Skating on Dreams

I've never blogged before, so this is new to me. I should probably introduce myself, too. The name is Brian D. (@DyeHardPensFan on Twitter) and I'm 21 years old. I'm a pharmacy student at WVU and play hockey and guitar in my spare time. I have aspirations to become a professor and a hockey coach for kids. Over the last couple of years I have developed an insatiable obsession with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the NHL in general. I really want to aim this blog to discuss the Pens, but I won't just limit myself to them. So, here's to skating on dreams.
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First came track in middle school. It was the first scholastic sport of my life where I excelled, trained hard, and even broke a school record in the 400m dash. Then came high school with a year of football where I played a prominent role in keeping the benches nice and warm and acted as a body to put into the ground when the varsity guys needed someone to play defense against. I'm not mad about it - I knew my role and I'm proud to say I tried it. Combine this with two years of basketball, three years of cross country, and three years of track and you have yourself a full school year athlete who rarely did anything but run. I wasn't the best in any sport I played, but I tried like hell to be. I certainly wasn't the tough guy on any team either - I was a very passive person. Again, I knew my role, I was a support guy running and playing against the other support guys. Not to my surprise, come senior year, there were no athletic scholarship offers and it was off to WVU to pursue a career in pharmacy.

So of course, college was here. Time to start working on my career toward a doctorate degree and to really crack down and start making good decisions. That's the smart thing to do, right? Here, nobody is making me exercise anymore, no more sports, team practices - all of that is history. So it went from busy all of the time - to just schoolwork. Sure it kept me busy, but it definitely didn't keep me active, and it definitely wasn't exciting. Then I found hockey. I started watching it on TV occasionally to kill time with my suite-mates, then started developing interest in learning how to ice-skate. This is when I learned about one of my true passions.

I know it seems kind of outlandish to say - but HOCKEY has impacted me in the most unusual way in the last year or two. What started off as occasional Pittsburgh Penguin hockey nights (on what was formerly Fox Sports Network) to relax after an exam or just to take a night off, has turned into an out of control obsession where I absolutely HAVE to be paying some kind of attention to the Pens on game night. What started out as searching for local rinks just to go skate on has turned into trips to Washington D.C. to be taught by world-class coaches and former NHL pro's. It's turned into hundreds of dollars spent on gear, gas, tickets to pro games; the list is endless. What started out as being familiar with just Sidney Crosby and the bigger names has spawned into knowing not just all of the players, but trying to know all of the AHL counterparts that could possibly be called up, Badger Bob, Steve Mears, Rob Rossi, and the myriad of people covering the Penguins. I have invested more time, money, and energy to expand my knowledge and skill in the game of hockey than all of the sports I ever participated in combined. Within the last couple of years, hockey has become a distinct part of my life.

I do play rec-league hockey, where I have scored one-goal (against a team whose goalie didn't show up) and have had maybe just a few assists. Even though I am absolutely horrendous, I am soaking everything I can up about the game from line-mates and even from a fantasy camp I attended in Washington. But out of everything that I have ever done - Hockey is by far the most enjoyable and rewarding. While it's a team sport, it depends so much on individual skill and determination, personal accountability for decisions made on the ice, and discipline on and off the ice. I owe it to the mama for helping me out around Christmas time to get my gear. Still trying to get a win with her and dad in attendance.

So maybe in high school I had dreams that I would someday play D-2 college ball or run track or cross country. In hindsight, these were unrealistic dreams but got me through the days as a teenager. As a hockey player, with an astonishing record of one goal in a season, I know that I will never, ever, ever, be a professional hockey player - and I'm just fine with that. What I have found though, is that I have a new ambition; to learn as much as I can about the game, about my favorite team, and try to make hockey as appealing to other people as possible. I never understood hockey as a kid and I never had a reason to. The big sports in the small town of Clarksburg were basketball and football, plus there wasn't a rink within an hour drive of my house. So I think I've found a new goal - to write about what keeps me going from day to day.

So what am I expecting to come of this? Probably nothing. I will probably get bogged down with school work and never write a blog again. Or maybe I'll be sitting in an office or at my pharmacy someday thinking "Wow, I never thought this would grow into what it has". I mean in the back of my mind of course I'm hoping something could come of it. As the great Wayne Gretzky once said, "You miss 100% of the shots that you don't take", so here goes nothing.

Most of you are probably reading this asking yourselves why I just gave a monologue about my life and about why I like hockey. Like I said, I'm new to this, and this is something I want to take on. Look at people like Bylsma, Crosby, Malkin, Fleury,or Johnson - they were all probably equally as horrible at hockey at some point in their lives too. Look at the reporters like Lange (who is brilliant on the air), Rossi, Mears, Madden, McKenzie, Kasan, and Crechiolo. They were all probably equally...not...writing reports for the Pens or something at one point in time. Everyone has to start somewhere and I just so happen to be getting a late start. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something up for the Islanders game.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Lord Stanley, Lord Stanley, get me the brandy!