It’s easy to become a hockey fan for an odd reason. When I was a kid, our local team, the Caps, was the laughingstock of the league. A buddy of mine’s Dad grew up in New York, and he loved hockey and would drag his son to lots of games. Naturally his son wanted company, so I was introduced to a game I knew nothing about and to this day have never actually played. So off we went to Caps games and, due to the small crowd, it somehow felt intimate and I fell in love with a team of lovable losers. I became a Caps fan and suffered through season after season of disappointment. Just when I was ready to give up on them, Alex Ovechkin made a visit to my kid’s school and picked out a shy kid to whom to give an autographed puck. Well my faith was restored and my son was now a Caps (and Ovechkin) fan for life. When they finally won the cup, I was as happy as I have ever been for one of my teams to be champs. Go Caps!