Thursday 23 September 2010

The Hockey News Internship

OK so, for those of you who don't know, the whole purpose of this blog is to get used to writing about hockey, mainly for the purpose of sending it to The Hockey News as I try and get an internship with them. About that...

So I sent Jason Kay (the editor of THN) an email last week and he responded by saying he would pass along my email to Edward Fraser. About a half hour later there was an email in my inbox that simply read:

Hey Tim. Glad to hear you’ll be joining the team. What exact date did you want to start and for how long?

So there you have it; the newest member of The Hockey News is yours truly.

I know its been a while since I posted anything, the crappy internet service at my school combined with all the work I have to get done for Thesis is making it rather difficult to find time to work on this. I still need to raise my GPA slightly (I have a 2.47 and need a 2.5) in order to be allowed to do this internship next semester. Its not much but I will be making absolutely sure there is nothing that will get in my way of this opportunity.

So, anyone who doesn't know the whole story, here is what happened. Lou Lamoriello, the GM of the New Jersey Devils, decided to show appreciation to the season ticket holders by offering prizes a few years ago. One of them was a trip to see a hockey game at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, which my mom won on the day of my 20th birthday. any one who knows me well would know that the one thing I have always wanted to do was see an Olympic hockey game in Canada, and here I am being handed this opportunity by a man whose purpose in life seemed to be to frustrate the hell out of Philadelphia Flyers fans.

So, after a year of trying to figure out what games we (my mom, dad, and brother Nick) wanted to go to, what other events to see, and preparing for a very cold week (which never came, seriously, Vancouver in the winter was nicer than Mass in March), there I am at the Olympics. We saw curling the first day, which was surprisingly entertaining by the way, then on the second day the hockey games started. The first game was Russia vs the Czech Republic, which to most was highlighted by Alex Ovechkin obliterating Jaromir Jagr. That was nothing compared to what happened during the fist intermission.

There I am, standing around just enjoying the atmosphere when I look to my left  and, after a double take, notice that Ken Campbell is standing right next me me. Now I saw plenty of famous people at these games, hell the pairs figure skating gold medalists stayed in the hotel room right next to me, and he is the one person I went and talked to. There was on way I was going to blow this chance to meet an established writer and get my name in the inner circle of the hockey world. I found out in an article he write a few days later that the only reason he was there was because one of his childhood friends just happened to be working the scoreboard that game.

Anyway, we're talking about hockey and I mention that I am looking for an internship and my dream job is to work for The Hockey News. He tells me to get in touch with Jason Kay and ask him about it. I don't think I have ever put more though into anything as I did in the letter I sent him, I must have revised it 10 times at least. I hear back from him and, as if that wasn't good enough, he asked me to send him some sample articles, which I did as soon as I got back to school (after watching the gold medal game of course). Fast forward a week or two to Spring Break.

I was expecting this, but it was still a shock when Jason Kay gave me a call one day. We talked for about 15 minutes; about the Olympics, my background in hockey, and what I would be doing if I happened to get this internship with them. He told me to get in contact with him again in the fall and that brings us to right now. I really wish I could describe to you all what this feels like, but those words just haven't been invented yet. Somehow, wicked stoked just doesn't quite cover it.

On a completely unrelated note, the Minnesota Wild's sellout streak has come to an end. Does this strike anyone else as odd? Do preseason games really count for that statistic? I don't think the streak should be stopped because of a meaningless exhibition game. Minnesota may be the State of Hockey, but I think Wild fans may have something better to do on a Wednesday night than watch a bunch a skaters who may not even be on the roster once the season begins and the games actually mean something. If they fail to sellout then, by all mean the streak is over, but for now one of the most passionate fanbases in all of sports still has a sellout streak of 409 games and counting.

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