To celebrate the new look and feel of our sports communities, we’re sharing stories of how and why we became fans of our favorite teams. We’re collecting all of the stories here and featuring the best ones across our network as well. Come Fan With Us!
I’ve always told my friend Taylor that if I ever wrote about my hockey origin story, she’d get top billing. And it’s true! I wouldn’t be a hockey fan if it wasn’t for one of my lifelong best friends.
But, let’s step back. You may know me as one of just a few hands that keep the SB Nation NHL page running. But underneath that, I’m just a small-town suburban girl who has lived most of her life a stone’s throw or so away from Philadelphia.
Living near such a monumental sports city changed my life, even from an early age. I knew no other way to live outside of supporting Philadelphia sports teams. Yet, while football and baseball were mainstays in my house growing up, it wasn’t until later that my love for hockey grew.
I’m not exactly sure what my friend did to convince me to watch hockey all those years ago back in high school, but it worked! While she tried to sway me to her side in becoming a Penguins fan, I couldn’t turn my back on my hometown Flyers. Yes, somewhere out there in an alternate universe I am a Penguins fan. Don’t relish the thought, folks.
I can pinpoint milestones in my Flyers fan history quite easily. Attending my first home game in 2010, then trekking it to Pittsburgh a few years later with my friend to see a game in enemy territory. The 2010 Stanley Cup Final overtime loss that kick-started my 17th birthday. Watching the start of the fallout of the 2011 free agency period in my sweltering dorm room as I took summer classes at Penn State. Getting around State College’s blackout of CSN Philly so I could watch regular season games. Finding out Zac Rinaldo was traded as I was standing on a train station platform in Philadelphia.
The Flyers were my gateway, my first love, my window to a whole new world. In college, I fell in love with the Penn State hockey team and spent three of my four years in school covering them. I started watching other college and NHL teams outside of my little sphere, and I soon learned that this sport is where I belonged.
In hockey, I found a home.
When people ask me why I’m primarily a hockey writer, they always are curious as to why I fell in love with the sport in the first place. Hockey always felt different to me than any sport I had enjoyed before, and not just because it’s a niche sport very few follow. I marveled at the fluidity of the game and how smoothly the athletes moved on the ice. How, despite that ease of motion, players were allowed to pinball around the ice and even stop and fight opponents along the way. Despite my hatred of the cold, I was enamored with the sights and sounds of ice rinks big and small, and the sport that was played inside its walls.
Hockey has given me a place to be my nerdy, passionate, and most real self. Where I’ve found friends, co-workers, and professionals alike that share my love of this little sport called hockey. Even though the NHL has a long way to go in making the space a welcoming one for all, I’ve never felt more like myself than when watching a game of hockey. And at the end of the day, isn’t that really what matters?