The Hockey News Takes Fans Inside the ECHL

My fascination with hockey began with something as innocent as a child's blanket. You may remember the type: multi-colored patchwork, patterned squares adorned with your cartoon character or sports team of choice. 

This one featured logos of professional hockey teams. Leafs, Habs, Blackhawks, Senators, I was immediately drawn into an unexplored world that seemingly enveloped my surroundings.

Growing up a proud Atlantic Canadian meant being immersed in the good ol' hockey game. Shinny games on freshly cleared ponds in the winter, rec ball hockey leagues, and evenings sat at the altar of Cole, MacLean, and the pillars of our Hockey Nights in Canada. The game found me long before I began my obsession with it. 

Don't get it confused, I am by no means a pro or prospect in this or any sport. I am what the scouts might call lacking in finesse. It could be that the idea of lacing a pair of ice skates was about as appealing to me as stepping on a LEGO, or perhaps woeful genetics or a lack of discipline for the game. 

But my love of hockey – one that began with a blanket and carried on through blurry-eyed nights fighting sleep watching West Coast playoff games, and frenemy last-man-standing video game tournaments, has only sharpened with age. And I still haven't mastered the joystick spin-o-rama. 

All of that has led me here, proudly holding down the fort as the Site Editor for the newly minted ECHL page for The Hockey News, an outlet that requires no introduction, and whose impact on your humble narrator is overwhelming. 

For context, my relationship with the ECHL blew wide open in the fall of 2018, when I had the chance to become intimately acquainted with a fledgling expansion franchise in my home province. I was fortunate enough to join the newly christened Newfoundland Growlers as a communications aid en route to a miracle-on-ice-esque run to the Kelly Cup, in their inaugural season no less. 

My role in the Growler's story that year was minimal, but my love for the team, the game, and the league, was immediate. 

From the sidelines, I witnessed the passion of the players, athletes scratching and clawing with boulder-sized chips on their shoulders, hungry to emerge as a budding prospect or seize that last shot at pro glory. 

I saw the fans, ravenous in their enthusiasm to embrace another kick-at-the-can of welcoming professional hockey to their island. Fans who have bled blue and white, bleu-et-rouge, and now black and gold

I saw a league steeped in dignity and tradition, operating well beyond its three-plus decades of existence, one that promotes not only hopeful stars of the future but honors the legends of the past. 

The ECHL, its 500-plus players, and hoards of fans across North America carry a unique makeup of pride and passion. They wear their hearts – and fandom – on their collective sleeve, riding the highs, lows, and emotional complexities of the sport.

From the Florida Everblades and their repeat cup-winning performance, the grit of league iron man Mike Pelech, to the smiling faces of those young and young at heart in arenas dotting all corners of the continent, it's hard not to get romantic about the game of hockey. 

I, along with the entire Hockey News family, proudly welcome you to our dedicated ECHL site, where we'll aim to serve up relevant, engaging, and reliable content with that same passion that has defined the league since its very first puck drop.