Particularly if you're a fan of a team in a different city/state/province/country/continent than the one where your favorite team is located.

I'll post my own story as an example (there's some backstory about hockey generally, too, not just my favorite team, so I hope it's not too long-winded).

I was born and raised near the shores of the Persian Gulf and ice rinks were barely existent. Like most countries in the world, soccer was the reigning monarch in terms of fandom, so I used to follow that sport like everyone else. Then the PlayStation became a thing and we used to get bootleg games for $1-2 so we'd buy a pack of random games, one of which turned out to be NHL Faceoff 99. I was probably the only kid who didn't think

It was a fun video game that I played for a number of years, but I didn't think of it any further (there was no way to watch hockey on TV or go to games, save for Canadian expats in Bahrain).

I even did English school in Toronto for a summer but hockey wasn't on my radar at all at that point.

Years later, I'm fortunate to go to the U.S. for college, and I end up going to Colorado. Most of my friends there were other Saudis who were really into the local NBA team so we went to basketball games. That's how I discovered that the basketball arena also housed a hockey team, and I asked a friend to go to a couple of games with me.

This was the second ever hockey game that I've ever been to.

I was hooked on the Avs ever since and hockey became my favorite sport. I don't live in Colorado anymore unfortunately but I visit often and I hope to move back. I try to catch the Avs whenever they come to my area in the hope that they don't get shellacked.

When I was around 8 or 9 my father took me to a farm to help him shoe several horses. He asked if I could feed some of the cattle and donkeys that were also on the farm. As I was collecting food a donkey kicked me in the head and knocked me unconscious. The rancher that I was helping around his farm found me and carried to his house. I had no idea who he was at the time. His house was nice and the first picture I saw was a hockey player in a blue uniform with what I thought at the time was an angel wing. I thought it was a sign from God. My father came rushing in and saw that I was ok. He thanked the rancher, my angel who had saved me. I later found out that angel was Brian Sutter. Been a Blues fan ever since.

When I was around 8 or 9 my father took me to a farm to help him shoe several horses. He asked if I could feed some of the cattle and donkeys that were also on the farm. As I was collecting food a donkey kicked me in the head and knocked me unconscious. The rancher that I was helping around his farm found me and carried to his house. I had no idea who he was at the time. His house was nice and the first picture I saw was a hockey player in a blue uniform with what I thought at the time was an angel wing. I thought it was a sign from God. My father came rushing in and saw that I was ok. He thanked the rancher, my angel who had saved me. I later found out that angel was Brian Sutter. Been a Blues fan ever since.
- Streit2ThePoint

this is a beautiful story, stranger.