Colorado Avalanche: The Ins and Outs of Being a Female Hockey Fan

A female Colorado Avalanche fan doesn’t understand why no one questions her about her favorite team.

The Colorado Avalanche are my team. I love to talk hockey, and I have a couple second-tier favorite teams (Washington Capitals, Ottawa Senators). However, I’m an Avs fan through and through.

Not too long ago, a male sports fan sent out a tweet about whether female sports fans were ever dismissed for their opinions. The resounding answer was “Yes.” Woman after woman told stories that pretty much relied on the same theme — when they expressed their fandom, male fans would quiz them. Often these quizzes came in the form of “Name five players on that team.”

I’ve been involved in the reverse. I challenged a Denver Post peddler to name one Colorado Avalanche player if he wanted me to buy the newspaper for its sports coverage. When he came up with “Peter Forsberg,” I told him it needed to be a current player. He was unable to do so, and I walked away without a subscription.

However, I dream about being quizzed. One woman detailed a scenario in which she asked the bartender to turn the TV to a hockey game, and he stated he’d only do so if she could, you guessed it, “name five players on the team.”

I’ve walked into a local sports bar after clothes shopping — with copious shopping bags in hand –and asked the bartender to change the television to “any hockey game.” When asked which one, I remarked that I didn’t care because the Avs weren’t playing. I got the NHL Network highlights, which was good enough because this was a football-centric bar.

But why-oh-why didn’t the bartender, or other male hockey fans, challenge me? To be clear, you don’t have to worry about challenging me in the comments section — that’s happened plenty of times. I don’t get challenged on Twitter so much as dismissed — though Tom Hunter of Mile High Hockey “helps” me via DMs every now and again. (For the record, Conor Timmins is NOT suffering from concussion syndrome, and I’m too relieved to fret about Hunter’s conveyance of the news.)

But… I dream about a man asking me in person to name five players on the Colorado Avalanche. Imagine! I could move down the lines, adding anecdotes and opinions along the way:

“The first line consists of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog. MacKinnon — who doesn’t like to be called MacK — and Rantanen had career seasons. Landeskog’s was his second-best, after the Golden Why Not Us year. Now, the second most consistent line was the checking line consisting of ‘Long Beach Native’ Matt Nieto, Carl Soderberg and Blake Comeau, now of the Dallas Stars…”

Somewhere along the lines I’d transition to prospects:

“Right now our most promising prospect who’s actually signed with the team is Conor Timmins, who is not suffering from concussion syndrome, but that upper ankle sprain is worrisome. Well, Timmins isn’t going to win any skating contests, but if he can score at even a quarter of the rate he did at major juniors…”

I might even get a little pugnacious and challenge, “Can you name all seven pieces we received in the Matt Duchene trade?”

A few years ago, I did get the question, “Who’s your favorite player?” like I’m a kid. I’m prepared even for that question now:

“All around, my favorite player is Erik Johnson. He’s the cornerstone of the Avs’ defense. However, if we’re talking favorite rookie, I’m going with Tyson Jost. On any given night, the Colorado Avalanche suited up four or five rookies last ceiling. I just think Jost’s ceiling is the highest. Now, if the Avs are down by one or two late in the third period, I’m all for playing Mr. Clutch, Tyson Barrie. On the power play, he’s Swiss cheese, though, and I prefer Mr. Cool-as-a-Cucumber Sam Girard…”

I dream so much about these situations recurring that I’ve even tried to trigger them. For example, on Memorial Day a non-hockey friend of mine and I walked into local hockey bar Sobo. It was the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals. I wasn’t geared up as a hockey fan, though, because my friend and I had just been doing Memorial Day activities.

Nonetheless, I cozied up to the bar and spied a Caps fan. I nodded at him and asked, “Are your boys going to get it done tonight?”

He gave me a serious answer. He was wrong — the Caps lost Game 1 — but he gave me a serious answer.

I tried even harder later. I introduced the topic of hockey in the most vacuous approach, by commenting on players’ hair. The marine-looking dude I was talking to grunted and asked, “Do you think Las Vegas is going to win the Stanley Cup?” I went off on a rant about why Washington’s winning was the better story until the marine acquiesced and changed the topic to football.

More from Mile High Sticking

For a while, I had thought that male sports fans in Colorado were simply more enlightened. I placed credit with the Denver Broncos. I figured that, since Broncos fandom was something of a religion here in Colorado, male sports fans just expected female fans to be conversant in sports.

However, I asked some of my female Avalanche friends if that was their experience. It was not. For the most part, guys who knew them valued their opinions. But random guys did not.

So, why is my experience so different? Well, I think a large part of the reason is my work on this site. Believe it or not, I actually do a lot of research on the Colorado Avalanche for posts here. I retain that knowledge, and I can spout it off whenever. In other words, I’m as ranty in public as I am on this site.

I think a lot of it is my approach, too. I’m the one bringing the topic up, so dudes figure it’s a topic I like and can talk about. And, to be fair, I may have a pretty active resting bitch face.

Finally, it could just be that I don’t notice any condescension. I’m getting to talk hockey, so I don’t care if the dude is taking me seriously or not. In fact, more often than not, I go into so much detail, that the male fan backs off and states, “I’m really more into football.”

I’ve gotten so used to that situation that, recently, when I started talking about going to the Colorado Avalanche’s prospect development camp, the male fan went straight to Shane Bowers. I perked up, thinking, “Finally! An in-depth conversation!” He may well have been challenging me, but I didn’t care — I had opinions I wanted to share.

How about it, though, dear reader? Would you like me to name five players on the Colorado Avalanche or tell you who my favorite is? Please? I’ve been studying for this pop quiz for some time.