I won't go into a great deal of detail, since I'm assuming you're more than capable of reading the About Me section, but I figured a little introduction was in order, so here goes.
I'm as devoted of a hockey lunatic as you'll find here on the wonderful world called the intrawebs. My love for hockey started as a small child, and can all be traced back to my grandfather. He was a noted insomniac (which passed down to me, hence why I'm writing this at 3:48 am EST) and, among other things, a huge fan of the New York Rangers. Hence why, at the tender age of 8, he snuck into my room after my mother had already put me to bed and woke me up just in time to see those aforementioned Rangers win the '94 Stanley Cup. And with that, a lifetime hockey fan was born.
Though the infamous Dead Puck Era of the late '90s-'early 00s drove my teenage interest away for a while, the rule changes in the post-lockout era brought me back fairly quickly. This year is my third straight season with the Center Ice Package, thus allowing me to watch more hockey than any human being should probably watch. I've made it my mission in life to turn as many people on to the world's greatest (and America's m0st under-appreciated) sport in the world, and view it as a badge of honor that my girlfriend has gone from barely knowing the sport existed to falling asleep to NHL on the Fly every night.
Briefly last year I had a podcast that shared the title of this blog, but increasingly insane work hours forced me to discontinue that. Thanks to the joys of unemployment, my free time is back (just in time for the stretch run, oh yeah baby!), and I figured it would be the perfect time to get a blog going again. The podcast may yet return as well, so if you're interested in that sort of thing let me know. And hell, if you're interested in being a co-host, definitely leave me a comment, because I could use one of those.
Anyway. Let's get down to a little bit of meat here. People often ask me "Hey, John, why in god's name do you have THREE favorite teams?". I know it is looked down upon in many sports circles to have more than one favorite, and I want to get into how I think I ended up like that before I get a million questions on the subject. So let's get to it:
Reason #1: There's no other sport out there I even like, let only love like hockey. Most people who are loyal to only one hockey team probably have a favorite baseball, football, basketball, or even soccer team they follow too. To be quite frank, I couldn't care less about any other sport. They all look slow, boring, and/or soft when put up next to my beloved hockey, and given the insane amount of it I watch (and podcasts I listen to, blogs and articles I read, and so on and so on) it leaves little time to follow anything else.
Reason #2: As I mentioned already, I watch a lot more hockey than most people. I find it a lot more fun to watch when I have a rooting interest, so the end result ends up with me rooting for more teams than the average person. Some people, like the Puck Podcast guys for interest, have noted that they enjoy games where they have no rooting interest. That's never been my thing.
Reason #3: It's easy to tell why I love the Rangers (geographical location + pre-programmed family love), so let me just get into why I love my Kings & Hawks. The Kings were the team that the Great One played for when I was a kid, which is why I took notice of them in the first place. My love for them just kind of stuck, and it's been so much fun over the past few seasons watching them rebuild through the draft, the way they're supposed to. All of that basically applies to the Blackhawks too; Ed Belfour was my favorite goalie, and everyone knows he started out as a Blackhawk. Patrick Kane is probably my favorite player nowadays, and I probably wear his jersey more than any sane human being should wear any piece of clothing. Plus, to get REALLY superficial, both teams have my favorite jerseys in the entire NHL.
Okay, we've got all that introduction crap out of the way now. My next post will be both more interesting and less self-centered, I promise. Welcome to the blog and thanks if you took time out to read it!
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