For hockey fans, particularly those in Denver, the hat trick was a great way to start off the NHL season, a much-needed jolt of excitement after three months without pucks.

As for you non-hockey fans around the country -- yes, you of the overwhelming majority -- you probably had no idea the season was under way, responding with a resounding "huh?" after flipping open the paper and seeing NHL box scores the next morning.

But that's the thing about hockey: you either have it in your blood, or you couldn't care less.

The problem is that, more than perhaps any other sport, hockey just doesn't translate well on television. If you're in a town that doesn't have a team or you can't afford tickets, you don't really have a grasp of just how fast and exciting the game really is.

So to give you a better idea of what the NHL is really like in the flesh, we offer five reasons why hockey is better live than on TV.

And, no, we're not shills for the league -- we just like hockey, and want you to at least give it a chance.

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THE SPEED

If you've ever seen a movie star in person and been blown away by how much more beautiful she is in person, you know what it's like to watch a live NHL game for the first time. Hockey may look fast on the tube, but objects on the screen aren't nearly as fast as they appear in person. Get down near the ice for the first time and you'll likely stand there with your mouth open as the players race past. It's the fastest sport that doesn't involve a motor or a horse, and the slow panning of a TV camera dulls the effect.

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THE HITTING

Now, we'll give TV this: seeing replays of hits in slow motion is certainly cool, particularly when you see bodies collapsing from impact and heads slamming into the boards. Thing is, the impact in way doesn't seem real, the collisions more like a video game. See an open-ice hit in person, hear the colliding bodies, you quickly understand the magnitude of mass, the inertia involved in the impact. It's even more pronounced on hits into the boards, the sight of the boards buckling and the train-wreck sound reverberating all the way up to your seat.

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SEEING THE PUCK

Remember Fox's funky blue puck, the one that left streaks across the screen so fans could follow the action? The experiment failed because hockey purists hated it, but at least Fox attempted to rectify a situation that's still a problem: hockey pucks are hard to follow on television, particularly for those of us stuck watching on 13-inch screens. That's not as much of a problem in person. For one, the arenas aren't so big that you can't see from the upper deck seats. It's also easier to follow the action because you don't have to rely on TV cameras to keep up with everything. Unless they put a camera in the puck, live is always going to be the better way to go.

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THE NUANCES

TV has the advantage of being able to keep up with the actions with numerous cameras spread around the arena. But because of the nature of camera angles and shots, you only get to see about half the ice and only the end where the puck is. Watch a game live and you see the entire play develop, the forwards crisscrossing in front and the defensemen skating up from behind to join the attack. You also can pay attention to the things going on away from the puck, like Ian Laperriere giving Mike Modano a quick elbow to the head when the refs aren't looking or Jacques Lemaire going ballistic from the bench.

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THE ATMOSPHERE

Let's see, would you rather be parked on the couch wiping cheese doodle dust on your underwear, yelling at the screen as if anyone (besides your neighbors) can hear you, or throwing back a Bud and a bucket of popcorn while screaming at the top of your lungs with 18,000 others? OK, so maybe the solitary life is more for you, but it's no way to watch a hockey game. You can get a sense of the buzz from the crowd by watching it on TV, but go to the game and you feel it, the adrenaline of the moment pumping through your veins. You can't help but get caught up in the moment watching the NHL live. Watch it on TV and you might end up asleep, covered in orange particles.

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John Marshall, asap's sports reporter based in Denver, watched the Avalanche beat Dallas 4-3 from the press box Wednesday night.