Let’s start with a little bit about me. I am old enough to know better and still young enough to give it a shot anyway. I grew up in Vermont with a father that was born in Nova Scotia; so you see I had skates on my feet around age 3. Hockey is a big part of my life, both playing as well as watching. I played goalie growing up…I know most of you just rolled your eyes and said…great goalies everyone knows they are “Different” and it’s true, most of us are. Most of my childhood friends were always talking about Guy LaFleur, Larry Robinson, and Bob Gainey and in the later years, John Leclair (fellow Vermonter). I was all about Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.
Some of my fondest memories from playing hockey include: Dad as a Coach, knowing my mom was in the stands, due to the cowbells and constant sounding of the air horn, attending summer hockey camps in Montreal and one day at age 11, at hockey practice in Vermont, getting the chance to stuff Bobby Orr. I must say as a fan of the Habs, this was life changing!!!! So I don’t upset all the Bruins fans out there, even I shed a little tear when Ray Bourque finally lifted the Cup a few years ago. However, that may have been because he was on the Avalanche and if I remember correctly, they had a pretty good goalie back then...
I moved to Phoenix in 1999 and started to follow the Coyotes shortly there after. In 2002, my wife actually won some tickets from a local radio station in town, after years of trying to get her to a game; she broke down and said OK. (The game was played the night of our 11 year wedding anniversary; I know I am a lucky guy.) Since then she has been hooked and we have enjoyed many more games on our anniversary. We even flew to Texas to see the San Antonio Rampage for our anniversary weekend a couple years ago.
I was a little tentative when Eklund asked me about doing this; you see I am not a professional writer. I am just a fan who had the time to sit in the back of a courtroom. I tried to get as much information out as I could 140 characters at a time. I have never blogged before; heck the most writing outside of school I have done was corporate contracts. If you ever wrote or read one of those, you know how enticing they are! With the ruling by Judge Baum earlier this week and Jim Balsille stating he would not appeal, I feel that I can shift my focus. I will gladly be trading in the days on the hard bench seats from the courtroom, and taking in as much Coyotes hockey as I can. I was glad to have been in the courtroom and Tweeting my version of the proceedings. Initially my followers were mostly friends and members at www.coyotescorner.net, a Coyotes Hockey board I have been a member of for a few years. Now they have grown and I have local fans coming up to me, as well as out of town folks, thanking me for keeping them informed. What a crazy off season it turned out to be.
So that is what I am going to try and do here in my own little corner of HockeyBuzz.com. I am going to try and keep it light and let you see my perspective from ‘Our side of the glass”. Sometimes you may agree with me, other times you may not, but at least we will be talking hockey. I feel that is a language common to us fans, regardless of whom you root for or where your loyalties lie.
If you would like to follow me on Twitter it is www.twitter.com/HKYFN
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