Opening scene. Maple Leaf Gardens. The year is 1994ish. This is the setting of my first ever NHL game. That night the Toronto Maple Leafs were taking on the Hartford Whalers. The funny thing about the Hartford Whalers is that EVERY twenty-something Toronto fan will tell you their first NHL game was a Leafs/Whalers match up. Not sure if there was a blue moon that night or if Leafs fans just like to name drop with folded hockey clubs (Yes, I’m aware they are the Hurricanes now – Jesus, give a girl some credit) for nostalgic purposes, but whatever the case may be, my first ever NHL game really WAS the Leafs vs. Whalers!
And I remember that night, boy. My uncle and I were sitting in the greys. I had just scored big time. I cleaned out HMV, Sam’s, and Tower Records all on my uncle’s dime. I USED *ahem* to be quite spoiled, but these were the glory days before my aunt had children and my sister was only 2 years old. It was all me all the time. Felix Potvin was the first star of the game that night. So naturally I needed to hit up my uncle for a #29 jersey. I was a major p-i-m-p with all the boys back at school on Monday morning wearing that thing. Jealousy. It was always a huge deal if you were going to Toronto, but it was an even bigger deal if you were there to see the Leafs or the Jays.
Even though it would prove to be the ONLY game I would ever see at the storied arena turned potential grocery store, I remembered, as I walked the dingy halls of the Gardens, feeling this overwhelming sense that I had just tapped into something greater than myself. Little did I know that in a few short years this “hockey thing” would take over my life – for better or for worse.
Fast track to the new millennium. I had become one of those irritating, never-miss-a-game, game-day-jersey-wearing, Labatt-Blue-drinking (I was fifteen, but whatever), Leafs fans that piss the FFFF out of me now! Die Hard. But it was easy to love the Leafs then. Under the leadership of Emperor Quinn, the Leafs were playoff contenders. I have never felt such pride as a fan like I did when the Leafs made it to the Eastern finals in 2001-02. I was the physical embodiment of “Cup Crazy.” This would also be right around the time my post season anxiety started, but like any red blooded hockey fan, I busied my idle hands with a set a golf clubs. True story.
Under my uncle’s influence, I was formally introduced to junior hockey that year as well. I learned to love this just as much, but we had our very own team in Kitchener and this fact eventually proved to be a big problem. It was easy to convince my fellow sixteen year old Catholic school girl friends to embark upon a new hobby that involved admiring sweaty teenaged boys. However, after diving head first into this new region of the hockey world with the wrong company, within two seasons I had fallen completely out of love with the game.
In 2004, I wrote my first book on hockey sub-culture as a way to try and wrap my eighteen year old head around the magnitude of hockey in the public sphere and its effect on, well, everyone. I landed a book deal with a publishing house in New York, and miraculously I was in love with the game again. Funny how that happens.
Now I was facing the biggest crisis of my life – the NHL Lock Out of 2004-05. It seemed like the natural thing to do was to find out what this American Hockey League business was all about. I went to a couple Hamilton Bulldogs games, but being a Leafs fan I had that natural instinct to automatically resent anything related to the Habs or the Sens. It just seemed wrong!
One frosty night in November, I was sitting on the front porch of my sorority house with my closest friend and sorority sister. I remember the conversation was very serious and lasted long into the night. We were in the Sophomore habit of going to the dirty Brunswick House nightly, and staying up all night complaining about a-hole professors and stupid men. Somehow, that night, the discussion turned to getting away and road tripping to the States. Her one stipulation was that we go somewhere with frat boys, and my sole condition was that there had to be a hockey team. I nominated Milwaukee. The Admirals were the Calder Cup champions, so that seemed like a good place to start.
Our first trip to Milwaukee began at midnight on a Thursday in January. Naturally, we departed from the Brunswick House because we were a couple of class acts and had to make our fratland appearance for the week. We were in Milwaukee for four days and were greeted with a two foot snowfall on the second night! We went to two games at the Bradley Center to see the Admirals take on the Rampage and the Bulldogs. Everyone was really great to us there despite the fact that I was going around saying, “It’s pronounced millie-wah-kay” (you know like Alice Cooper says in Wayne’s World).
On our way back to Toronto, fate intervened. Traveling down the I-94, it was perhaps the stimulating conversation or the belting out of Gretchen Wilson lyrics that distracted me from the road, but suddenly we found ourselves on the I-96 headed towards Grand Rapids,MI. I live my life in the fast lane, baby, and hadn’t noticed that the I-96 had a left lane exit ramp. Well, the Admirals were playing in Grand Rapids the following weekend, and now we knew that Grand Rapids was a manageable distance from home. With this discovery, my traveling road show began.
I started to frequent AHL cities: Hamilton, Grand Rapids, Chicago, Milwaukee,Rochester, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. Eventually, this travel experience landed me a “dream job” working for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd in the spring of 2006. But my dream job quickly turned into a nightmare and by January 2007 I had fallen out of love for a second time, but this time it was with the AHL and all things MLSE related.
I had no choice but to divorce myself from the Blue and White. For a little over a month, I was without a hockey team to call my own. I anxiously picked through the games on Center Ice looking for my knight in shining underarmour. Eventually, I was rescued by the Philadelphia Flyers, and for the past two years they have been my main squeeze.
Sadly, along the way, tragedy struck. My publisher became ill with cancer and shut down his business. My book never saw the light of day. I haven’t tried to find a new home for it mainly because my twenty-three year old self doesn’t approve of the quality of my eighteen year old self’s work. Perhaps, I will post some of it here.
Published or unpublished the book has given me great opportunities. I have written several university papers on hockey culture. You’d be surprised how easy it is to write a twenty-five page paper when you are sourcing yourself! I was also invited to give a talk to the writers and producers of a hockey related TV series last winter. I sat in a room full of showbiz bigwigs while they eagerly wrote down everything I said. It was an amazing experience, specifically because within the first minute of my discussion I had already used the phrase, “thorough cock-sucking.” What can I say, I’m a classy lady!
Unfortunately, that show did not survive. (That had nothing to do with me or thorough cock-suckings!). This summer, I met a new TV industry hot shot that read my book and decided it was worth pursuing. Right now, we are attempting to build “something” off the concepts laid out in my work – whether it be a TV show or a movie. The process is long and very slow, and for someone with no patience it’s becoming irritating. Of course with the recession (times are tough, etc), this is not the ideal time to be pitching ideas, but regardless of the economic influence, APPARENTLY, the standard wait time for a show to premier is FIVE years – ahhh!
So, this season I have set out to do some research. My road trips have increased – I’ve even started flying! This time I carry around a little black book with me wherein I jot down the interesting things that happen along the way. I love meeting new fans. If you ever see me at your local rink, don’t hesitate to come over and say, “hi!”
Anyway, I decided to make a blog to share some of my zany adventures with the public. I will eventually make my own website, but I’m too lazy to figure that out right now. This first entry was very long and boring, but I thought I’d include it to give you a better sense as to who I am, where I’ve been, and why I’m here. This blog is not your typical hockey blog. There are a lot of long-winded hockey bloggers out there that want to argue every call and every game – I mean look at the popularity of those radio call in shows! My blog deals more with hockey culture and my crazy experiences. As a single female, I have a greatly different experience with the game than your typical man-fan – but this shall be revealed to you in due time.
Sorry again for this wordy first entry. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you again soon!
