When did you start watching/following the NHL?

[Plastic Joseph]

Curious of the age of the posters here, what is the earliest NHL you actually watched live (or on TV)

Click to read more...

 

[Golden_Jet]

Curious of the age of the posters here, what is the earliest NHL you actually watched live (or on TV)

Good idea.
Will be interesting to see results

 

[The Podium]

Watched with my dad through the 90s, but really started following on my own during the 2002 playoffs. Leafs losing to Carolina in the ECF was my first of many heartbreaks.

 

[JaegerDice]

1990s, and it's only gotten better and better.

 

[Coffee]

1990s, and it's only gotten better and better.

Are some of the people saying 70’s or earlier lying?

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

1997. Great time to get into the Rangers

Watched them get blasted by Lindros and the Legion of Doom in the ECF

 

[Fourier]

My first real memories of following the hockey go back to about 1965. I quickly became a die-hard Habs fan and remained so until Gretzky came to the Oilers.

 

[Johnny Tomala]

2000s, I was born in 1990, I started following it in my primary school.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

1993

 

[joestevens29]

1990s, and it's only gotten better and better.

Dead puck era was not better than anything

 

[Realgud]

I'd like to say I started watching hockey in 1997 but I was way too young to appreciate what I was watching, but at the same time this is exactly what made me fall in love with the sport and made me start playing it. I probably started to watch it more "seriously" in the early 2000's.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I thought this board was younger. 2000s for me but barely. 2000-2001 season.

 

[dirtydanglez]

Are some of the people saying 70’s or earlier lying?

no, 60 year old people exist.

 

[Jericho111091]

My earliest auditory memory is a call from a game in i think it was 93. "Sandström has it behind the net. Sandstörm sends it up to Robitaille, Robitaille across to Gretzky! He scores!" Or something along those lines

 

[MoneyManny]

First hockey games i actually paid attention to was coincidentally the Habs last stanley cup run in 1993 with ny dad when i was 8 years old.

Didn't start watching it regularly until the 2000s though.

 

[HabsCode]

Oldest memories date back to the Crosby draft. I know for a fact I watched hockey before but have no really memory of it (between 2000 and 2004).

 

[Coffee]

no, 60 year old people exist.

Respect to you, sir

 

[Commander Clueless]

I'll get around to watching it. It's on my list.

 

[banks]

Curious of the age of the posters here, what is the earliest NHL you actually watched live (or on TV)

Earliest I WATCHED hockey was the '80s. I don't remember it much, since I was born in the (early)' 80s. But I know I did watch with my family. It was special, since I wasn't born in a hockey crazy area.

The earliest I FOLLOWED hockey was the '90s. I started following theeafs around the Gilmour Sundin era.

 

[BB79]

Very early 90s. 1990 I'd say the Bruins run to the Final vs Edmonton first got my attention. By 92-93 hockey had overtaken basketball and baseball as my favorite sport. I used to love watching games over the air, WSBK-38 gave us all the road games. Weekend west coast road trips, 10pm start on a Saturday night, staying up late to watch Neely and Bourque..Hartford Whalers on Sportschannel when the Bruins weren't on..great memories.

I think the Celtics "big 3" falling apart helped things along. 80s NBA was the best.

 

[JMCx4]

OP ... Does "70's and earlier" mean 1870s? Just curious, doesn't change my poll response.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

I played hockey around the time the Jets left and got into it just before because all my teammates would talk about the stars in the NHL. I did take hockey seriously for a while until I decided to quit to focus on school. I would have loved to play in the NHL, but my job has gotten me far.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

1993

 

[nergish]

1997-98.

Vancouver radio had a parody song that went: “Canucks suck! They’re never gonna win the Stanley Cup” to the tune of Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping”.

 

[hamzarocks]

Earliest hockey memory is the Habs vs Leafs 2007 game where I think leafs won 6-5 on last day of the season for us.

People seemed to celebrate that win like we won the cup and I didnt understand what was happening so was super stoked

Found out later it was almost enough to make the playoffs as 8th seed but we missed still as NYI beat NJD in OT to push past us by 1 pt and make it in

Watched again in 2009-2010 playoffs after buying NHL slapshot for WII and followed most MTL & VAN games that year.

2010-2011 became a full time leaf fan and used to watch 75-80 games a season on TV from 2011-2014.

Been a F/T fan for ~15 years now