I spent most of the first ten years of my life in one part or another of northern Virginia. One day, when I was in third or fourth grade—this would've been 1987 or '88—our gym class had a visitor. I don't remember his name, or what he looked like, other than than he wasn't particularly old but nevertheless had at least a partial set of false teeth. This was because he was a player for the Washington Capitals hockey team.
The details of the visit are hazy, naturally. I seem to recall the guy being a former player for the Caps, though he might have been an active one. I don't really remember his uniform—it'd have been weird if he hadn't been wearing it, right?—or what he talked about. (Presumably hockey.) It's the teeth, which he removed for us with what I can only imagine was glee, that's stuck with me all these years. We played floor hockey, which I really enjoyed, in gym class, but I don't know if that started before or after the NHL player's visit.
A few years later, for no reason discernable from my current temporal vantage point, I started paying attention to the Washington Capitals. I don't know if I watched any games on TV; living in Texas and then Venezuela, I mainly remember reading the box scores in the paper, and asking for (and receiving) a Capitals t-shirt for Christmas in 1992 or '93. By the time I went back to Virginia for a year to attend college, however, I didn't think much about hockey, and never took the opportunity to see the Capitals play.
And so until recently, hockey remained something I enjoyed when I watched it, which was almost never. Then I learned, via the ever-reliable and perenially interesting Metafilter, that a new hockey league had just started up. The Professional Women's Hockey League only has six teams at the moment, so I decided to follow Montréal, since I've visited and am pretty fond of Québec (though I haven't actually been to Montréal). It's a loose affiliation, however; I'm here to just enjoy the sport.
And enjoy it I do, because everything about it is fun. I can watch games live on Youtube, which is a huge plus. The play is physical without being boneheadedly aggressive. I'd forgotten how exciting it can be to watch a fast, skilled forward thread through a couple defenders and take a shot on goal. The players had a union contract before the first game was played. I even like the plain jerseys that display only the city name, since none of the teams have names yet.
I've got a couple hockey-loving friends in Pittsburgh, where Montréal is playing Toronto next month, so I'm considering a weekend trip to see my friends and some hockey. I just hope I don't see any players pop their teeth out to shock little kids.
