hockey education

so i think my boyfriend is trying to get me to bone up on my hockey knowledge. actually... i know he's trying to do this. though i might have suggested it.

i've been a fan of hockey for a while. ever since i came across a late night airing of a game when i was in high school. although upon further thought, i used to watch roller hockey games at my friend's roller rink in middle school. even with this early introduction to hockey i never attended a game until my boyfriend (when we were still just friends) got us tickets to a rangers game. i think that totally changed my feelings towards the game. i liked it before. i was drawn to it before. but now i'm in love with it. i love the rough and tumble action, the swiftness with which a player can score, and the crazy die-hard fans.

now i have to stop here and say that the rangers suck, as do their fans. there's no loyalty and no real teamwork. you can tell by watching the game that the only reason these guys are playing for this club is that the paycheck and the city is awesome.

since i moved to chicago, i've become a blackhawks fan. they are an amazing team with incredible promise. the show great love and support for each other. and the fans... they are fans! they are probably the most invested ones in the u.s.a. (i wouldn't speak for canada. they're pretty crazy there.) nothing is ever said against the blackhawks. well maybe there's a "oh, come on!" when they fumble a play, but none of the rangers booing of their own players.

so for christmas my boyfriend got me "hockey for dummies" and "the greatest hockey stories ever told". i'm getting quite an education. "scrum" means a fight or skirmish. which has been the most helpful in reading the greatest book. the dummies book was also helpful in teaching me how to read the stats. something any fan of any sport needs to know. the greatest stories book is a compilation of some of the greatest pieces ever written about hockey. some of them the writer is important, sometimes it's the story, and a lot of them it's the location that is important. it's about hockey all over the world, for all ages, and all types of fans.

we'll see how much better of a fan i become...