Why do I miss EVERYTHING? Not only did I miss the Toronto earthquake and all the G20 chaos (come on, Seoul, give me something good in November), but as soon as I left the NHL behind, my precious Flyers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals! AND Game 3 was even on my birthday! For the last 4 years, I have been trying in vain to celebrate my birthday with Stanley. This would have been the year. The Flyers + my birthday + cheesesteaks = the best thing EVER. I wouldn’t have missed this (potentially) once in a lifetime experience for anything, and, yet, I had no possible way to get to Philly.

Was it karma? My karmic payback for abandoning the Flyers in 08-09? Hah! I think I’ve paid the price for that misdeed more than anyone deserves – and don’t think I’ll ever forget (read: forgive) that. However, karma aside, could the Flyers success in my absence be evidence that the legendary Team HOT Curse truly existed? The magic 8-ball says, “Yes.”

So you’re probably wondering what the Team HOT Curse is all about. Well back when I wasn’t so into the whole solo hockey road trip thing, I would pretty much go to hockey games with ANYONE who was willing to come along for the ride. Yeah… sometimes I use people to suit my initiatives. Anyway, for a while my partner in crime was an overly confident wannabe princess. She was the type that would go on and on about how everyone wants her, but then would not speak to you (read: me) for three months because a guy asked for your (read: my) phone number at a bar and not hers. The icing on her proverbial cake of chubby insecurity was the fact that he played hockey. Not even GOOD hockey, but, hey, any hockey player will do, right?

That’s another story, but I’m sure you’re starting to see this girl in your mind now. She was the type that thought any male glance was a come on, and not merely them noticing the bright orange ring of makeup caked onto her face, or the horrible spray on tan that was literally dripping off of her (Wow, Korea is making me really superficial hahaha! I kind of like it, not gonna lie). She even thought hockey players were checking her out because they looked in our direction while firing off a shot DURING THE GAME! Anyway, she decided to refer to all the hockey player attention as the Team HOT factor. Of course, she really meant she was the HOT factor, but she did me the courtesy of putting on a fake valley girl lisp so she could lie through her teeth and say, “ummm I mean (awkward pause)….us (uncomfortable giggle).”

So, Team “HOT,” as we were called for awhile, had a two and a half season (2006-07 to 2008-09) reign of terror during various Philadelphia Flyers games. With a 100% accuracy rate, whichever bench we sat near and “distracted,” that team would ALWAYS lose the game. This curse was like clockwork. I even tried to contemplate ways to throw down a bet on the games at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls before heading off to HSBC Arena on the nights the Flyers were in Buffalo. I’d be a rich woman if I did. We became so superstitious about this “hotness overload” that we purposely sat behind the opposing bench during playoff games. It was so strange, but we were batting 1.000!

Anyway, I eventually started going to games by myself, and, yet, the Flyers kept losing. But, as you have heard the story being told to its death, I ended up switching teams at the end of the 08-09 NHL season. The following season, in my absence, the Flyers lit it up all the way to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final! Coincidence? Maybe. So, whether you think Miss Thing was onto something and we were just too “HOT” to handle, or if this is all simply a case of us being a bad luck charm for whichever team had the misfortune of having their bench closest to our seats, is up to you.

So, there you have it, the Legend of the Team HOT Curse (in a nutshell). Last season, with Phoenix, the curse lost its momentum, and I actually saw them win a couple games. Weird. Maybe my looks are going hahaha!