Passion

(I know, it's a dorky picture)

We eat, sleep, and breathe hockey here in the Feenstra residence, but more specifically it's the Edmonton Oilers. It wasn't always that way for me, though, I have Scott to thank for introducing this kind of passion to me.

I grew up in a family where we'd watch Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night. We'd go to the evening mass and usually my cousins would come over after and we'd watch what was left of the game. I watched a lot of Toronto games since they were the early ones, but I didn't care for them. In fact, I'm still somewhat indifferent to the Leafs. My cousins were Montreal fans and I remember really disliking them. I don't really have a reason, I just remember my friend and I talking about the Canadiens and discussing what a poor team they were. It's probably because we didn't think there were enough cute boys on the team. I may have been young, but I never went through the "boys are gross" stage.

So I grew up watching hockey, but never really had a favourite team. At one point I liked the Flames, but I think it was because my sister claimed to like them (I'm sure it also had to do with a boy she liked), but she doesn't care for hockey now. I found myself cheering for the team who was losing quite often too, so who I cheered for often changed. In grade 4 I had a big crush on Jacob Murphy and he liked the Oilers so my allegiance went there for a while then. That's when they were in their glory days, but I wasn't as aware of that then.

Scott and I met when I went to hang out with his then housemate, Shaun, an avid Leafs fan. It was during the 2001 play offs and Toronto was playing New Jersey. I didn't really care about the series, but it was fun to watch hockey with people, especially Shaun because he gets a little crazy watching Toronto. Scott, of course, was an Oilers fan, and didn't care about the Toronto/New Jersey game either, but he watched a bit of the games with us. When New Jersey made it to the final against Colorado, Scott and I made a bet on the outcome. I bet on New Jersey, and he was convinced that Colorado would win. He was right, of course and I was out some money. Scott and I quickly became friends and when I lived with him and Shaun I started listening to and watching games with Scott. His passion and excitement was infectious so it was hard not to cheer for the Oilers for him and see him so elated when they won. I started to get to know the players and the coaching staff, to understand the game better, and to know the rivalries. Before long, I was also a massive fan. It was exciting hockey, the team was passionate, hard-working, and determined. They didn't do very well the first few years that I liked them, but they still played great, exciting hockey. Once Scott and I started dating and I moved out, it became even more fun. We'd meet to watch games and we really bonded over the experiences. I think it was 2002 when I got to go to my first game. Scott, his parents, and I went to Ottawa when the Oilers were in town and we went down to ice level to watch the pre-game skate and I got to see all the faces of the men I'd heard so much about. At the time I really liked Ryan Smyth and Shaun Horcoff. I was so thrilled when after the skate Ryan Smyth scooped up some pucks and threw them over the glass for fans. He does this at every game; usually he throws them to kids, but I don't think there were any around me so I caught it and had an awesome souvenir from my first game. They went on to win that night too. What a great first experience.

I don't think there's any turning back for me now. I'm hooked. I can't believe I missed out on all this excitment before I met Scott! I can't wait to live in Edmonton one day and we'll likely have a package deal of going to a bunch of games, and we'll be able to watch all the games on TV if we're not there. And the pay-per-view games that won't be on TV, we can watch at the movie theatre. Isn't that cool?!

You know where I'll be at 8pm ET tonight. We'll be here cheering on our team and hoping they can win, fight through the adversity that they've faced and win the Stanley Cup. It's so close.