OK, eh, it’s time to start thinking about skating the cup.

So what’s a gamer to do with hockey season approaching and a choice of NHL games when it comes to the video-game world?

Well, first ask yourself what kind of gamer and hockey fan you are.

Hardcore serious? Well then EA’s NHL 09 is the choice.

Goofy casual? Go for 2KSports’ NHL 2K9.

Here’s the breakdown:

EA’s NHL 09

The good: It’s all about the hockey here, as the controls can be as complex or as simple as suits your gaming ability. The genius of NHL 09 comes in with the online play. For the first time in sports online gaming, a player can create his own hockey player, then jump online to join a pickup game with 11 others using custom characters. EA also has the minor and international leagues to go with the NHL license.

The bad: Not much. In fact, hockey is rising to the top of EA’s sports pantheon as one of the genres it does best. The only knock is that it’s becoming so deep that an average gamer might be overwhelmed with the options and not utilize the game to its potential.

NHL 2K9

The good: Pond hockey and Zamboni races. Yeah, baby! Nothing is cooler than racing on the greatest mechanized vehicle of the modern era — the Zamboni. The free-for-all, unencumbered nature of the pond hockey with no crowd, no offside and no calls certainly is the best play mode in 2K9. Online play allows for 12 players to compete in a game simultaneously.

The bad: Years ago, 2K was a great option because it offered a price point about $25 cheaper than the EA sports titles but hardly a drop in quality. The Xbox 360 versions we played are the same at $59.99, which takes the edge from 2K.

The thought occurred to me when I heard Sarah Palin describe herself as a "hockey mom" that she was making an unconscious decision to distinguish herself from the more commonly-heard "soccer mom." Having taught in a town that is perhaps more synonymous with soccer than any community in New Jersey--Kearny--my initial reaction was to interpret her remark as somewhat elitist: Soccer is a game for the masses, hockey for the wealthy.

To test my hypothesis, I decided to see what it would cost to outfit a teenager for both sports.

As with automobiles, so it is with hockey equipment: apparently there is no limit to the amount of money one can spend. Perhaps the most reasonable estimate I got was from a site called ThinkQuest:

Q. What equipment do you need to play this sport and how much does it cost?

A. "Equipment these days is made to protect virtually every part of the body. A full set of equipment for a youth hockey player costs around $500.00, the two most expensive items being the skates and the helmet/cage combination." If that is the nationwide average, I suspect the cost might be somewhat higher in the Northeast. Additionally, outside of pond and street hockey (does anyone play pond hockey in this state anymore?) I doubt one can play hockey for free in New Jersey. So add the rink rental fee to the cost of the equipment.

As I was preparing this blog on September 11, I happened to read this in The New York Times:

In and around Anchorage, particularly in wealthier high schools, hockey is everything. With $400 skates, $150 sticks and hundreds of dollars more for pads and gloves, outfitting a skater can cost well over a $1,000. Add in ice time, league fees and the cost of travel in and out of this rural state, and some families with elite high school players can spend $15,000 a year. Parents with especially talented skaters or with enough money or both often do what the Palins eventually did with Track (Sarah Palin's eldest son), which was to write a check and send him to special hockey development programs out of state. Housed with teammates, the boys go to local high schools and play on sponsored teams intended to attract attention from college recruiters.)

For soccer, I could not find a similar Q & A, so, using midrange Modells' North Jersey prices, I estimate about $150 would easily cover the cost of spikes, shorts, a jersey and socks. (A former student who lives and breathes the sport told me the cost could easily be double that amount if one wanted to go with all the bells and whistles [$150 soccer balls and a bag, warm-up equipment, etc], but that would be like adding a Bose audio system to a car--nice, but not necessary to get you from point A to point B.) And when I observe the teams of young, mostly Latin American men playing the sport FOR FREE in my local park, it seems most of them are outfitted with "equipment" (if that's the term) for a whole lot less than the $150 estimate.

I don't know if Governor Palin meant to reinforce the stereotype of the Republican Party as the political party of the wealthy with her "hockey mom" reference. But that's how I interpreted it. And the research seems to support my hypothesis.

Growing up I frequently heard thoroughbred horse racing referred to as The Sport of Kings. Might we now conclude that ice hockey is The Sport of Republicans?