Question for people who don't ever watch NHL Hockey

Ok, here it comes.
Hockey is pretty good, but i find it to be extremely overrated from where i live (vancouver island, bc). It's what everyone knows, or cares about, and people just seem to look over everything else that happens like basketball and lacrosse. I don't know why the majority of people watch hockey that don't usually watch sports in general. I think it's because it's the "popular" sport to watch at my school. All the popular kids are tuned in with it.

Secondly, I know it's rough, goals can be nice, and fights can be epic. Hey, i admit, i like it and watch the Canucks most of the time, but to be honest, it bores me somtimes. They always have to set up plays and then if they screw up, they just shoot it in the opposite zone and change/ or chase it and always lose the battle, so the other team just shoots it back, and it's a constant chasing motion. Most of the time, hockey players in my opinion seem to skate slowly. I don't know if the fact that they earn millions of dollars yearly has an effect on the effort they put in to the game, but slow hockey is not my favorite to spend my time watching. Finally, if they screw up, they have to cirlce back, cause on ice, you can't really stop in your tracks and make quick turns. In lacrosse for example, you can just stop running and turn on a dime, and get bigger hits, because you can adapt to the place where people move. Lacrosse is far rougher, faster and more exciting for that reason. No ice to cope with. So after playing and watching lacrosse for a few years, my respect to the gameplay of hockey has declined greatly.

Jam it back in, in the dark.