Ten questions with Boltsmag's John Fontana

Though Puckhound has yet to meet John Fontana, the online publisher, producer and writer of Boltsmag.com, I get the sense that he's wears his passion for the Lightning, and the sport of hockey, on his sleeve. That's good, too, The game needs more people like him.

Fontana, who works as an online publisher, producer and writer in the Tampa Bay area when he isn't following the Lightning, took some time out of his busy schedule to answer 10 questions about the Lightning and the incorrect perception that hockey doesn't belong in Florida.

So, with the Lightning in Philly tonight to play the Flyers, let's go to the questions:

Hound Central 2.0: I often find myself, in conversations with hockey fans up north, defending NHL teams in Florida. What's your take on hockey in Florida?
John Fontana: I find myself in the same conversations all the time and that’s one thing about hockey that I despise – the staunch traditionalist approach. “Florida doesn’t support its teams, other areas are more deserving of the Cup than Tampa Bay. The fans won’t appreciate it as much as a (insert region).” Blah, blah, blah and all that jazz.
My take on hockey in Florida as a whole – professional and amateur – is that it’s a growing sport that isn’t properly nurtured. I’ve seen junior hockey fail with the Southeast Junior Hockey League thanks to outside interference and poor management. I’ve seen the media take an attention-deficit-disorder approach to covering the Lightning (“Lightning win sixth straight and … OOH! Buccaneer QB has ingrown toenail! Season in doubt! The Horror! The Horror!”
Suffice it to say, some stereotypes of Florida by northern fans are justified while others are laughable.
I was told at one point (while the Lightning were a 50-loss team) that the St. Pete Times Forum (then known as Ice Palace) was probably looked upon by locals as a waste of money because the fans didn’t like the Lightning and didn’t attend games. We were averaging 14,000 a night to watch the bottom-feeding franchise of the NHL at this point and I found the comments of this person to be insulting and ignorant. While the state isn’t Ontario or Quebec in its rabidness, nor is it New York in the guaranteed-sellouts thanks to corporate season tickets, there is a devoted and loyal fan base for the Lightning (and with the Panthers to the south).
I can go on with this, but I’m going to cut it off here.

HC2.0: What led you to start Boltsmag?
JF: Ironically, my rant above sort of surmises it. Fall 2003, during the Lightning’s hot start, I was going around on the Web to try to find Lightning fan sites. There were some pages that had not been updated since 1996-97 that you could still find on the web (you probably still can). I also came across a Northern naysayer slinging lies about the Lightning and its fan base on the Web regarding attendance at the Forum (“They couldn’t even generate 8,000 fans at games while they were undefeated to begin the season!” – which attendance records show is a flat-out falsehood). This was basically the final straw for me and I wanted to show that there was a devoted and loyal fan base out there. Some of my early writings and coverage during the playoffs of 2004 involved the B.S. that the Northern media was reporting about Tampa and southern hockey as a whole.
I chose Boltsmag.com as the site domain because it had been home to a Lightning Web site (on the old Rivals.com sports network) that had been run by Bright House/Time Warner producer and Catch 47 sports personality Eric Keaton. I figured a familiar name was in order for a Lightning fan site and blog.

HC2.0: What's your approach to blogging? Do you view yourself as a fan or a commentator? A little of both?
JF: Definitely both. Unlike a James Mirtle or Tom Benjamin or Eric McErlain, I’m not well-versed in my writing nor the best person for analysis of hockey. I try to put observations and passion into my posts. I haven’t done much posting as of late because I am divided on the Web among several different online efforts (some blogging, some site design, etc) and I regret it.

HC2.0: Has the Lightning always been your favorite team?
JF: Well, first to give backstory, the Lightning came into being when I was a tween (not quite a kid and not quite a teen). I had “rooted” for the Rangers before then because I am from New York and my father “rooted” for the Rangers (he is a very casual fan). But honestly, I’ve grown up with the Lightning and I’ve learned about the game and appreciating it better with the Bolts. To say I’ve been a fan of another team just honestly isn’t the case.

HC2.0: Do you remember your first Lightning/hockey game?
JF: It was the tail end of the 1997-98 debacle/season and the Lightning were playing the Senators at Ice Palace/St. Pete Times Forum. I hadn’t had a previous opportunity to attend a game and this was my first. I don’t remember the exact date, but I do remember that I shouted “CROSS, YOU SUCK!” at Cory Cross after he played maitre’d with Senators players sitting in front of the Lightning goal (which led to the Sens scoring). The Senators won that game handily.

HC2.0: Favorite Lightning players, past and present?
JF: Enricco Ciccone was the first real personality I admired with the Lightning. I came to appreciate Brian Bellows and, of course, John Cullen, who came back from cancer. Gordie Dwyer, too.
Darcy Tucker helped spice things up during the lean years with the Lightning though I look down on him now for his antics, along with a good portion of the NHL (sans Toronto fans).
Fredrik Modin is one of my all time favorites on the team for the grit he brought to the Lightning.
It’s no secret that I have been a big Brad Richards fan, though I am slow to announce it this season as it has been an off-year for him.

HC2.0: Favorite Lightning hockey moment?
JF: Now, this isn’t a specific on-ice moment but my favorite memory is the “restart” of the Lightning (Bill Davidson’s first year or two as owner). There was the “We’re Bigger, We’re Younger, We’re Faster” marketing campaign (very funny commercials on TV, too) that summarized the shift of the Lightning roster. But the clear difference was that there was hope for the future.
“Hope” and “future” never seemed to be in the mix for the Lightning much under Phil Esposito. He seemed to be trying to design the team for the day-to-day and never looked past the current season in moves he made. Ironically, his greatest draft with the Lightning was his last in 1998. That was the only time Phil ever did much long range planning for the Lightning. He’d get himself fired within months of that draft for going back to the “Plan for next season alone” and binge-spending on mediocre free agents.
I mean, 1999-2000 was not all roses. The team was horrid and relying on unproven players by and large. But there was a forward thinking plan in place and a clear hope for the future with some of the talent that was on the roster and property of the Lightning (unsigned draft picks).

HC2.0: How did you celebrate the team winning the Stanley Cup?
JF: The entire situation was odd for me because I was at Game 7 of the 2003-04 Stanley Cup Finals, but I was with my longtime friend and former Boltsmag contributor Keith Short, a rabid Calgary Flames fan. So part of me was elated in the stands, but I was restrained from celebrating because the guy next to me was miserable watching as the Lightning (and the fans) went wild. Keith stayed with me the next few days as well, so I didn’t go wild or anything but I was stoked inside for a long, long time. I guess my wildest reaction was on Boltsmag (see June 2004 postings for more).

HC2.0: What's your take on the Lightning's jersey? How about the old third jersey?
JF: I couldn’t stand the old third jersey. I’m with the people who complained about the “barf on the sleeves” look. I did like the blue that was the major color but most of the rest of the design reeked.
As for the Lightning’s home and away jerseys – it’s a design that’s long needed to be tweaked. The look itself can be seen as a neo-Classic, but I’ve long wanted to see some modifications and updates.

HC2.0: A little word-association exercise, if you don't mind:
Phil Esposito = Trader Phil
Alex Selivanov = Son-in-law-ov
Jay Feaster = Cheetos
Evgeny Artyukhin = greedy
Thunderbug = great mascot

Ten questions with . . . oh well

After pulling a few strings, sharing my family's secret Christmas cookie recipe and mixing dried holly leaves with a dollop of week-old eggnog, I secured a guest for this month’s Ten Questions with . . . feature.

Actually, this will be a group interview, as the guests are . . . the Ghosts of Hockey’s Past, Hockey’s Present and Hockey’s Future.

Let’s not waste any time, shall we? Nip/Tuck starts in a few minutes.

Puckhound: So, gentlemen, what keeps you busy these days?
Hockey’s Past: Trying to find all that old hockey equipment. I see the prices that the old-time memorabilia is fetching at auctions, and I figure I should cash in on it. You know, we didn’t make the money that today’s players make.
Hockey’s Present: Making sure the neutral-zone trap never makes its way back into the game. Just when I thought Ken Hitchcock would be out of the game, Doug MacLean panics and hires him to coach the Blue Jackets.
Hockey’s Future: Waiting for something to happen. That’s the thing about the future. It’s not here just yet, but when it arrives, it quickly becomes the past. See what I mean?

PH: Yeah, in a way, I do. This is for Hockey’s Past. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen?
HPast: Just how light the equipment has become. It's like skating on thin air. That and those expensive one-piece sticks. Back in my day, $200 would buy all of your equipment, and we'd have to walk 17 miles in neck-high snow -- one way, mind you -- just to get our skates sharpened.

PH: This is for Hockey’s Present. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen?
HPresent: How the officiating this season has worsened. There's no consistency. Paul Stewart needs to come out of retirement. Or Kerry Fraser needs to ditch the helmet. That’s all I’m gonna say.

PH: This is for Hockey’s Future. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen?
HF: What a dumb question. How the heck am I supposed to know? It hasn’t happened yet.

PH: You’re right. Sorry about that. Moving on, now, in your opinion, Hockey Past, who’s the best player ever?
HPast: That’s a tough one. It could be Gordie Howe. Or The Rocket. Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux are in there, too. Even Patrick Roy deserves consideration. The best ever? Gordie, by an elbow.

PH: How about you, Hockey’s Present. Who’s today’s best player?
HPresent: You know, everyone says its either Alexander Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby. There’s even some talk about this Evgeni Malkin kid. They’re good, you know, but they’re young. Do you know who I’d build a team around? Brendan Shanahan. He’s amazing.

PH: Only you, Hockey’s Future, will know this answer. Who’s the best prospect we’ve never heard of?
HF: There’s this kid, down in Florida, who the Almighty Gods of Hockey are watching. He hasn’t even started skating yet, but he will soon. He has the tools. He has the desire. He has the genes, too. His father, grew up in western New York, now, he was one helluva player, but he started skating too late. We’re not making the same mistake with this kid.

PH: A final question for you, Hockey’s Past. What do you miss the most?
HPast: When players played for love of the game, not the money and highlights, for the pure love of the game.

PH: I really don’t mean to put you on the spot, Hockey’s Present, but who’s gonna win the Stanley Cup this season?
HPresent: I know you picked the San Jose Sharks to win it, but I believe Anaheim and Buffalo have something special working this season. I say the Sabres in six.

PH: Finally, what changes should we expect, Hockey’s Future?
HF: This is only a guess, because, well, you know, it hasn’t happened yet. But I think it’ll be speed, speed and even more speed. Oh, yeah, I suspect we’ll have no-touch icing, before someone really gets hurt.

Ten questions with Drew "The Enforcer" Pelto

This month, Hound Central introduces you to Drew Pelto, 22, an autograph collector and play-by-play announcer, known on-air as "The Enforcer," for the Wichita Falls (Texas) Wildcats, a North American Hockey League team.

Pelto, who hounded the Bruins and visiting hockey teams when he wasn't attending classes at Emerson University in Boston, also works as an all-purpose radio guy (DJ, producer, board operator) for a couple of radio stations in Texas.

Puckhound: What got you interested in hockey?
Drew Pelto: My dad was always a big hockey fan. He grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and his parents were both of Finnish heritage. He never played hockey growing up (his mother thought hockey and football were too dangerous), but watched the games anytime he could. He was a Chicago Blackhawks and Michigan Tech Huskies fan, back in the days of Tony Esposito playing for both of those teams.
I became a fan in 1991 while living in Cleveland. I was 7 years old and just getting into nearly every sport imaginable. At the time, the Pittsburgh Penguins were the closest team to me and they also happened to win the first of their two Stanley Cups.
Occasionally we would get broadcasts of their games, and my dad and I would watch them together. With the Cup wins, I jumped on the bandwagon and have remained there ever since.

PH: When did you attend your first game?
Drew: My first game was in 1993 when we finally got the IHL in Cleveland. My dad and I went down to the old Richfield Coliseum to see the Lumberjacks vs. the Kalamazoo Wings. I don't remember much about the game, except that we had awesome seats (fifth row, next to the penalty boxes).
The 'Jacks lost, and there was a fight almost right in front of me between future NHL enforcers Paul Laus and Reid Simpson. Ten years later, I finally got a video tape with that fight on it. My first NHL game wasn't until 2003, when I saw the Bruins and Avalanche play in Boston. Avs won in OT.

PH: Who is/were your favorite player(s)?
Drew: Jarome Iginla is my favorite right now. I think he's as close as we will ever come to seeing another Cam Neely, a guy who can score, pass, hit, fight, and really just do anything and everything on the ice.
All-time, I've always been a fan of the brawlers. Guys like P.J. Stock, Bob Probert, Joe Kocur, John Kordic and Marty McSorley are at the top of my list. However, I also like Mario Lemieux and have a huge collection of Jaromir Jagr cards that I was collecting when he was a Penguin.
I also have to show some support here for Jock Callander, a former Cleveland Lumberjack and the IHL's second all-time leading scorer, and also Rick Hayward, another former Cleveland Lumberjack and one of the best fighters never to get a significant shot in the NHL.

PH: What's your favorite hockey memory?
Drew: I'd have to say the year I played in high school. We were able to have two teams, a varsity and a junior varsity team, and the jayvees would honestly take anyone who had ever put on a pair of skates.
So as a senior, after serving as the varsity team's manager the year before, I decided to try my hand at playing for the jayvees. Practices were hard, but the games were great.
We had a pretty good team, and at the end of the season, we were selected to play in the Ohio JV State Tournament with three other Cleveland teams and four Toledo teams.
In the semifinals, we beat Toledo's St. John High School 5-1, scoring 4 goals in the span of 3 minutes in the second. The game had to be called with five minutes left after a St. John player tried to attack our bench, resulting in a brawl.
Unfortunately, we lost in the finals to Padua High (a Cleveland team that used some of its varsity players who they hadn't put on the official tournament roster), 4-3. We pulled our goalie and cut the deficit to one, but couldn't quite get the game-tying goal.
Overall, it was a great season and I wish I could do it over again. Oh yeah, my final stats were 0-0-0 in 22 games, but at least I was +4.

PH: When did you start collecting autographs?
Drew: My first autograph goes back to 1991. Joe Charbonneau, the 1980 AL Rookie of the Year, was signing at a card show near Cleveland and I got a photo signed by him. I still have it here in Texas with me.
After that, I got Indians infielder Mark Lewis' autograph at a game against the Twins in Cleveland, also in 1991.
My first hockey autograph was from around 1992 or so. Alex Delvecchio was signing at a card show in my mom's hometown of Jackson, Mich., while we were up there visiting family.
I didn't start collecting heavily until I got into college. In middle school, I sent out a few requests by mail, but I didn't do any major hounding until I got up to Boston, where I attended Emerson College.
From 2003 through 2005, all my spare time was spent at TD Banknorth Garden and the hotels, as well as doing some baseball hounding in the spring and summer in Boston and Cleveland.

PH: What's the story behind your most prized hockey autograph?
Drew: Honestly, I can't narrow it down to just one, so I'll name off my favorites.
One was from a friend of mine who had some old autographed pucks he was trying to sell because he really had no use for them. He had stopped collecting years ago. The group consisted of two Henri Richards, Jean Beliveau, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion and Gordie Howe.
They're sitting at my dad's house in Ohio, but will one day be on display with my other pucks when I finally build my "Ultimate Sports Basement."
Next up is a lot of Oilers pucks signed by Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Kevin Lowe, Jari Kurri, Marty McSorley and Dave Semenko that I found on eBay. The guy selling them mostly specialized in computers and computer parts, so I have no idea how he got these. He had no pictures and only about 95 percent good feedback, so I was taking a bit of a risk in buying them. However, I sent my money (a steal, honestly), and a week later I had the pucks, all in decent condition.
I should make a mention that it is very rare that I buy any autographs. I don't buy from the average dealer, but will certainly buy from just an ordinary person who has a few autographs for sale. Most dealers I've known can be total scumbags, while just the average person probably isn't as much of a jerk and isn't as opportunistic as most of the dealers seem to be. You won't see very many items in my collection purchased from dealers. Okay, moving on.
Next are the Maurice Richard autographs I got through the mail. Not only did he sign the card I sent, but also sent a signed photo saying "To Drew Pelto, Good Luck, Maurice Richard 9." Apparently, he was in the hospital at this time undergoing cancer treatment, and reports said nurses saw him fulfilling mailed autograph requests from his hospital bed. Gotta love how the old timers, especially in the hockey world, seem to always remember and respect their fans.
And finally, last year, after a couple years of trying, I finally managed to get Mario Lemieux to sign for me. From previous meetings, I knew he only signed photos of yourself with him (so, that's one card for my Topps Total set I can forget about). So I made sure to take my digital camera and get a picture with him in the morning, which he did. As the team went for their morning skate, I stopped off at CVS to get the photo blown up to 8x10 size.
After hounding the Bruins, I picked up the photo and returned to the Pens' hotel. And as expected, Mario signed my photo -- with a "To Drew, Best Wishes" on it as well.
An honorable mention here is my Ryan Vandenbussche signed jersey. I didn't even have to ask him, he came to me and asked "Hey, buddy, want me to sign that for you?" So he personalized and signed it. I asked if I might be able to have one of his sticks. He said "Yeah, no problem, it'll just have to wait until after practice" (The Pens were practicing at Northeastern University). True to his word, as he skated off the ice, he passed his stick up to me!

PH: What's your take on Sidney Crosby?
Drew: Great player, not much of a person toward the fans. It's a bit problematic too, as I'm a Penguins fan and I think he's a great player, and I want to see him take this team places, but at the same time, I can't respect him.
I wrote out a long essay on this on my site after getting stiffed by him for a record-setting 15th time -- 14 attempts to get his autograph in person, and one attempt via mail, and I'm still coming up empty now.
Maybe my attitudes about him will change once I get an autograph out of him, but right now, I just really don't like the guy. But still, I hope he can lead the Penguins to the playoffs soon.

PH: How did you get into radio broadcasting?
Drew: For all my life, I wanted to be a pro athlete. And then I discovered I have no athletic ability, whatsoever (.067 Little League batting average, didn't play hockey until I was 17, and the fact I'm 5'8" 200 even now at age 22 rules out almost every other sport). So I figured I might look into broadcasting sports in some way, whether it was on TV or radio.
As a senior in high school, I got a short internship with a small station in Willoughby, Ohio (WELW-1330 AM), where I wrote news and sports stories in the morning, four days a week for a month.
Moving on to college, I majored in broadcast journalism at Emerson College in Boston. Unfortunately, Emerson only offered one sports journalism class, and it was offered only once every three years, and was geared more toward print journalists. Additionally, the broadcast classes concentrated primarily on TV. Out of three and a half years, I had only one class that was specifically dealing with radio.
While back home in Cleveland for a summer, I interned again with WTAM-1100 AM as a call screener for the Mike Trivisonno Show, also getting on the air a couple times. After graduating from Emerson in December 2005, I moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, to be with my girlfriend, and now fiancee, Gen. (Editor's note: Congratulations!)
In Wichita Falls, we have a team in the North American Hockey League (Junior A, just about the same level as the USHL, just below college and the Canadian juniors), the Wichita Falls Wildcats, who are also broadcast on local radio and on the Internet. I spoke to the team's business manager, notifying him that if they need an additional radio announcer, I could cover games for them.
I knew they had two announcers already, but there may be some games that only one announcer, or even neither guy, could cover. Turns out I had some good timing working out there, as that weekend I was sent with the team to Texarkana, Ark., for a two-game series vs. the Texarkana (now St. Louis) Bandits.
At about the same time, I began working for the local Clear Channel-owned stations as a board operator, producer and DJ. Along with announcing for the Wildcats, I have regular DJ'ing shifts, as Andrew Adams, on Lonestar 102.3 (KWFS FM, a country station) and 106.3 The Buzz (KBZS, a rock station). I produce two sports shows on Saturday mornings, Friday Night Recap, and The League (which I also co-host) on Newstalk 1290 (KWFS AM, the news, talk and sports of Texoma).

PH: What's it like calling games?
Drew: It's a lot of fun as long as you can keep up with the action. It's easier on TV as a lot of the action there can speak for itself. But, on radio, you need to be able to tell everywhere the puck goes, when someone gets hit, all while keeping track of who's on the ice.
However, the good part is that no one knows when you mess up. Once in a while you can leave things out as long as you keep going with talking. Just don't let the air go dead. And make sure you have a bottle of water nearby because when talking nonstop for an entire period, including stoppages in play, you'll need it.
It's much easier when I get to work with one of the other announcers "Slapshot Steve" Miller or Jim "The Beast" Beason, since we can just go back and forth with one calling the game a while, then the other, giving time to grab a drink, catch our breath, and just take a quick breather.
Road trips are usually good too. We eat really well, with a trip to Olive Garden one night, Applebee's another, and a lot of Hometown Buffets in between.
On the bus, one of the guys will throw in a movie, or we'll play some euchre, or I'll just put some music on and read or see what's out the window. Just make sure you can sleep on a bus and that you don't mind sharing a room with either the bus driver or the trainer (they're both great guys).
Best of all, it's all paid for by the team. The bad news is that I get no other compensation than free games and free roadtrips. But I'll take it, as it's something I enjoy doing. Last year I went to Santa Fe, N.M., and Frisco, Texas, along with the trip to Texarkana. This year I've already been to Minnesota and will get to go to St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.
If all goes as I hope it will, the Wichita Falls job will be a stepping stone to the AHL. I sent my resume to Cleveland's new team, set to begin play next fall.

PH: Any funny stories about the job?
Drew: We had the lights go out on us at an arena during a game last year. The Wildcats were going up against eventual NAHL Champs (for the third year in a row), the Texas Tornado down in Frisco.
Things are going smoothly until about 3 minutes into the third when suddenly, BAM! Out go all the lights. Steve and I were announcing the game and we had no idea if we were still on the air or not until finally the board operator at the station back in Wichita Falls came on and said yes, we're still on.
The power came back quickly, but it took a good 10 or 15 minutes for the lights to slowly power back up. Even worse, we couldn't take any commercial breaks as they all were pre-set by the station. Never before had we ever had so many scoring and penalty recaps in a 10-minute span than we had during this delay. Eventually, the lights came back on and the game finished up without any further problems.
The Tornado won the game as their dominance over the Wildcats continues.

Ten questions with a Wicked Bruins Fan

It's my pleasure to introduce the brains behind the popular Wicked Bruins Fan blog, Jaclyn D. Like any good hockey fan, she has a nickname -- Jaci and it’s pronounced Jackie.
Jaci, who is wise beyond her 24 years, is a woman of many talents. She's a Webmaster/site designer, a student, a caregiver to her grandmother and, in the near future, will be managing an eBay business. She's a pretty talented photographer, too.
Living in Cambridge, Mass., it's very easy for her to keep Bruins Nation up to date on the Black and Gold.

Puckhound: Why hockey and the Bruins?
Jaci: I’ve always joked that there must be some hockey DNA that runs in my family. My mother and her brothers were hockey fans back when the Bruins were Stanley Cup Champions, and my cousins played hockey growing up.
Hockey is the greatest sport in the world. I can’t say enough good things about the sport and why I love it because I’m always coming up with new reasons.
As for the Bruins, I really think it’s all about the history and location. If I didn’t live 15 minutes outside of Boston and in another hockey city, I might be rooting for another team.

PH: When did you attend your first Bruins game?
Jaci: I attended my first NHL game on Sept. 21, 1996, when I was 14 years old. It was a preseason game against the Chicago Blackhawks and the tickets were free, courtesy of a friend whose company had season tickets. The seats were in loge 6 and a handful of rows off the ice.
The only things I can remember from the game, other than the date and opponent, is what it felt like walking from the concourse out to the seats and seeing the ice for the first time.
I can’t tell you which players played or what the score was or anything else from that night, other than a passion was born.

PH: Who's your favorite Bruins players today and of all time?
Jaci: My current favorite Bruins players are forward Brad Boyes, and defensemen Andrew Alberts and Brad Stuart. My favorite Bruin of all time is center Adam Oates, with honorable mention going to center Joe Thornton and defenseman Nick Boynton.

PH: What's your best Bruins memory?
Jaci: There are so many, I have no idea how I’m going to pick one! At first I thought it was when the Bruins advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 1999. I was at Game 6 when Thornton scored the game-winner to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes and clinch the series.
Next, I was going to say it was the string of events that started after the Bruins lost in the second round to the Buffalo Sabres. I went to the AHL playoffs in Providence and was at the game when the Providence Bruins won the Calder Cup Championship.
That same year, I attended the NHL Entry Draft in Boston (editor’s note: Puckhound was there, too) when Nick Boynton was drafted. I was sitting there with the program on my lap, all ready to write down the Bruins 21st pick’s name, when I recognized it.
I remembered Boynton from the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, and exclaimed to my mother, "The Capitals drafted him in 1997! He must’ve re-entered the draft!"
I was so excited because it was at that moment that I realized I had some hockey knowledge. (The reason I knew this was when Oates was traded, I became a Washington Capitals fan by trade for the rest of the season, and during the 1997 Draft, I kept track of both the Bruins’ and Capitals’ picks.)
Some more recent memories were attending three Bruins games in a row in three different cities. I went to back-to-back road games in San Jose (on a Friday) and Los Angeles (on a Saturday) in March 2003, and they turned out to be the games Mike O’Connell made his coaching debut after he fired Robbie Ftorek. I flew back to Boston on Sunday, and attended the next home game on Monday night. It was against the Toronto Maple Leafs. I won a raffle that allowed me to be the bench assistant during warm-ups and gave me two free tickets in the promenade level.
Then, in 2004, at a Lightning game, I was selected to compete in the Lucky Laptop contest. I wasn’t the contestant who got to choose which box, so I stood there enjoying the moment while the other contestant picked the gold box. The laptop turned out to be under the black box that I was standing at and I won a laptop! It’s the same laptop that I am typing on right now.

PH: What's been the biggest story in your time as a Bruins fan?
Jaci: I would have to say the Joe Thornton trade. I didn’t think anything could top Adam Oates being traded from my young fan perspective, but the Thornton trade was both the biggest story and the biggest shock.

PH: How did you get started with your Web site/blog?
Jaci: I started writing about going to Bruins games in my online diary. Hockey eventually took it over, so I tried to start a blog on AOL, but it never really took off and I preferred a sense of anonymity.
My official start came over at soveryobsessed.com in late 2003, as a co-contributor to the Web site. I had my own blog and photo gallery over there. I decided to branch off and make my own Web site (nickariffic.com) in 2004, just before the lockout. That was bad timing, but I kept up with the Providence Bruins during the lockout.
In the summer of 2005, I was getting tired of the domain name. I wanted something team-oriented and easy to remember. I came up with a few different domain names late one summer night, and wickedbruinsfan.com was born with the first post published on July 28th, 2005, four days after the last post on nickariffic.com.
It was the perfect timing for a fresh start as the lockout ended a week before that.

PH: Between attending practices, taking pictures and posting them, how much time do you put into the blog on a weekly basis?
Jaci: It really depends on the week. If there’s a lot of things going on with the Bruins, there are times my laptop never shuts down. On practice days, my routine is I’ll go to practice, come home and immediately upload the photos to edit them. I generally like to get the photos up on the same day if I can, or as soon as possible if it’s from a game.
Of course, that entire process doesn’t include writing and posting on the blog. There are times when I’m working on a post and I suddenly look at the clock, and it’s an hour or two later. I guess you could say I put too much time to count into the blog and photo gallery during the season.
It’s the main focus and gets more attention than family and other things sometimes.

PH: Are you surprised by its success?
Jaci: I am and I think it’s because I never expected it to be what it is today. I never expected to have photos published in an OHL All-Star program or be linked on NHL.com or receive e-mails from hockey players with requests for pictures.
I considered it as a hobby where I could write about something I was passionate about and share my own views from games, practices, take some pictures and interact with other Bruins fans.
I never thought I would have had close to 50,000 page views, averaging over 1,000 page views a day, and an average of 200 visitors a day for the month of September. It seems crazy to me, but that’s exactly who I do it for.
I do it for the fans, so its success is only measured by all of the fans who visit the Web site.

PH: Is it odd for a woman to have a hockey-related Web site/blog?
Jaci: I don’t think it’s that odd for a woman to have a hockey-related site/blog, but I do think it’s uncommon for a woman to have a hockey-related site/blog that doesn’t constantly talk about how cute the players are.
If a woman wants to focus on how cute players are, then more power to them. I prefer my site be taken seriously and have some integrity.
I recognize that I am a woman who loves a sport men play, and I am also aware that I am in the minority, but it’s based on how I want my site and blog to be perceived. There’s a time and place for girl talk.

PH: What sites/blog do you visit?
Jaci: My homepage is set to the Bruins section on the HF Boards, so that’s the first thing I see when I sign on. There are a few sites that I visit every few hours, which are mostly Bruins-oriented like the media sites (the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald and the New England Hockey Journal, but especially the blogs.
A few of my bookmarks that I check on a fairly regular basis include your blog, of course (editor’s note: Good answer!), Kukla’s Korner, Boston Rinkrats, Behind the Jersey, Vancouver Canucks Op Ed, James Mirtle's blog, Jes Globez’s Hockey Rants, The Ice Block, Canucks Hockey Blog, Sharkspage, Boltsmag and The Bruins Report.
I check a lot of other blogs when I have more free time.

Ten questions with Steve Nash

Here's the first-ever installment of an exclusive Hound Central feature: Ten questions with . . . .

In today's opener, we learn not just a little, but a lot about Steve Nash, 38, a very talented artist specializing in goalie mask airbrushing for EYECANDYAIR in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada. Trust me, this guy does some amazing work.

A special thanks goes out to Stephanie Pasquariello, who does customer relations for EYECANDYAIR. She was very instrumental in making this happen.

So, here it goes:

Puckhound: Who's your favorite team?
Steve Nash: Actually, I don't really have a favourite team. I've always rooted for the underdog, but any Original Six teams do always pique my interest.

PH: Who are your favorite players?
SN: All time faves are Steve Y (forward), Borje Salming (defense) and Patrick Roy (goalie)

PH: What's the best part of hockey?
SN: Definitely, the speed of the game

PH: Your favorite memory of hockey?
SN: My fiancée, Steph, and I won a trip to watch Game 5 -- Toronto vs. Carolina in the 2002 Conference Finals. It was a 16-hour bus ride with very loud hyped-up Leafs fans! It was CuJo's last season in Toronto (Steph is a huge fan!) and we won that game 1-0 with a Darcy Tucker goal. We even sat 12th row, centre ice. It made it well worth the trek.

PH: Do you, or did you ever, play hockey?
SN: I haven't for over a year and a half due to a fairly serious injury and then I really got into my art hardcore, so I've pretty much retired! I started playing goalie when I was 5 or 6 on the frozen lakes of Northern Ontario, coached by my dad. I played right from squirt to AAA, then graduated to men's league and the odd rent-a-goalie stint.

PH: What got you started in your job?
SN: I have always had an interest in art my whole life. I started drawing at a very young age -- mostly pencil or charcoal (examples here and here) but I never imagined that I would end up making a living with my art.

I was in the hunt to purchase a new goalie mask and wanted something other than a plain black or white one, but the factory paint jobs were just not my style. So I decided to get a used mask and try painting my own design. It was a green beastly monster and actually turned out not too bad for being completely painted by hand. I got a lot of attention with that mask and other goalies started approaching me, so I decided to try my hand at airbrushing.

My very first design was a Toronto Felix Potvin (like many other artists Im sure!). Like any of the art I had done in the past, I had no intention of even charging the guy for it, but he insisted on paying for it.

I also had a lot of support from a good friend of mine, Rod Laforme, who opened the right doors for me to get a few retail connections, such as the store he was working at then, Goalie Heaven, and the store he currently manages, The Goalie Crease. It has snowballed from there over the years and most of my business now comes from word of mouth.

PH: How long is the turnaround in making a mask?
SN: Sometimes the concept takes a while; that all depends on the customer. Some people have no idea what they want on their mask -- they just know they want my art, sometimes these particular projects take months to finalize.

If a goalie has a good idea of what they want or just allows me the freedom to run with my creativity, then from prep to clearcoat even the most intricate and detailed projects only take about 3-4 days at most.

PH: Who has your favorite NHL mask?
SN: My all-time favourite old school mask was worn by Mike Palmateer. It was his Toronto mask . . . the design is a classic! Modern day, I have to be completely biased and say Tim Thomas of Boston Bruins. He is wearing a Sportmask Mage (not a traditional goalie mask) and the new "Beware of Bear" mask I just painted for him for the 06/07 season is killer!

PH: What's the favorite mask you've painted?
SN: This is a hard one, because there are a few masks I really love. But I have to say overall it would be the Atomic Metallica Mask. I've always been a huge fan of Metallica and the customer entrusted me with complete and total freedom of this design. It is going to be hard to top this mask off in my books.

A close second would be my Jimi Hendrix Tribute Purple Haze. As you can see I really enjoy rendering portrait and tribute themed goalie masks.

PH: Who's taking home Lord Stanley's Cup this season?
SN: That is a very tough question! With the new NHL, it really is a crap shoot. There were some excellent teams last season -- Carolina, Buffalo, Nashville. Although I'm not a fan of the team, I'd have to say Buffalo impressed me the most with their speed and agility, awesome coach with Lindy Ruff and a great rookie goalie with Ryan Miller. So, Buffalo it is.