Hi. My name is Becca, and my favourite NHL team is the New Jersey Devils. The only weird thing about that sentence is that I live in the South-West of England… and that’s quite far from New Jersey.
Honestly, I don’t really know what the appeal was. I’ve never been into watching fights, my nearest ice rink is over 130 miles away and it’s not like there’s anyone I can talk to about it. But alas, here we are. What I do know is that ice hockey is one hell of a sport, and I love it.
You’re probably wondering what the HELL happened for me to get such a niche interest, and my honest answer is TikTok. And I can TELL what you’re thinking– this girl’s just another puck bunny who doesn’t care about the sport, but you’re wrong. In fact, if you’re thinking that about me, you’re wrong about a lot of girls who watch hockey. My very first introduction to hockey was the bow celly that Luke Hughes did after scoring against the Philadelphia Flyers…which a bit ironic because the Flyers then went on to be the team I supported for a bit. And by a bit, I mean a full year.
My favourite player was Carter Hart. Bad choice, I know – but let me finish. Truth be told, I had no idea why the hell I chose Hart to be my fav. The goal that brought on that bow celly that I thought was so awesome was literally let in by him. But anyway, that was that for a while. Until January 23rd, 2024. I’d been watching hockey for about a year now, but I never delved into the history surrounding the sport and unfortunately had never heard of the 2018 allegations until that day. I remember looking on Instagram and seeing the Flyers posting that he was taking leave. Confused, I check the comments – all of them are saying he should get a good lawyer. I leave even more confused. And after a long dive on google I end up feeling sick to my stomach. Not only was my favourite player in this awesome new sport an alleged gang rapist, but I willingly picked him to be my favourite. I felt like an idiot, and weirdly, I felt betrayed. I think that’s just the parasocial relationship in me, but I was genuinely so upset. But mainly, I was angry – so I took a step back from the flyers and switched to my 2nd favourite team at the time – the NJD. But it made me realise, this sport – both its fans and players – has a severe lack in respect for women. That was the day I realised that there was only a very small space in this community for me.
But while the space for people like me is small, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Hockeytok and hockeytwt have been very comforting for me. That sounds weird, and maybe comforting isn’t the right word, but I’m going to ask you to let me finish again. Having those little numbers in your display name, having your profile picture as your favourite player, and being able to laugh at memes made by people in a similar position to you? That’s what makes me feel at home in this sport – not any of the other stuff. And while I do feel a bit more comfortable in this fan base, being a UK fan is pretty rough. I can only ever watch some of the games, because they’re always on at crazy times like 1 in the morning or something. That has an affect on how included you feel too, by missing out on the big wins and losses you also miss out on the atmosphere and the culture. Buying merch is also a task – shipping is never any less than £20 and you ever see NFL merch in those American clothing stores you see in the shopping centres. But hey-ho, it’s. I think that sports fandoms can be very daunting – especially when you’re not exactly the target demographic, but after a while you sort of get more comfortable. And just for the record – I’d like to say that I think my skills at picking players to support has improved – im now officially the number one Nico Hischier fan. Anyway, thank you for reading my short little introduction, and I hope you stick around for some more hockey talk later.
