MrazeksVengeance
VENGEANCE
- Feb 27, 2018
- 7,340
- 27,789
Losing to Slovaks at 2003 Helsinky Worlds. PISSED OFF AS HELL. VINDICATED TWO YEARS LATER.
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My first hockey game was a Hershey Bears game as well.....only thing I remember was that the Bears won, like 7-2 or something and the fans were all amazed because they sucked so bad. My dad bought be an autographed photo of one of the Bears, but I have no idea who and no idea where the photo is.I originally lived in Reading Pa, (about 50 mi. from Hershey) Hershey Bears were a Boston Bruins farm team back then. The details are sketchy, but, I was "hooked on hockey" after my first game, I then became a Bruins fan, but, when the Flyers came into the picture ('64 I believe}, I drifted into their fanbase. Eventually moved to Hershey, played beer league, (Sunday nights @ 10pm), coached the squirts and pee wees.
I moved to Raleigh in '83 figured I was giving up hockey, sold all my gear. Then the Icecaps came to town! Also discovered Beer league hockey was alive and well in Hillsborough! And then of course the BIG ONE: an NHL team was coming to NC!
Oh boy a classic missed opportunity! I did get to see Jim Craig in 1980: He was in a convertible in the pre-race @ the Indy 500, It was awesome-300,000 fans cheering as they realized who he was!I grew up playing hockey in northern Vermont. My parents decided to put me into a youth hockey program because they wanted to protect my little brother by burning my excess energy. I started skating at three and playing hockey by four. The first hockey game I saw I was probably in, but I don't know that for sure. Besides the other youth games at the local ice house, I saw bunches of high school hockey in our town (Essex Junction, VT) and I went to a couple of college hockey games at UVM with my friends about that time as well. I don't remember much about those games, though as I was more interested in playing than watching, so my friends and I would run around under/around the bleachers and sneak into areas we shouldn't be.
The first "real" game I remember going to was an AHL game between the Maine Mariners and the Erie Blades in 1981 in Portland, Maine when I was visiting my grandparents. I remember this game most specifically because I played goalie on my local town travelling team (generally at that time in Vermont, the town would have one or two teams per age group that would play other teams in the State and beyond, in addition to the "house league" that was just games against other teams in your town. This was something you would try out for to get on the team.) and the Erie Blades had Jim Craig as their goalie at the time. If the name doesn't ring a bell, he was Team USA's goalie during the Miracle On Ice. We went to this game as a gift from my grandfather to me. We had good seats, and I don't remember much about the game action, but I remember being disappointed because the Mariners won the game and I didn't get to see Craig after the game as he got shelled.
Now, this was my first real game I actually got to go to. What is still more frustrating to this day for me, was I was invited to see a different real game by a teammate on my travelling team the year before, but was unable to go. My friend's family had secured tickets for themselves and one extra for a friend (was going to be me) to the 1980 Olympics game between the USA and the USSR. My friend invited me and I accepted. Lake Placid was not an unreasonable distance to drive from where I lived in Vermont, but it wasn't across town either. Since it was a weekday, I would have had to miss school to go to the game. My mother being the responsible teacher that she was, and thinking the game was going to be very disappointing, didn't allow me to go to the game with my friend and his family.
So in the end, my first real game was a Maine Mariners AHL game and not the Miracle On Ice Olympic game because of some 4th grade shit.