Welcome to The Puck Review!

A Little Background

My upbringing is pretty similar to that of the average hockey fan. I grew up playing hockey, I watched hockey on television (mostly the Boston Bruins because my dad is from the North Shore and naturally a hometown fan), and I even spent a significant amount of my time off the ice playing street hockey outside, and knee/floor hockey in my parent’s basement (which often turned into wrestling more than anything else).

However, growing up it took me a while to really get into the world of hockey outside of the Boston Bruins or my own experience on the ice. I did not have much of a feel for players on opposing teams; who played what position, which players were having a good season, etc. I always knew the names of players and coaches, mostly from either NHL video games or when the team visited Boston and I heard Jack Edwards bellowing out their names during live action.

For those who want a reference, my first memory of watching the game at the pro level is the night Ray Bourque finally got a chance to lift the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche back in 2001, after falling short in 20-plus seasons with the Bruins.

It can be a wildly consuming task to try and take on the entire hockey world all at once. After extensive research, and pouring over countless hours of highlight videos and information, I began to develop a better understanding of players across the continent and even into Europe.

I am not sure if its a vice or a virtue, but I can be somewhat of a perfectionist. And this quality almost consumed me at times when I wanted to know everything about every single player. I had to know who the top journalists were and what they were saying about the team they covered. If I couldn’t remember a coach’s name or who was the star defenseman was on a team then I would panic, knowing that I had read about them only a few days ago.

The fact of the matter is that I am someone who grew up playing and watching hockey and I still struggled to keep up with it all sometimes.

So I thought to myself, “If someone who has grown up with hockey still has a hard time keeping up with the league, it must be an absolute overload for someone who is just getting started.”

Thus, I began brainstorming ways to make the game less complicated; to create a website that makes accessing information about the National Hockey League, and the sport in general, less daunting.

What did I come up with? The Puck Review.

What is The Puck Review?

Through my own research, and my own trial-and-error, I have discovered many of the best places to find quality hockey journalism, podcasts, books and more. The purpose of this site, broadly, will be to review different forms of media, and recommend what content is best for each individual taste.

One thing I have learned through my five-plus years of interacting with the hockey community on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, is that all hockey fans are different. Some want to hear stories directly from the players, others want an analytical break down of the game from professionals watching the game up above. Not everyone likes to hear the raunchy stories and gory details that often go untold by the main-stream hockey media. Other people eat that kind of stuff up.

Each fan is different, and I have created a site tailored to the needs of various types of hockey fans.

Just getting into the game? Perfect. The NHL is in a time of expansion that has seen the Vegas Golden Knights, the first team to join the league in 17 years, advance to the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season. In the summer of 2017, many questioned how much success a team would have in the middle of the desert. To some (don’t tell a Golden Knights fan this) Vegas wasn’t seen as a city that had the population capable of supporting a professional sports franchise, let alone pro hockey team of all things.

Well, fast forward to June 2018 and you’ll hardly find a soul that dares question the passion of the Golden Knights’ fan base. Vegas has pooled interest from across all different backgrounds. From Canadian transplants to Nevada natives, there is not one clear-cut definition of a Vegas Golden Knights’ fan. For many, it is their first chance to support a professional sport in their city, and they got into hockey without knowing much about the sport at all.

That is where I believe The Puck Review fits perfectly.

Whether you’ve been a loyal fan of hockey since day one, or you are just now coming to appreciate the beauty of this great game, the goal of this site is to grow into a place where anyone can come to read reviews of the best hockey info out there, so they know where to go right away to get all the latest on their favorite team or player.

Along with reviews, I will tie in my own experiences in the hockey world. I want this site to be informative, but also bring in blog-esque qualities from my own journey with the game that is near and dear to my heart.

I look forward to getting started, I hope you all enjoy!