TORONTO -- The things that make hockey beautiful are the same things that limit its popular appeal. Alex Chiasson Jersey . Its almost too exotic for its own good. It requires ice, and not a little bit: great big sheets of it, clean and flawless. The ice means that hockey also requires skating. Like mastering a language, learning to skate rewards early adoption. Most of us can run, so we can come to understand and even play a lot of sports that we didnt grow up playing. We have already met their first demand. Hockey has a higher barrier to entry. If you cant skate, you cant play.I cant skate. Im Canadian, but my family is an immigrant family, and I was too late to the pond. A Canadian who cant skate is like an American who cant light a firework. Youre surrounded by people taking delight in something that has escaped you, everybody laughing at a joke thats gone over your head. Theres a fountain in front of Torontos iconic City Hall. In the winter it becomes a rink, of course, and I cant tell you how many times Ive watched people circling that square with a grace and speed that fills me with envy.World Cup of Hockey schedule: Watch on ESPN, ESPN2, WatchESPNBut I still love hockey, and I can identify the moment I fell for it and why. When I was very young, maybe 5 or 6, my dad took me to my first hockey game. We watched the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens. We didnt have a lot of money, and its the only game we ever attended together. I can remember walking to that fabled arena, holding my dads hand so I wouldnt get lost in the bustle of the building crowd. I can remember being almost blinded by the glare off the ice. I can remember watching the first period and maybe part of the second, trying to take in all of hockeys crazy action, to parse its peculiar brand of collision physics.And then I can remember leaning into my dad and falling fast asleep.In Canada, hockey occupies the same place in our collective consciousness that baseball does in America, only it has inspired more riots. The rink, the heart of so many of our small communities, is our version of the ballpark as cathedral. The back of our $5 bill used to have an engraving of kids playing shinny on it. The prime minister prior to our current dreamboat was a hockey historian. Arguably the most famous song by The Tragically Hip, our unofficial national band, is about a hockey player who was killed in a plane crash. Most Canadians can tell you that the last goal Bill Barilko ever scored won the Leafs the Cup.If you havent watched a lot of hockey, that romance and poetry will probably be lost on you. Thats understandable. On the surface, its a brutal game, bloody and ferocious, with its welts and bruises and lost teeth. It moves at a frenetic pace, too, the tiny puck sometimes lost in the blur, the shifts only a minute long, the changes in momentum almost too quick to appreciate. Baseball is complicated but slow enough to digest. Hockey is simple but too fast to see.I think everything changed that night at the Gardens when I fell asleep. Thats when hockey started making sense to me, when I didnt try so hard to watch it and instead let it filter through my dreams. The sound of the game stuck in my brain like a song that makes you smile every time you hear it.The distinctive sound that hockey makes is one of its happier accidents, the twin benefit of constructing a game exclusively out of hard surfaces and playing it during the quietest time of year, when the birds are gone and no leaves are rustling in the trees. Ice instead of grass, boards instead of chalk, skates instead of shoes, sticks instead of hands, pucks instead of balls -- each of its base elements makes a noise when it comes in contact with any of its others, all of them frozen solid. The hiss of a blade carving into a wet rink or the bang of a puck shot wide are unmistakable, as distinctive as fingerprints.Hockey might be the only sport that you can follow nearly as well in the dark, which is handy when the winter sun sets well before dinner. Other sports have their telltale noises -- baseballs crack of the bat, basketballs infernal squeaking of sneakers -- but hockeys sounds combine to make a symphony that tells so much more of its story. In other sports, the best plays are often lauded for their relative quiet: the swish of the perfect basket, the soundless connection between a quarterbacks spiral and the soft hands of his receiver. Hockey might never be still, but it is also never silent.I didnt wake up that long-ago night in Toronto until my dad carried me outside the Gardens and the cold hit my face. I can remember looking up at him and feeling confused and lost, except that I was in his arms. That was good enough for me. I closed my eyes again, and for the second time in the same night, I didnt need to see to know everything I needed to know. T.J. Oshie Jersey . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era. Madison Bowey Jersey . -- Peyton Manning will have all of his wide receivers available for the first time in a month when the Denver Broncos begin their playoff run Jan. http://www.cheapwashingtoncapitalsjerseys.com/?tag=adidas-devante-smith-pelly-jersey .Y. - Free agent outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, fresh off winning the World Series with Boston, reached agreement with the rival New York Yankees on a seven-year contract worth about $153 million, a person familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday night.Lewis Hamilton insists championship leader Nico Rosberg has not changed this season. And Hamilton has implied he would be ahead of Rosberg had his car not suffered frequent unreliabilty his year.For the first time in their four year Mercedes partnership - and indeed their karting careers as youngsters - Rosberg has held a near season-long advantage over his team-mate, winning nine races to Hamiltons seven in 2016. 26 points ahead with just three races remaining, the German can seal a maiden title at this weekends Mexican Grand Prix and appears to have improved and matured as a driver, rarely making mistakes on his way to emphatic victories.Lewis: I relish the toughest challengesBut Hamilton, who beat Rosberg to the title in both 2014 and 2015, was adamant that the only difference in their battle this year was that he has been the unlucky party.Asked whether there had been a change in Rosbergs character, the world champion replied: Nope, but Ive had a lot of failures. Thats the only difference.If both our cars had been reliable all year long we would have been having pretty much the same battles we had last year and the year before, so I dont see there being any difference. Lewis Hamilton says hes just focusing on himself and not teammate Nico Rosberg ahead of this weekends Mexican Grand Prix. Hamilton claimed his title hopes would be over should he face any more gearbox or engine failures in the final three races of the season, in which he has suffered multiple mechanical glitches.Rosberg, meanwhile, has stuck to his mantra of taking one race at a time despite closing in on glory, not going further than admitting its a childhood dream to win the world championship in Thursdays press conference.Whens the Mexican GP on Sky F1?Thats obviously a tactic hes taken on board this year that helps him focus on the job at hand, said Hamilton. Different people have different ways of dealing with pressure, obviously there is pressure there, and thats the way hes handling it.But can Hamilton, who won his first championship in 2008, empathise with how much pressure Rosberg is now under?Im pretty sure its the same as going for any other world championship, Hamilton told Sky Sports News HQs Craig Slater. Hes doing the job that he needs to do. I have know idea what hes thinking and whats in his mind, and I cant reallly get tangled up in that because it doesnt really matter to me. Adidas Dmitry Orlov Jersey. Sky Sports F1s Ted Kravitz and David Croft step into the ring to settle their debate on who will win this years drivers championship. The season is heading into a frantic finish, starting in Mexico City, with Hamilton sure he needs to find his best-ever form and win all three races to stand a chance of denying his team-mate in a dramatic turnaround.But unlike in previous years, the Mercedes duo have been much more respectful each other both before and after a grand prix. And Rosberg admitted that while the relationship remains intense thanks to the successive title battles, it has improved a lot.Of course its intense, Hamilton said. But at the same time theres an easy-going side lately.  Alex Zanardi talks to Marc Priestley about his life changing accident. Watch the full version this weekend during our Mexican GP coverage on Sky Sports F1. Dont miss the Mexican GP on Sunday evening. The race is live at 7pm on Sky Sports F1; Watch with a NOW TV day pass - £6.99, no contract Also See: The Formula 1 Gossip Column Mexican GP talking points Whens the Mexican GP on Sky F1? 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