This is actually the first post I wrote for this blog. Since it tells you a bit about me and why I started this blog I thought I would give it a more prominent place ;)
I was just writing an email message to a fellow hockey fan. Giving my opinion about the games I saw last night. And with me writing short email messages tends to grow out of hand real soon. Keeping messages short is a real challenge and this time I even went with listing my thoughts, rather than share them in essay form. Still, I ended up with a huge messsage and I thought to myself, I might as well post this on a blog. Not that I think that what I have to say is of much interest to a veteran hockey fan, but at least I can put all those written words to some use and maybe entertain some other folks on occasion. Oh yes, because my views are insightful and very witty. Hahah, at least I wish that was true!
Let me just start with some basics. I am Dutch, live near Amsterdam, have tonnes of hobbies, but my current number one addiction is Hockey! And I am talking about Ice Hockey, not the other more summery kind. For Europeans it is necessary to clarify this. In Holland for instance, when you say hockey, people automatically assume you are talking about field hockey. Although that is an interesting sport, it is by no means as great as Ice Hockey. In my humble opinion of course!
How did I come to love this great sport? It started way back in time, not even sure when, at least 25-30 years ago I would say, when I first saw the Winter Olympics. Ever since my first Winter Olympics experience, hockey has been a favourite. But apart from the Winter Olympics, hockey was and still is, a non-entity in the Netherlands. So occasionally I would catch a glimpse of hockey on Eurosport or maybe see the NHL mentioned somewhere, but that is it. But this season, everything is different. I found some fun communities on Facebook and some very illegal online live streams, but even better ... ESPN America as provided by my cable company! And somewhere during my first weeks of real exposure to the NHL, I fell in love with the Philadelpia Flyers and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Must add though that I had heard of the Leafs long before. I have been laughed at for loving the Leafs - hahah, mostly by my fellow Flyers fans - but I do not care! xD
The Flyers, maybe it is the Orange they wear, but also the fact that at the start of the season, the NHL did not give them any love. Even now it seems a reluctant sort of respect my Flyers get from the NHL. It annoys me, but well, I usually root for underdogs, so that is what made me pay extra close attention to them. And to me they are the best team in the NHL. Not one crybaby star player in sight, but a bunch of hyper-talented and dedicated guys! Marvelous.
The Leafs, ah my Leafies! Over the years even I had at times been exposed to the Leafs and I always found them interesting for some reason. A franchise with so much history. When I saw them dwell in the lower regions of the Eastern Conference, my heart just went out to them. Whatever may be said about their GM or coach, when I see those guys on the ice ... I am usually hit with pride anyways. They may struggle, but they keep fighting and most of my Leafies are very talented and show some great personality as well. I know it is tough on the fanbase to stay loyal when things are not going the way we want to, but I am going to stick with them. "Yeah right" I hear you think. To illustrate: one of my fave Dutch football (aka soccer) teams has not achieved anything since 1956 ;)
There are great other teams and athletes in the NHL, as well as some less amazing teams who still get some of my hockey-love hahah. Perhaps in some order of popularity, I will at times also cheer the Caps, Red Wings, Bolts, Oilers, Bruins and Ducks. And since the ASG, the Isles have been such a fun team to watch, that with some guilt and embarrassment I have silently started to root for them as well. OK, not so silently now that I have written about it in this blog :D
Oh, might as well fess up ... I do have a Western Conference favourite: Red Wings. Datsyuk is just so awesome!
