Students turn to watching alternative teams due to the lockout

Quinton Lemanski is watching college hockey teams or minor league hockey teams such as the Saginaw Spirit or the Grand Rapids Griffins.

“I usually go to the Grand Rapids Griffins game because they are always a fun environment and it's interesting to watch the minor league hockey players who one day could be playing for the Red Wings,” the East Lansing freshman said.

Meanwhile, some fans are going back to watching high school hockey.

“I’ve grown up in a hockey family and have had Red Wings season tickets for 12 years," Grosse Pointe freshman Nadia McKee said. "I will probably still watch my brother's high school games and maybe an occasional college game."

Since the lockout, many students have also turned their attention to other sports, like football and basketball.

“I don’t really like college hockey that much, it's just not as physical, and when I watch hockey I love watching the hits and the fights, but in college hockey you just don’t see that,” Sterling Heights freshman Jake Berry said. “I’ve turned my focus to the Lions and really have paid more attention to them than I have before."

Other students don’t care for the NFL or NBA and will not watch them just because the NHL is locked out.

Without CMU hockey and the NHL,  many students will have to travel to watch and enjoy the games. That could be a factor in more Central students attending Michigan State University games or other college hockey games.

Maryland freshman Connor Russell, an avid basketball fan, said without hockey close by, he hopes to see students involved and care more about the CMU basketball team.