Hello Hockey World

The best way to describe my feelings about hockey is "addiction". I can't get enough of it. Playing it, watching it, discussing it, reading about it or playing video games (NHL 2004 for PS2 was the pinnacle in my mind, with NHL96 for Sega Genesis a close second). However, the best way to describe my hockey abilities is "mediocre at best". I never really learned how to play ice hockey. I still have a rudimentary ability to ice skate. But I've found my own little niche in roller hockey.Let me start at the beginning. I was never athletic as a kid. I was afraid of the ball. I didn't play a single sport from the age of 4 until the age of 11, and it devastated my father. He played hockey, all of his cousins and uncles played hockey (some of them even playing for B.U.), yet here was his son, completely uninterested. My 2 years of little league baseball (from ages 11-12)must have been terribly painful for my family to watch.Nothing my father could do could get me interested in the sport. Thankfully, I idolized my next door neighbor who was two years older than me. During the playoffs of the 1988 season, when the Bruins were making a push to win their first cup since '72, I spent my nights at his house intently watching a sport I knew nothing about. After they lost to Edmonton, being new to the sport, and a fair weather fan, I through my allegiances behind the team with the coolest uniforms- the Calgary Flames. Sure enough, they won the '89 cup, and I found myself quickly addicted.My friend came across some old goalie pads, and forced me to play goalie while he rifled tennis balls at my head. I began making saves out of self preservation, but soon found out that I was starting to enjoy it.Shortly thereafter, my family moved from the Boston suburbs to southern NH. My mom and dad bought me my first set of street hokey goalie pads. I met a few other hockey junkies, started playing in a roller hockey league, and even went so far as co-hosting a cable access TV show called "Hockey Talk" through high school (I can't believe my girlfriend dated me then, and is still with me now). Since then, I've played in multiple men's roller hockey leagues, even captained a few of them in leagues in Hooksett and Bedford NH (both of which have closed).Now that I've entered the world of the grownups and have a job, I've been able to fund my addiction even more- a big TV and Center Ice Package. And now I watch enough hockey to think I know what I'm talking about. So please, tell me I'm wrong (or right).-Mop