Voices from the television can be heard from the doorway. watching the Canucks game from GM Place can be heard cheering in the background, as fans at the pub watch from booths with beers and burgers.

A group of guys laugh, sipping their Molson’s. They’re sitting in front of the big screen, finishing off a plate of ketchup; there may be some fries underneath.

Janice Wong, carrying a burger and coke, joins the booth. She is the only girl watching the game.

She is out numbered four to one, but she doesn’t care.

She may be out numbered at the table, but Janice Wong won't be out-manned during the game.

“It’s just me and the guys. I don’t really have a lot f friends that like hockey as much as I do,” said Wong, as the guys joked she didn’t have many friends at all. Taunting, name-calling and your-mom jokes are always in full use when hanging out with the boys.

Wong’s situation is not unusual for girls who love hockey. For , they’re often a minority whether it’s at the pub or on the couch.

“My girlfriends aren’t really hockey fans,” said Wong. “The guys let me tag along.”

Wong isn’t the odd one out just because she is a girl either. She is a Detroit Red Wings fan.  The boys are loyal Canucks fans.

“The Canucks aren’t my number one. I’m a Wings fan. They’ve been good for a really long time. They don’t just get lucky,” said Wong.

The boys may disagree on her choice of team, but they think more would be great.

“I don’t think there is much difference between girl and guy fans. I just think girls are less common,” said Tom Siedlaziek.

Girls may drink a cosmopolitan instead of a beer during the game, but Siedlaziek said that’s alright with him

“I’ve never heard a girlfriend say, ‘hey, let’s go to the pub and watch the hockey game’,” said Rai Khan, but if a girl did offer to go watch the big game, he wouldn’t object.

“I’d give her a high five and be like, ‘go out with me Friday night’.”

From the other side of the table Wong laughed.

“I guess I have a new pick up line.”

Online comments posted about the Canadian Women's Gold Medal tells the story of real party on ice.

The, as many know, won gold last February for the third time in a row against the United States.

The on-ice celebration after the Gold Medal Ceremony made bigger headlines than the team’s 2-0 win.

The pictures of Canada’s women smoking cigars, drinking champagne, wine and Canadian beer flooded the Internet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The IOC launched an investigation, later dropped, which resulted in a warning and a slap on the wrists for the women.

Canadians, however, . The team was only having a good time, the way that Canadians like to do.

It was only a few days later that Team Canada won gold in Men’s Hockey and Canadians danced on the streets half naked with various beverages in their hands.

People at the Vancouver Art Gallery even decided to take a bubble bath in the public fountain.

Canadian celebrate a gold medal in Men's Hockey with a bubble bath at The Vancouver Art Gallery

When put into perspective the Women’s quiet on-ice toast to their accomplishments was rather tame.

A cool February evening didn't stop this hockey fan from cooling down after a hot over-time win.

These are the basics you must know to win your title as game night queen of the couch.

The female hockey fan can rule the remote when she knows the rules of the game.

Icing

No, icing is not the sweet, sugary, gooey bliss that you spoon out of a Betty Crocker container on Thursday nights.

Icing occurs when a player shoots the puck all the way down the ice from the defencive end of the blue line, or his/her half of the ice, without the puck being intercepted by another player.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When this happens, if the league is playing with “no-touch” icing, the linesman will automatically blow the whistle once the puck crosses the goal line.

Offside

Remember those crazy Saturday nights when you’ve had a martini, a tequila popper, a few daiquiris and laugh so hard you fall off the side of your chair.

That’s not the same as offside in hockey.

Offside in hockey happens when an offensive player crosses the defencive team’s blue line before the puck does. The puck must enter the offensive zone before the offensive players do.

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Too Many Men on the Ice

It’s Saturday night again and you and your girlfriends are venting about the fantastically stupid things your boyfriends or potential boyfriends do. This is called too many men on thin ice, not too many on the ice.

Too many men on the ice occurs when either team, somehow, has more than five players on the ice (not including the goalie) at one time.

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Delay of Game

This is not when a guy lays down a horrid pick-up line, like “I lost my phone number, can I have yours?”

In this instance, the guy has no game at all and the only thing that is delayed is his thought process.

Delay of Game in hockey is when a player intentionally shoots the puck over the glass to stop the play.

It also is when a goalie holds onto the puck to stop the play when there is no offensive threat around him/her, or when a defencive player intentionally knocks the net off its moorings to stop the play.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Rules that, if Broken, Equal Real Trouble

Tripping

You know when you and girlfriend are out clubbing and she decides to make a guy jealous. She may decide the best way to do this is to dance up a storm with anything male that moves in her immediate vicinity.

Well, she’s tripping, but it’s not quite the same as what happens in hockey, though both are equally idiotic.

Tripping in hockey is when any player intentionally or unintentionally causes another player to fall to the ice.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Holding

When it’s cold outside and you are sitting on the couch with your best guy-friend, you may want to snuggle up to him to syphon body heat.

While this is holding, and in some cases may even look similar to holding in hockey, it’s a little different.

Holding in hockey is when a player latches on to an opposing player, holding him, or stopping him from making progress on the play.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Charging

You’re at the mall and the most fabulous Kate Spade purse catches your eye from a shop window. You beeline it to the store, charging through the mass of reaching hands for the purse and then immediately proceed to charge your credit card.

Although this is a justified reason to be charging things, again, it’s not what happens in hockey.

Charging is when a player takes several strides, usually more than three, or leaves his/her feet when hitting another player.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Checking from Behind

You’re jogging in the park when an amazingly gorgeous, shirtless man runs past. You do the full up-down-once-over, but then stop, turn around, and do a check-from-behind. It’s a valuable tool to have at your disposal, but not really applicable in hockey.

Checking from behind is when a player body-checks another player from the back, without the hit player being able to defend himself. It’s one of the most severe penalties in the game and results in suspensions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Misconduct

This is not when someone wears neon colours or animal print clothing in public. Although a person committing such an offence may be stopped by the fashion police, he/she will not be handed a penalty by a hockey ref.

Misconduct penalties in hockey occur when a angry player uses his mouth to tell other players or the ref what he/she things of them.

If coaches want to argue with the ref, they too can be assessed a misconduct penalty.

Click here to view the embedded video.

These rules are just the basics. There are many more rules in the the lovely game we call hockey.

My recommendation: watch as much hockey whenever you can, where ever you can, morning, noon, and night.

Everybody loves the epic Jumbo Tron at hockey games.

Let’s face it, going to the game you’ve already paid at least $90 for the ticket. When you add food, drinks and souvenirs it all adds up.

Here are six free things you can do while enjoying the game.

6) Try your best to translate what other fans are saying.

Once the game begins, you may notice that as it progresses the understandability of what people are staying becomes near impossible.

There are three possible reason for this: the people dancing while screaming;  people  may be a little intoxicated;

your hearing may become compromise. It’s probably a combination.

5) Learn to spell “Canucks”.

Up in the , there are massive signs with letters. If put together properly, it will spell “Canucks”.

If put together improperly, it will spell “OG CUKS NOG”, “GO CAKS” and “KUCS GON AG”.

Canucks fans get a spelling lesson.

4) Sign up for a fan credit card to get a free Canuck’s gift.

Every intermission you have 20-minutes to wander the concourse area, trying not to spend money.

Good Luck.

Everything costs. Beer costs $8, the most basic t-shirt costs $24.99, a burger costs $8.50.

Personally, I am a souvenir junkie. I love the random trinkets you can buy and then regret five-minutes later. I would just like them better if they were free.

I have done this many times at various venues. My credit card application booty thus far has been: a Montreal Canadien’s t-shirt, a Toronto Maple Leaf’s woven scarf, a Barrie Colts’ hockey puck and stick, a Bishop’s University sweater, and my newly acquired Vancouver Canucks’ fleece blanket.

3) Wait in the the beer line and have a stranger (from the  visiting team) buy you a drink.

When buying a beverage from the concourse, the key strategy is not to buy as soon as the period ends.

It is much better to mingle in the crowds and line up at the drastically shorter line about five-minutes before the period begins.

The next part of the strategy is for you and your friend to line up behind young guys wearing jerseys and to laugh and smile.

I can almost promise you the guys wearing the jerseys, will talk to you to burn time and by the time you reach the front of the line you will here those fantastic words, “What are you drinking? Let me buy you your drink.”

2) Get your picture taken with.

If you have ever been to any sporting event, you will have noticed that the laws of team passion overrule crimes of fashion.

Make sure to bring your camera because you are guaranteed to see: some guy dressed like superman, another dressed entirely in spandex for no good reason, someone wearing some kind of fruit, like a hollowed out , someone dressed as a gorilla and someone wearing mostly body paint.

What I like to do is walk around getting my picture taken with these people and then post them on and .

Make sure you get one with the team mascot too.

Canucks' mascot, Finn, is always in the crowd.

1) Watch your home team pummel the visiting team, while sitting behind visiting fans.

The important part is picking the right games.

If by some stroke of luck you get the pleasure of sitting beside the opposing team’s fans, even better!

Fan has the ability to do wondrous things, like make grown men cry for instance.  There is simply some thing about profession sports and fan loyalty that compel people to tie all their emotions to the final score of a hockey game.

Every fan knows what it’s like to be on the losing end. When your team crushes the visitors 5-1, and you get to jump around, sing, chant, taunt and act outrageously all while watching the visiting fans sit solemnly, quietly in their seats, it’s sweet and it’s priceless.