HOW I FOUND HOCKEY

I am often asked how I came to discover hockey. Here's the short story: With the exception of an Olympic game or two, I had never watched hockey before the Florida Panthers came to Miami in 1993. So given my previous lack of interest, when Harry Wayne Huizenga was given a franchise for an NHL team, I really didn't care. Even when the team played the first few initial out-of-town pre-season games, I didn't take notice. I probably couldn't have even named the team if asked.

A friend of my father's gave him a pair of tickets to the very first Panthers home game: a pre-season contest versus the Tampa Bay Lightning. My father couldn't go and asked if I wanted them. Having nothing better to do, I figured "what the hell" and took them. I had a very enjoyable time despite the fact I was in almost complete ignorance of the rules. Little did I know I had caught the fever -- two years later I would find out it was called Rat Fever.

Chance led me to get tickets from the same friend of my father's for the second pre-season game. I enjoyed myself so much I was amazed. The lost fun and disillusionment of my past years as a fan of the NFL and NBA were found again with the NHL.

A few days later, I decided to take the plunge. I called the Panthers ticket office about season tickets. Being so close to Day One, it wasn't an easy task to find seats worth shelling out the big bucks for. But nonetheless, I scrambled to get season tickets in decent seats before the team's first regular season home game. It didn't look good, so I scrounged a few games' worth of seats from TicketBastard. Then, through some very good luck, things worked out just a few days before the regular season was to start, and I got the good season tickets I wanted. I only missed four home games in the first ten years* -- plus I've since followed the team to New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and Tampa Bay.

I started trying to learn the rules of Hockey. I began learning the sport slowly. I wasn't clear on everything, but I tried my best to learn as much as I could as quickly as I could: I read books, watched movies and videos. I sent in a subscription to The Hockey News figuring that would help too. I took a brief and heavy foray into hockey cards -- my first attempt at card collecting. The cards helped me learn player names and positions. As the first Panther season drew to a close, I taught my self to ice-skate.

Some weeks later, I could explain most penalties. I understood many of the statistics in the newspaper. I read magazine and newspaper articles, and recognized many players' names. I helped many of the other new hockey fans at the game, and I even managed to sell quite a few other people on season tickets too! Me, a guy from South Florida has found something better than religion: Ice Hockey. Yay :)

Six years later Miami had a second hockey team, the Miami Matadors of the ECHL, and I followed them closely and had season tickets there too. (They folded and a few years later I followed the Manatees of the WHA2 before they too collapsed due to bad planning.)

With those teams, I made new friends in the stands and found a new love in life. It was love at first sight. Imagine: me, a guy from South Florida. Who would have thought?

Go Panthers!
Eric

* For those keeping track, I've missed just a few games in over 12 years of hockey years now. I am no longer keeping track of missed games effective with 2005 -- the first post lockout season. The games I've missed prior to the lockout were: