It was 20 years ago today...

Actually, it was one year ago, 365 short days ago, that I attended my very first hockey game.

I received tickets to 2 sporting events for Christmas 2005: a Sixers game and a Flyers game. The Flyers game was January 19th, the Sixers on January 20th. I kept my expectations low for both events, after all, at the time I was into baseball and doubtful that anything could change that. The Flyers game was enjoyable enough: sold out crowd, lots of noise and beer drinking going on, and of course the horn when they score a goal. I was intrigued.

The next night was the basketball game…it never stood a chance. All I could think was “why are those guys moving so slow?”

I was intrigued enough by the hockey game (and I guess the lameness of the basketball game really underscored the excitement of a hockey game) that I wanted to see another hockey game, just to see if I liked it. Since the Flyers season was pretty much sold out at that point, I decided to check out the Phantoms. They were right next door and tickets were cheap and plentiful. On January 27th, I went to my first Phantoms game. It was a 2-1 overtime loss to the Manitoba Moose, but there was lots of fighting and physical play…I was almost hooked.

Scheduling conflicts and away games prevented me from seeing another game until February 17th. When I went online to get tickets, ice row tickets were available. Again, it was a loss, this time a 2-1 shootout loss to the Chicago Wolves. But man, sitting up against the glass was the best thing ever. It was a very physical game with a lot of hits and especially a lot of hits RIGHT IN FRONT OF US, and I was totally hooked.

For some reason (work?) I didn’t make it to a game again until the end of March, although I was online every day to see what tickets were available. When I finally went again, I attended every game left in the season, including 4 games in 2 weeks to end the season.

With the season over, my obsession continued. I went to 2 Flyers playoff games, 2 Calder Cup finals games in Hershey and watched nearly every playoff game up to and including the Stanely Cup finals. I placed my order for Phantoms season tickets as soon as was actually possible, and so far this year I have a perfect attendance record at every home game. As I write this, I am watching an away game on my computer. I will sleep tonight in my Flyers jersey, go to work tomorrow wearing my Phantoms shirt and really I could go on and on, but I guess you get the point.


So yeah, it was a year ago today that this problem started…