Cup playoffs is an absolute thrill to watch — unless you’re rooting for one of the teams involved, in which case it can be torture.

Regardless, being there to see a home crowd explode in euphoria if their team scores a playoff OT winner — or watch it deflate if the visitors get the goal — is an experience unmatched in spectator sports. Just one of the many things that make watching live hockey so great, so give an NHL game a try!

Is there something you’d like to add about the live NHL game experience that you want hockey newcomers to know? Leave a comment below or drop us a line at [email protected].