52 replies to this topic

[Dead]

Saw this over at HF, and was wondering what got everyone into hockey here.

For me it was my dad, he was into hockey before the devils were the devils. He used to watch the team on the other side of the hudson and even met some of the players at bars in the city. However once the devils came to town, he took the family to devils games . The rest is history .


I know he had met stemkoski (sp?) he even signed a jersey my dad has (yes yes a ranger jersey).

[Jimmy Leeds]

My father split season tickets in the old upper ring at the Spectrum for the Failyers. I saw a lot of great late '70's Canadien, Islander, and even real good Ranger teams back then. I used to root for whoever was playing the Failyers. Oh, they loved me.

1980 Olympics didn't hurt, even though I was truly a hockey fan already.

[Scottie2Hottie]

honestly i always watched it when i was a real real real little thing, but when i was little, i like the devils xmas tree Jerseys the best and that's how they became my favorite team haha

[MDPucks]

I was 10 years old growing up around Shark River with the closest rinks being Brick and the outdoor rink in Old Bridge. My family was your typical baseball-football, Mets-Giants family that didn't have anything during the winters. While not going out of his way to watch a game on TV, my father would go to Ranger games if somebody got tickets and he took my mother on a date to an infamous Rangers-Leafs playoff game in the 1970's featuring a bench-clearing brawl and Jacques Plante's goalie mask being tossed into the MSG stands (at the end of the game some drunk Rangers fan was running around the blue seats with the mask held high).

1987 Islanders-Capitals Game 7 got me hooked. I stayed-up all night watching the game with my father in a hotel room in Williamsburg, Virginia during a family vacation.



I then gravitated towards the Devils because they were "New Jersey" for no other reason. That summer I got my first Devils jersey for my 11th birthday. October 31, 1987 my father brought me to my first hockey game as the Devils beat Gretzky, Messier, Fuhr, etc. 5-4 at the Meadowlands and I was hooked. That season I went to 3 Devils games and ended with the team's magical run:

I've been a hooked hockey fan ever since. Learned how to skate at college and I've played some pick-up and in some low-level men's leagues ever since. I find it hillarious now that the number of rinks around the Jersey Shore and Central NJ has exploded: Wall, Red Bank, Howell, Atlantic City, Woodbridge, Hamilton, etc.

[SS-SS]

Live in Montreal

[ohms law]

We moved here (to NJ) in '84, from southern California. I'd seen a couple of hockey games in the Olympics and whatnot, but it really wasn't even on "the radar" for me. Then, in September 1987, dad got season tickets with a buddy of his from work. He took me to a pre-season game vs. the Whalers at the Brenden Byrne Arena and I was instantly hooked.

Of course, the Devils historic run in the playoffs that season did an excellent job of cementing my loyalty to the Devils. I'll never forget that MacLean goal in Chicago... man, we were all watching that game, literally sitting on the edge of our seats!

[Revan]

The video games did the job for me. People don't give a crap about hockey where I live, so there was nobody to get me into it. But I always loved video games and I installed NHL 2001 demo one day just for the hell of it. Out of the two teams in the demo (the Devils and the Stars, obviously) I picked the Devs because I liked the name, the colours and the logo. I got the full version, played a little bit, learnt the rules of hockey thanks to it.

But it wasn't until 2003 when I got Internet connection and when NHL 2004 was released. That game was absolutely magical to me. I didn't really pay much attention to 2002 and 2003, but 2004 really hooked me. I decided to stick with the Devils (especially since they were featured in the demo once again... I didn't even know they were Champs at the time ) and after a couple months of playing I thought "maybe it'd actually be cool to see what the real thing looks like".

So I visited some NHL sites, started following the scores... It was the last month of the season I believe and then we got knocked out by Philly. I remember following the playoffs and also rooting for the Flames to win the Cup, partly due to Krzysztof Oliwa playing for them.

Then the lockout came, but I didn't give up on hockey: all those free months actually gave me a lot of time to learn about the NHL, the Devils, their history... Got into the Polish NHL community a little bit, started writing some stuff for the website. When 2005/2006 finally started, I felt like it was Christmas.

I never really considered rooting for another team. I liked the Sabres logo in NHL 2000 demo I played once, but I think it was the presence of the Devils in all those other demos (ironically, as I said: I didn't even know it was due to them playing in the finals then ) than ultimately made me pick them out of all the clubs. Call it a coincidence. I call it destiny. I made the right choice.

Edited by Revan, 01 January 2012 - 02:49 PM.

[RSC]

My father split season tickets in the old upper ring at the Spectrum for the Failyers. I saw a lot of great late '70's Canadien, Islander, and even real good Ranger teams back then. I used to root for whoever was playing the Failyers. Oh, they loved me.

1980 Olympics didn't hurt, even though I was truly a hockey fan already.

You were ahead of your time, my friend. Well done.

My dad split season tickets with a friend of his when I was in elementary school, so he'd take me to a game once a month or so. Pretty much every game, I'd fall asleep in the third period, and my dad would wake me up, saying "you want to go home?" to which I'd reply "NO! We have to stay for the Three Stars!"

Every. Single Game. We joke about that every game we go to together now.

[CarpathianForest]

When I was in High School some guys I knew broke into a sporting goods store. One of the guys sold me a Panthers jersey for like 20 bucks. After that I paid a bit more attention to hockey, but casually. My Sister actually got me into hockey. She is a Dallas Stars fans and all of her Boyfriends were Hockey fans so I got interested.

[Devs4LordStanley]

My dad said 'do you wanna watch hockey?' Sadly, that was in 00-01. I was an Islander fan, too before watching the Devils play in the playoffs & being their to see them win the cup in '03. That & Stevens' hits made me a true Devils fan plus the Islanders suck anyway.

EDIT: it was sad because they lost the cup that year.

Edited by Devs4LordStanley, 01 January 2012 - 12:58 PM.

[Microwavepizza]

my dad grew up in Queens and always enjoyed hockey, naturally, he hated the Rangers and their fans, and enjoyed the Bruins... until the Islanders came around and he began to follow them

In 1988 (i was 2) we moved from Long Island to New Jersey (bergen) and over time developed a love for the Devils... we had partial season tix at the CAA section 230 for a long time (i think around 95)

[Dadds]

I started as a rangers fan because once a year my dads company gave him tickets for a skybox in msg, but they always lost. I even went to wayne Gretsky's last game but the still lost. then in 2001 when I was 12 my dad did not get tickets to the rangers so he decided to take me and my brother to a devils game because I had been to 6-7 hockey games in my life all rangers games and all loses. The devils won but more importantly I was blown away by Broduer because I had just decided to make the switch to goalie because my team needed one. That is how it started I was always a hockey fan but it took a while for me to be a devils fan but it was well worth the wait.

Edited by Dadds, 01 January 2012 - 01:59 PM.

[SterioDesign]

Im canadian... Seriously its just part of life when you grow up here

[DevsMan84]

This is a cool thread and all the stories here are actually pretty interesting. I have written before about my background on getting into hockey and devils before, but I will go into more detail in the next couple of days when I have more time to write it out.

[Zubie#8]

In 1998 I was 8 years old and I was flipping through the channels and then I saw a hockey game. The Devils vs the Lightning and I was instantly hooked. Thank god it was a Devil game because it could of easily been a Rangers game

[ZeroGravityFat]

i came to the usa for college in 99 in njit and i really don't like soccer. hockey was a super fast paced soccer so i loved it from the first game and naturally followed the devils who happened to be fvckin amazing, i didn't know it wasn't a common thing to rule the playoffs all the time. now i guess i appreciate it more and believe we can make a deep run this year.

[Beetlebum]

my father

[capo]

I was 10 years old growing up around Shark River with the closest rinks being Brick and the outdoor rink in Old Bridge. My family was your typical baseball-football, Mets-Giants family that didn't have anything during the winters. While not going out of his way to watch a game on TV, my father would go to Ranger games if somebody got tickets and he took my mother on a date to an infamous Rangers-Leafs playoff game in the 1970's featuring a bench-clearing brawl and Jacques Plante's goalie mask being tossed into the MSG stands (at the end of the game some drunk Rangers fan was running around the blue seats with the mask held high).

1987 Islanders-Capitals Game 7 got me hooked. I stayed-up all night watching the game with my father in a hotel room in Williamsburg, Virginia during a family vacation.



I then gravitated towards the Devils because they were "New Jersey" for no other reason. That summer I got my first Devils jersey for my 11th birthday. October 31, 1987 my father brought me to my first hockey game as the Devils beat Gretzky, Messier, Fuhr, etc. 5-4 at the Meadowlands and I was hooked. That season I went to 3 Devils games and ended with the team's magical run:

I've been a hooked hockey fan ever since. Learned how to skate at college and I've played some pick-up and in some low-level men's leagues ever since. I find it hillarious now that the number of rinks around the Jersey Shore and Central NJ has exploded: Wall, Red Bank, Howell, Atlantic City, Woodbridge, Hamilton, etc.

Awesome! Some of the players in this game are the names I remember when I got hooked on hockey and it wasn't while they were in the NHL. My dad was one of the maintenance managers at the Broome County Veterans Arena and I used to get snuck in the back door several times per week. My brother and I saw very many Binghamton Whalers games in those years. I met all of the players back then. My greatest memory is Darryl Evans' great booming shot from the blue line. I was at a game on New Year's Eve one night (85' or 86') when Evans launched his boomer and caught the Maine Mariners' netminder square between the eyes and he fell straight back like a tree falling down. Anyway, many of the Caps in this video were guys I knew very well back then. Pete Peters, Bobby Mason, Lou Franceschetti, Paul Cavallini, and others. When the Whalers left Binghamton the Rangers came in and I found it hard to go to games. Although, I loved going to watch Alexei Kovalev, he was amazing in the AHL. A man amongst boys. I have never seen another player dominate a league like that guy did.

Anyway, great topic, brought back great memories.

Edited by capo, 01 January 2012 - 02:58 PM.

[Jimmy Leeds]

You were ahead of your time, my friend. Well done.

lol... Thanks. Actually I think it just shows my age !!

[SterioDesign]

i do have stories but seriously kinda impossible to remember what "got" me into hockey cause like is said... where i live it's like a religion here... as soon as youre born here you start getting hockey cloths and gift its like the "safe bet gift", 80% of the kids are growing up with a goal in their driveway or inside eventually, or playing hockey at school but anyway

i remember when i was like 5-6 years old i was drawing a lot and i had a bunch of hockey cards and hockey stuff and at that age i didnt really liked a team in particular, i was a fan of the league really so i remember drawing all the logos, and they were done pretty well from what i can remember (when you consider that i was super young haha) ended up 20 something years later making a living as a graphic designer so hockey kinda brought me that much.

Then when you grow up around here youre kinda brainwashed to cheer for Montreal. But my father was a huge Nordique fan and my sister a Bruins fan and everyone else that i knew were Habs fans but then heard about Brodeur on tv when he was drafted and remember hearing about him on tv before that and i was a goalie at the time (8 years old in 1992) so i kinda decided he was my idol (yup just like that) and that's why i choose New Jersey... pretty damn good choice

Edited by SterioDesign, 01 January 2012 - 03:06 PM.