seven venues

The plan: Check out the local team, which is having one of its best seasons in years
How did it go? If you’re not familiar with hockey, stick with it: You’ll get it!

    A FEW YEARS AGO, two of The Pilot’s editors attended a Norfolk Admirals hockey game at Scope. One is a longtime hockey fan, but the other hadn’t seen a game in decades.
    During the second intermission, I descended from the press box and asked the second editor what he made of the spectacle before him.
    “It’s all a blur, laddie,’’ he said with a wide smile. “I have no idea what’s going on, but I like it.’’
    That about sums up a newcomer’s approach to the sport, which the Admirals play at a high level and at high speed.
    Norfolk is in its seventh season in the American Hockey League. The AHL is the feeder circuit to the best league in the world, the National Hockey League, which operates from Montreal and Vancouver to Phoenix, New York and Dallas.
    The Admirals’ opponents hail from less glamorous burgs such as Hershey, Pa., and Binghamton, N.Y., but for at least 40 nights a year, local fans can not only watch the world’s second-best league, but also glimpse future NHL stars.
    More than two-thirds of last season’s NHL players once skated in the AHL, and recent legends such as Brett Hull, Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur played there as well. It’s fun to watch an NHL game on TV or in person and recall its standouts skating at Scope.
    Unlike baseball, basketball and football, hockey tends to be unfamiliar and takes a bit of study to fully enjoy. Like my editor, newcomers often can only distinguish whirling skaters in brightly colored uniforms who sometimes collide and occasionally fight.
    Stick with it, however, because few sports are more enticing to watch in person. Players as big as 230 pounds can skate up to 30 mph on blades with razor edges and can shoot the frozen puck as hard as 100 mph.
    This season there’s frequent reason to cheer the Admirals, who have one of their best offensive teams in years and are scoring goals in bunches. When Martin St. Pierre or Troy Brouwer’s shots find the twine behind the opposing goaltender, the entire crowd stands, cheering and clapping as the Admirals come together in a group hug like you might see among youth soccer players.
    Pro hockey debuted here soon after Scope opened in the early 1970s but could never get a permanent foothold on the local sporting scene. An East Coast Hockey League team, also called the Admirals, made it stick beginning in 1989 and regularly lured sell-out crowds to Scope before it gave way to its AHL namesake in 2000.
    Whether because it was a novelty that faded or because of poor management and civic stewardship, Admirals hockey hasn’t sold out the arena since 1998. Most games attract between 3,000 and 4,500 fans, so tickets aren’t hard to obtain.
    Because Scope’s ticket window setup is antiquated and can cause lines even on slow nights, buying your ducats at the arena ahead of time is recommended if you want to sweep right into your seat on game night.
    From there, bundle on a sweater or jacket and enjoy the blur. After several games or perhaps even several periods, the strategies and those strange markings on the ice will begin to make sense.
    If not, ask your neighbor for tips. Hockey fans, though few in our region, are among the friendliest people in Hampton Roads.