My pumpkin
Trick or treaters are already here.
Back on Oct. 31, 1987, I became a hockey fan. I was in the seventh grade and somehow got a rebellious streak in me and decided that dressing up in a costume was dumb and trick or treating was dumber. So I didn't make a costume and stayed home when it came time for my parents to take my seven year old brother out into the night in search of candy. We didn't have cable TV back then and there wasn't much on the six channels we got at the time. Except for Red Wings at Blues, live from the St. Louis Arena. I had to look up the Blues' schedule to remember the game ended in a 3-3 tie (Come here and listen to Grandpa, sonny boy. In my day hockey had ties. And we liked it!). I'm pretty sure I didn't know most of the rules of the game. I didn't know many players beyond Doug Gilmour, Bernie Federko and Brian Sutter. And I loved it. The fans were into it with many of them in costume even if I wasn't. It would take another full season for hockey to really pull me in, but I will always fondly remember the first full Blues game I watched.
I write for our hockey paper. I'm a slave to putting things up on our Web site. How different my life would be without this wonderful sport. I love the fans, the experience, the action, the beauty, the violence. I've committed myself to getting back on the ice and trying to become something of a hockey player. And by hockey player, what I really mean is some jackass who falls down a lot and never scores. I can trace it all back to Oct. 31, 1987.
This is your game day thread. Trick or treat.