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I remember when I fell in love…

By Bethany | June 9, 2007

It was a Saturday in November 1998 I believe. My dad came home from work and said I got free tickets to a hockey game want to come? I said ok, and called my best friend at the time Sarah and we headed to a hockey game…who knew it would change my life. Ya see my dad was never one that was into sports…those who know me well know why. Those who don’t, well, don’t worry about it. My Uncle was a sports journalist so his kids were VERY athletic and into every sport imaginable. I remember going down into their basement and my cousins Joe and Dan would be sitting on the couch watching the Cyclones on tv. It was fuzzy reception but I remember being intrigued…flash to the day of my first hockey game. Sarah and I went to see the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks. Hockey was HUGE in Cincinnati and doing really well. We managed to support 2 teams. Anyway as we’re walking into the game I remember being so excited and not knowing what to expect. We handed our tickets to the guy at the door and he handed us a Duck call. Yeah that’s right a Duck call that I still have. I was so excited. When we got there, we were sitting towards the top right on the aisle. I cheered so loud every time we touched the puck. And, when we scored it was all about the Duck call. We had a lead and one of the guys from the other team decided to drop the gloves. I was amazed…not only can these guys ice skate and have some stick in their hand and move a puck along on the ice…they can hit each other. Our guy lost the fight, and then the trash talking started. A boy next to us started saying oh you’re team sucks and all this stuff…I lost it…it may have been my first game but these were my boys and you don’t mess with them. I started trash talking right back to him, I was about to get into a fight when my dad said it was time to go. We had won the game. That was my last hockey game until I decided to go and see the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks again. It was amazing to say the least. It was the year of the lockout we had guys like Joffrey Lupul, Shane O’Brien, Ilya Bryzgalov, Stanislav Chistov, Dustin Penner, Ryan Getzlaf, Kurtis Foster, Chris Kunitz, and Michael Holmqvist. We were totally unstoppable. It was unbelievable. We made it to the playoffs and I was there EVERY game. Shane O’Brien racked up 319 penalty minutes. Seeing this guy was so amazing. I started learning everything about the sport I could. I remember our final playoff game…we ended up losing the series…I was introduced to a little guy who played on the Milwaukee Admirals named Jordin Tootoo. He dropped the gloves with O’Brien and a hatred was born. Oddly enough my first NHL game was seeing the Nashville Predators play the Detroit Red Wings…and once again I had to see Jordin Tootoo act like an idiot. About a month after my first NHL game I took my best friend to Columbus to see the Blue Jackets and I found my true love for a team. They stole my heart away…all of them from that first game. Seeing Shelley drop the gloves with somebody, to Fedorov and his still amazing puck moving skills, to Foote and his grit, all of them made me fall in love. Now, I am a full blown Blue Jackets fan…although I still hold a special spot in my heart for the Anaheim Ducks because they have most of the team that made me fall in love with hockey.

But I still have to say Let’s go Jackets!!