Across the pond - An NHL fan in the UK

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Welcome to Misc Monday! On the first Monday of the month, I will invite any of the IAAS writers to post whatever they want. Articles without restriction on category or theme. I’ve kicked it off with an article about my love for hockey and how it started.

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In 2011, I went through a dark time. I stopped sleeping. Not in an edgy “I’m 15 and have insomnia” way where you stay up until 2am and then fall asleep until the following afternoon because you don’t know how to regulate your schedule. Instead, this was a dark window of being awake for three or four days straight. I was unwell. After this awake period, I was typically sick, until I would pass out and get the rest I desperately needed. This article isn’t about the darkness I went through, but instead, the light that I found to fill that dark time I was awake while the rest of the world slept. 

Ben and Rob from IAAS Music at first NHL game at Madison Square Garden.

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When I speak to fellow supporters of my chosen NHL team, the first question they ask is always why I chose the Philadelphia Flyers. (Believe me, for the last decade I have been asking myself the same!). The answer calls back to the very beginning - The Mighty Ducks trilogy. Very early in my journey with insomnia, I watched all three movies as a way of brightening up my mood. During the third, I started to remember going to my local ice rink as a kid. For us, it was a way of ice skating for free, which they would offer to those who had watched the game. But I remembered the environment. The excitement. I googled when NHL games drop the puck- predominantly it was midnight for eastern games and 3am for western. That night, the Philadelphia Flyers played the Pittsburgh Penguins. I thought of Goldberg, the main comedic character of the Mighty Ducks series, and it was decided. I would follow the Flyers.

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That night, instead of feeling isolated as the world slept, I was happy to be awake. The game was a perfect entry point into the sport, with excitement, physicality, an insane fight (which compared to following British football was a delightful site) and ultimately a Flyers win, which at that point I didn’t care too much about, but I would later allow to determine my entire mental state for the night. I’ve always read about the appeal of sport is the simplicity of achieving goals. Ironically, following the Flyers, may be a bit of a swing and a miss in this department. 

Family picture of British Ice Hockey supporters, Philadelphia Flyers and Bracknell Bees

My luck stayed similar when picking my local team, the Bracknell Bees, who through COVID had their rink close down and ultimately led to their indefinite halting of competitive hockey. Something, you could argue, they share with the Philadelphia Flyers currently! 

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Often, I like to give a bit of a summary at the end of an article. For this, I’m not too sure what that might be. Instead, I could suggest for sports fans to remember their counterpart followers staying up until 3am on the other side of the world to watch the game. The stakes are higher, and ultimately the most important question to ask after a game is “was it worth staying awake”. And as long as we forget the dark period for Philly where Chuck Fletcher drove this team into irrelevance, it almost always has been. Let’s go, Hockey!

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