My name is Dave and I am from Bristol, England. I am a huge hockey addict and Philadelphia Flyers fan.
I have a number of favourite players which includes Simon Gagne, John LeClair, Scottie Upshall, Matt Duchene, Jordan Eberle and Brayden Schenn.
My love for the Flyers came around the 1997 season (not long after the hammering from the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Final) but my admiration for left-winger Simon Gagne did not come until he lit the lamp with a OT GWG in Game 6 of the 2004 Conference Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The likes of Eric Lindros, John LeClair, Mikael Renberg, Eric Desjardins and Mark Recchi et al enticed me into the exciting organization that is the Flyers, and the rest, as they say, is history.
My First NHL game: Saturday November 17th 2007 - Ottawa Senators @ Toronto Maple Leafs. Leafs won 3-0.
My First Flyers game: Friday November 24th 2007 - Philadelphia Flyers @ Ottawa Senators. Flyers won 4-3.
I lived in Toronto, Canada for almost a year in 2009 which luckily enabled me to see many more live games. In total, I've seen the Flyers play in Ottawa, Boston, Philadelphia (five times), Buffalo and Toronto for a combined 9 games.
I also follow and support my local team, Bristol Pitbulls, who currently play in the ENIHL South 1 (English National Ice Hockey League). Unfortunately, hockey in Britain isn't as well documented as say in Canada and the States, with football (soccer) dominating the headlines here.
Getting onto cards, I am by no means a big 'high end' collector. I even get excited when I receive a base or an insert, but I am trying to build a nice set of Simon Gagne.
I collected NHL cards back in 2000, 1995/96 Upper Deck Collectors Choice to be exact (almost complete), but it was not until the Spring of 2010 when I decided to really collect cards, and thought it was going to be tough to think what player to collect (as a lot of collectors have more then one PC on the go - and my budget does not stretch that far!), but at the end of the day, it turned out not to be a tough decision at all. I had bought my first card on May 15th 2010 and I have not looked back since. I recently have got into the TTM (through-the-mail) side of collecting and have sent out a couple in the post, but to date, I have not received anything back. For successes, please check in the 'Misc' section of the website.
Although I was a huge hockey fan to begin with and then getting into the collecting side, it has brought me even close to the game.