Born in 84, I grew up in Troy, IL. My aunt babysat me and my siblings and she was a big hockey fan, so we always watched the games when they came on. My grandpa was Jim Bolen, KMOX people might remember that name. Between the two of them, got to see a lot of Blues games. Learned to hate Chicago from a young age, naturally. Can't remember much of the late 80's teams, but I loved Hull and Oates and Shanahan. My first favorite player was CuJo.
My fandom would take a turn, though. My aunt would take us to games vs. the Nordiques, hoping for an easy win. Seems like Joe Sakic always lit us up. I loved the Nords' turquoise jerseys, too--things a child notices, I guess. My family moved to Kansas in 96, same year the Nords moved to Colorado. I was still a Blues fan, until that damned Stevie Y slapshot. I hated the Wings. Hopped on the Avs bandwagon for the rest of the post-season ... but seeing them beat the piss out of Detroit, then go on to win the Cup, hooked me.
Remained an Avs fan for the next 20 years. But ROR was my favorite player since Forsberg, and the way management treated him (and other players over the years, tbh) ticked me off. Decided if he got traded, I'd go where he was going. That led me to Buffalo, which was ... ahem ... interesting, and now back to St. Louis.
Can't tell you how much it feels like things have come full circle. I hope ROR plays the rest of his days out in STL, but I'm pretty sure I'm back for good.
... Unless we do some insanely short-sighted Buffalo/Colorado **** in the off-season and start dragging ROR's name through the mud and trade him for a pile of poo. Then who knows. Don't really see that happening here, though.