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Why We Can't Call Ourselves True Hockey Fans

Jan 26, 2009

Person 1: Hey, I'm a true hockey fan

Person 2: Prove it

Person 1: OK *names most players on every team in the NHL*

Just knowing the players doesn't mean you're a true hockey fan, it just means you're a smart one. It takes a true hockey fan to watch hockey outside of their comfort spot.

Over the last couple of months, I have been living in Santiago, Chile. However, I'm currently writing this article from Lima, Peru. It's no mystery that soccer is huge here, one in every five people is wearing a soccer jersey in certain parts of Chile.

I think it's very safe to say that people down here are true soccer fans, but compared to the hockey fans up north, they're nothing.

I just recently met up with some old friends, and I talked about soccer with them. I was surprised, they talked to me about leagues I have never even heard of. They knew everything, it was really impressive. They could name players from small leagues in Europe, it was all very impressive.

How many of you can name one team from the Elite League?

Like I said before, it doesn't matter if you can name the teams or the players that makes you a true sports fan. What is it then? It's the willingness to get out of your comfort zone.

Some excuses may arise such as "I can't understand the language they speak in," but not all leagues are in a foreign language. There are other english-speaking leagues such as the AHL, OHL, WHL, and even the college leagues. And even if you can't understand the language from some league in Sweden; you have eyes, you can see for yourself what's happening, you don't need someone to tell you what's happening.

I think that in order to have good perspective of what hockey really is, you have to acknowledge that the NHL isn't the only hockey league there is. NHL hockey isn't the only type of hockey there is.

I think too many people get caught up in who is going to win that they forget it's hockey. Here in South America, people sometimes just watch games over and over to look at the players' moves and admire their skill.

I'm just saying that you have to go outside your comfort zone (comfort zone means watching HNIC on your plasma TV) to maybe a not so comfortable zone (not so comfortable means watching a laggy hockey game on your computer in another language).

I don't care how well you know the NHL, if you don't know about hockey that's outside the NHL or North America, you can't call yourself a true hockey fan.

P.S. I'll write a better version of this when I get back to Chile.

In Other News...T-Birds Are Sunday's Winner, Defeating Prince George, 5-2!

Jan 13, 2009

The T-birds beat Prince George on Sunday 5-2. 

The T-Birds took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Jim O’Brien at 7:28 of the first period. Greg Scott sent the puck from the high slot to Thomas Hickey at the left point. Hickey skated the puck down the left boards and passed to Jim O’Brien along the goal line. O’Brien skated in on Prince George goalie Kevin Armstrong and beat him with a quick shot high.
 
At 13:44 of the first Jeremy Boyer slapped a goal. Hickey took a slap shot from the point that Armstrong stopped. Boyer was to the right of the goal and pounded the rebound past Armstrong for his 10th goal of the year. Chris Cloud had the second assist on the goal.

Boyer set up the T-Birds third goal of the game at 16:49 of the first. Cloud sent Boyer up ice on a two-on-two break with Lindsay Nielsen on his left. Boyer put a shot on goal that Armstrong stopped. The puck lay to Armstrong’s left where he did not see it. Nielsen was crashing the net and was able to poke the puck into the back of the net.
 
Seattle outshot Prince George 21-4 in the first period.
The T-Birds went up 4-0 on a nifty shorthanded goal by Nielsen at 1:02 of the second period.

Prince George (16-27-0-2) got on the board at 14:14 of the second when Justin Maylan scored. Alex Poulter and Cameron Cepek had assists on the goal.
Seattle went in front 5-1 at 16:41 of the second on the first career WHL goal from Erik Fleming.

The Cougars second goal came at 1:50 of the third period when Cody Hobbs scored. Brett Connolly and Marek Viedensky had the assists.

The T-Birds next play on Friday, January 17, at 7:35 at Comcast Arena against the Everett Silvertips.  The game can be heard on 104.9 FM.
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