The NHL season started up again this week, and for people in Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Various Places in Canada and other rugged, cold weather cities – this is very exciting! Where I grew up in middle-of-nowhere Southeastern Indiana, nobody ever watched hockey. I think the only experience I had with hockey growing up was playing NHL ’96 on my brother’s Sega Genesis. If you never had the chance to play Sega games growing up, you should do everything in your power to do it now. But that’s another blog for another time. It wasn’t until I went to college in the rugged, cold weather city of West Lafayette, Indiana that I met people who openly chose to watch hockey in their free time.
At first I reacted to it the way most people react to change – I was frightened, worried, and confused. I would make fun of my friends that liked hockey by calling it “Glorified Figure Skating” and asking how they could enjoy a sport that the final score was usually 2-2 ties. But deep down I had dark secret. I loved watching this sport. I really didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I was captivated by it. It was essentially 200 pound men running around at 20 miles per hour with knives attached to their shoes. It’s incredible. I genuinely enjoy watching hockey now, the only problem I’ve encountered is: as I mentioned above, I didn’t grow up watching hockey. So, I feel no deep emotional connection to any team. And as all sports fans know – that is what makes sports so much fun. Feeling connected to your team so much so that every win makes you feel on top of the world and every loss will have you wanting to become a hermit and move into a deeply secluded forest so you don’t have to talk to people.
So that’s where I am now, I need to find a team that I can latch on to and root for during hockey season. I live in Indianapolis and they do not have an NHL team so I am open to suggestions. I’ve had people come forward already and give me suggestions about teams that I should root for but for one reason or another it just doesn’t feel like the right fit. I root for the Colts, Pacers, and Reds in the other major sports so that rules out hockey teams like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Boston, and St. Louis because those teams have rivals in those cities and I just can’t bring myself to root for them. I know some of you are saying, “Kyle, just because you hate the St. Louis Cardinals, that doesn’t mean you can’t root for the Blues.” And you know what, to a normal person that would probably work. But, I’m not normal, I’ve got a weird brain so I just couldn’t root for the Blues out of principle. It may be a silly, irrelevant principle, but I’m still a man of principles damnit!
So, I’ve been thinking long and hard about it and I’ve narrowed it down to a handful of teams:
Nashville Predators – Nashville is a great city and I love their nickname “Smashville” I feel like I could fit in well there.
Anaheim Ducks – Who didn’t love watching The Mighty Ducks movies and cartoons growing up? I might as well just continue this and root for the real hockey team. Quack, Quack
Columbus Blue Jackets – I root for the Cincinnati Reds and the Blue Jackets are also in Ohio, so this just makes sense geographically.
Vegas Golden Knights – Vegas has just had a team for one season so maybe I could slide into their fandom and no one would notice. Plus, with my new gambling passion/addiction (check out our Best Bets Segment) this one could be a match made in heaven.
So there you have it that is my situation. And I think that I should leave it up to you, the loyal fans to decide who I become a fan of. So reach out to me and let me know who you think I should root for and whichever team gets the most votes will have my fandom. Happy Hockey Season Everyone!
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