Puck yes!

Congrats to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who took the 2009 Stanley Cup last night. I didn't follow this series, or any for the last 10 years, but now I miss watching hockey. I started following the pucks, as my dad calls it, in January 1994, not knowing the next six months would become the most excitingly nail-biting, obsession-inducing, TV-riveted period in hockey history as the NY Rangers ascended to Stanley Cup victory. And when I say I "started following" I mean one morning I picked up a newspaper at a diner and started reading the scores. Just like that, totally out of the blue. The sports section was foreign territory to me until this point, but my father and brother are long-time puck fans so I'm convinced a genetic switch had suddenly kicked in. I was meant to watch the pucks, and what an incredible ride it turned out to be; made that much sweeter because I shared it with my family. It was all we could talk about, on the phone two or three times a day as the series progressed. I shared it with my city, too, at that fantastic victory parade. There's been a few times when I've felt especially proud to be a New Yorker, and that was one of them: over a million joyous fans showed up to toast their team, and it was beyond thrilling. What a gift. 

Those players have all since retired and I now read the newspaper on a laptop, but maybe this October I can get some puck magic back. The genes are still there, lying dormant but still ready to be called into the game. Let's go Rangers!