OT: Earliest hockey memory watching a pro/college game

[MrazeksVengeance]

Losing to Slovaks at 2003 Helsinky Worlds. PISSED OFF AS HELL. VINDICATED TWO YEARS LATER.

 

[NotOpie]

I originally lived in Reading Pa, (about 50 mi. from Hershey) Hershey Bears were a Boston Bruins farm team back then. The details are sketchy, but, I was "hooked on hockey" after my first game, I then became a Bruins fan, but, when the Flyers came into the picture ('64 I believe}, I drifted into their fanbase. Eventually moved to Hershey, played beer league, (Sunday nights @ 10pm), coached the squirts and pee wees.

I moved to Raleigh in '83 figured I was giving up hockey, sold all my gear. Then the Icecaps came to town! Also discovered Beer league hockey was alive and well in Hillsborough! And then of course the BIG ONE: an NHL team was coming to NC!

My first hockey game was a Hershey Bears game as well.....only thing I remember was that the Bears won, like 7-2 or something and the fans were all amazed because they sucked so bad. My dad bought be an autographed photo of one of the Bears, but I have no idea who and no idea where the photo is.

Grew up mostly in VA and we had a pond that would freeze over about once or twice a year. Freeze being a generous description. As soon as it was enough to hold us without hearing the cracking, we'd be out on the ice. Invite friends over and play like 8 on 8 games with the goalie rotating (no goalie gear). When somebody would fall, the ice would "star". There was also a certain place on the pond/ice that you couldn't go because it never quite froze as much as the rest of the pond. My dad played city league hockey growing up and he was a cheat code, smoothly skating though the rest of us rednecks. What great memories.

 

[bleedgreen]

My first hockey game was right after the roof collapsed under snow at the Hartford Civic Center. They bussed people up i91 to Springfield MA to play while they repaired the roof. They called it the i91 club. I can’t remember who they played for sure but I think it was the Hawks. I remember someone getting their head split open because they were checked into the cross bar or post, and the nets were anchored back then. My Dad tried to shield me from it, I was a wee fella.

 

[Bub]

I don't really remember the game, but my dad took me to a Richmond Robins game when I was 8 or so, and I remember the goalie was MIchel "Winless" Belhumeur. Saw a couple of RIchmond Rifles games around 1980 too.

Back to the ECHL, before Richmond got a team we hosted an exhibition (Erie vs Johnstown, iirc?), where the opening faceoff went back to the RD, the puck bounced over his stick and was picked up by a swooping LW who charged in and scored a goal about 2 seconds into the game. Fun way to start a lot of memorable games in that old league.

My college roomie (who was from NY) and I would drive up to DC annually for 1-2 games each year. My favorite trip was a double header: AHL, Baltimore Skipjacks vs Hershey Bears, then NHL Flyers vs Capitals. Skipjacks had Steve Carlson (one of the Hansons) and the Hershey goalie was Ron Hextall.

 

[Unsustainable]

I’ve been thinking back, my earliest memory of hockey is with the Pens, watching Super Mario with Jagr in the 90s.

 

[MinJaBen]

I grew up playing hockey in northern Vermont. My parents decided to put me into a youth hockey program because they wanted to protect my little brother by burning my excess energy. I started skating at three and playing hockey by four. The first hockey game I saw I was probably in, but I don't know that for sure. Besides the other youth games at the local ice house, I saw bunches of high school hockey in our town (Essex Junction, VT) and I went to a couple of college hockey games at UVM with my friends about that time as well. I don't remember much about those games, though as I was more interested in playing than watching, so my friends and I would run around under/around the bleachers and sneak into areas we shouldn't be.

The first "real" game I remember going to was an AHL game between the Maine Mariners and the Erie Blades in 1981 in Portland, Maine when I was visiting my grandparents. I remember this game most specifically because I played goalie on my local town travelling team (generally at that time in Vermont, the town would have one or two teams per age group that would play other teams in the State and beyond, in addition to the "house league" that was just games against other teams in your town. This was something you would try out for to get on the team.) and the Erie Blades had Jim Craig as their goalie at the time. If the name doesn't ring a bell, he was Team USA's goalie during the Miracle On Ice. We went to this game as a gift from my grandfather to me. We had good seats, and I don't remember much about the game action, but I remember being disappointed because the Mariners won the game and I didn't get to see Craig after the game as he got shelled.

Now, this was my first real game I actually got to go to. What is still more frustrating to this day for me, was I was invited to see a different real game by a teammate on my travelling team the year before, but was unable to go. My friend's family had secured tickets for themselves and one extra for a friend (was going to be me) to the 1980 Olympics game between the USA and the USSR. My friend invited me and I accepted. Lake Placid was not an unreasonable distance to drive from where I lived in Vermont, but it wasn't across town either. Since it was a weekday, I would have had to miss school to go to the game. My mother being the responsible teacher that she was, and thinking the game was going to be very disappointing, didn't allow me to go to the game with my friend and his family.

So in the end, my first real game was a Maine Mariners AHL game and not the Miracle On Ice Olympic game because of some 4th grade shit.

 

[Oldracer]

I grew up playing hockey in northern Vermont. My parents decided to put me into a youth hockey program because they wanted to protect my little brother by burning my excess energy. I started skating at three and playing hockey by four. The first hockey game I saw I was probably in, but I don't know that for sure. Besides the other youth games at the local ice house, I saw bunches of high school hockey in our town (Essex Junction, VT) and I went to a couple of college hockey games at UVM with my friends about that time as well. I don't remember much about those games, though as I was more interested in playing than watching, so my friends and I would run around under/around the bleachers and sneak into areas we shouldn't be.

The first "real" game I remember going to was an AHL game between the Maine Mariners and the Erie Blades in 1981 in Portland, Maine when I was visiting my grandparents. I remember this game most specifically because I played goalie on my local town travelling team (generally at that time in Vermont, the town would have one or two teams per age group that would play other teams in the State and beyond, in addition to the "house league" that was just games against other teams in your town. This was something you would try out for to get on the team.) and the Erie Blades had Jim Craig as their goalie at the time. If the name doesn't ring a bell, he was Team USA's goalie during the Miracle On Ice. We went to this game as a gift from my grandfather to me. We had good seats, and I don't remember much about the game action, but I remember being disappointed because the Mariners won the game and I didn't get to see Craig after the game as he got shelled.

Now, this was my first real game I actually got to go to. What is still more frustrating to this day for me, was I was invited to see a different real game by a teammate on my travelling team the year before, but was unable to go. My friend's family had secured tickets for themselves and one extra for a friend (was going to be me) to the 1980 Olympics game between the USA and the USSR. My friend invited me and I accepted. Lake Placid was not an unreasonable distance to drive from where I lived in Vermont, but it wasn't across town either. Since it was a weekday, I would have had to miss school to go to the game. My mother being the responsible teacher that she was, and thinking the game was going to be very disappointing, didn't allow me to go to the game with my friend and his family.

So in the end, my first real game was a Maine Mariners AHL game and not the Miracle On Ice Olympic game because of some 4th grade shit.

Oh boy a classic missed opportunity! I did get to see Jim Craig in 1980: He was in a convertible in the pre-race @ the Indy 500, It was awesome-300,000 fans cheering as they realized who he was!

 

[tarheelhockey]

Some time in the winter of 1993/94, my best friend at the time invited me to see a Charlotte Checkers game. They were an ECHL expansion team at the time, and his family were all from Michigan so they went in for season tickets. Hockey meant zero to me, but my family was amused because they had gone to Checkers games back in the 60s. I don’t remember a single thing about that game, but I know I must have gone to it because…

In the first week after school let out that summer, my family had a reunion up in the Smoky Mountains, just over the TN border. We had a cabin with a TV set. June 14, 1994 the main thing on prime time TV was the New York Rangers versus the Vancouver Canucks, game 7 for the Stanley Cup. Having been exposed to a hockey game, I decided to watch that game too. It’s the first one I actually remember vividly, and it was a hell of an introduction to the sport. To a kid that Rangers team had so much allure, with Messier being hyped as the win-at-all-costs captain and Mike Richter with that beautiful mask. Vancouver wore black and were from a different country so were easy villains, and Pavel Bure seemed like the too-cool bad guy in a Disney movie. The final minutes of that game, and the Cup presentation, and the news coverage of riots in Vancouver and fireworks in Manhattan all lodged in my memory.

Three days later, I watched the OJ Simpson case on that same cabin TV.

That fall, my family went in for Checkers tickets too, and then it became the Thing We Did Together. That sealed the deal long-term. Including my own kids, we are now a 4 generation family of Southern hockey fans.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

My first experience watching hockey was the 2001 playoff run against the Devils. Nothing quite makes you a hockey fan than watching every game in my friend's bedroom, seeing us go down 0-3, and then really thinking you were going to take the series, only to have two of your favorite players (Ron Francis and Shane Willis) get injured by cheapshots from cheapshot specialist Scott Stevens. When we beat the Devils the next 78 playoff attempts it cemented me as a lifelong fan. I definitely fell in love by basically watching the wrestling "heel" equivalent.

Edit: On the note of college hockey, I'll watch at least a couple of Minnesota Golden Gophers games a year. My friend is a rabid Gophers fan, and constantly points out which NHLers are former Gophers. My dumbass waited until Haula joined the team and I bought him a Haula jersey. I was so excited because I knew Haula was a good player for them. Like two weeks later he publicly wanted out and turned against the Canes. The whole ****ing time I could have bought a Brady Skjei player, who is a legit good guy and masterclass defenseman.

I like watching college hockey because the game is much slower and muckier than an NHL game, but at the same time there is a lot less physical cheap stuff that you see in NHL games. They actually call the rulebook in the NCAA. Nah, not really, but they call it better you could argue.

 

[Incubajerks]

I am very attached to the time when there was no streaming and the only option was to listen to Chuck Kaiton. I'd say the whole ride of 2002 with the peak of Cole's goal in the miracle game at Molson!