I fell in love with hockey when I was 8. My parents are 1st gen Chinese immigrants; they knew nothing about hockey but they signed me up for ringette. I saw a Patrick Roy poster in a rink when I first played goal in a ringette game, and decided he was my favorite player. (1/)

I devoured everything about hockey. I started as a die hard Avs fan (I had a signed Greg DeVries puck, that's commitment). I read the sports page. I read hockey books. I watched Coaches Corner religiously. (2/)

Gradually, my dad (not then a hockey fan) saw how much I loved it. He started buying three game ice packs to Canucks games so I could go see hockey IRL. He had no idea the monster he was creating. The Canucks were terrible (it was the late 90s). I loved them. (3/)

3 game ice packs became 5 game ice packs became 11 game ice packs etc etc. (He is now a die hard Canucks fan with half season tickets.) Meanwhile, my hockey obsession grew: I started watching junior hockey. (4/)

I religiously *videotaped* the world juniors, even though I watched them live. The years they played in Europe, I slept on the couch in front of the TV so I could wake up in the middle of the night to watch games. I snuck a walkman into class so I could listen to games.

I burst into tears in physics class the year Fleury banked a clearing pass off Coburn's ass and we lost to the US. You get the point. Hockey made me feel like I belonged. But as I got older, I started to realize that there was also a lot about it that made me feel less than.

Imagine looking up to someone, watching them every weekend, buying into their vision of being a good Canadian kids and hockey as Canada's game, and then realizing one day.... He never meant you, actually.

As I got older, I realized that holding onto hockey as a "Canadian game", to be jealously guarded was ridiculous and actually stifling the growth of something I loved. There isn't one right way to watch hockey. There isn't one right way to love hockey.

It's why I don't look down on non-traditional markets. It's why I LOVE teams that have a little fun with their fans (oh hey there, @Avalanche @Canes @GoldenKnights). It's why, despite my absolute loathing of losing to the USA, I love what @usahockey has done to grow the game.

For a long time, hockey has been a sport that has simultaneously made me feel like I belong and like I don't. The cost of playing hockey makes it an inherently privileged sport in terms of who can afford to be good at it.

The culture of it is problematic, especially towards the underprivileged, minorities, LGBTQ+, and women. This isn't necessarily intentional; I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say it's a feature of the historical structure and unconscious bias.

And as much as I would love the NHL to do better at a lot of things, and to say it isn't doing enough, I am still encouraged by the (baby) steps we take towards really making hockey for *everyone*. I'm encouraged by the slow shift away from 200 hockey men.

I've seen alot of comments from Don Cherry stans decrying the demise of "real" or "Canadian hockey". This is why Coaches Corner should have been retired a long time ago: this mentality that hockey can only be truly loved by some white dude from buttfuck nowhere is TIRED.

You love Canadian hockey? You want to keep it alive and dominant? You want to grow the game? Stop alienating potential fans and players because they don't fit your idea of a traditional hockey fan base. Celebrate every single person who falls in love with this sport.

If you've made it here, thanks for bearing with me. This weekend, and particularly @ArponBasu's wonderful article, made me think about my fandom and things I've ignored for love of the game.

Thanks so much. Sorry for the generalization! And I agree - we can make hockey really be for everyone. The best part of this weekend was how many people on hockey twitter I saw standing up to what he said, and the feeling that the culture is actually shifting in a positive way.