I moved from Las Vegas to New York when I was young. I grew up loving everything about sports to not having anything in NV. Me and my Dad bought seats from Giants stadium and pulled them out every Sunday for game day, just to get that vibe. But since my dad is an old school New Yorker, he never wanted to root for a California team lol.
I got older, joined the army, blah blah blah. I realized something was still missing in my life: sports. I was always a hockey fan, but never followed it or went to the games... tickets for MSG to watch the Rangers are $150 for nosebleeds during the season, so hockey was more so a rich man's thing back there. I was never from a wealthy family by any means. Now that I had money, I began playing hockey & following hockey. Just having fun learning to skate at the ice rink near me. Then everyone at the rink started getting hyped about the playoffs. A lot of them followed the Ducks. I liked the Disney association with the Ducks, so that was a big part of me wanting to follow them over the Kings or Sharks or Coyotes. I already hated the Kings because of 2014, so I already had that in common with Ducks fans. Plus back in NY we have a baseball team called the LI Ducks, so it was a connection to home. Plus two of my favorite movies from my childhood are The Mighty Ducks & Angels in the Outfield.
One day I looked up Ducks tickets online, just for the hell of it, and got 2 tickets to the Stanley Cup WCF Game 2 (the triple OT game) for $110 a piece... cheaper than I'd ever see a Rangers ticket for! I purchased a ticket for me and my Dad so we could go, like the good old days.
The intensity, the epicness. Everything about the game. It was amazing. You can say I was hooked. Unfortunately, that summer I moved back to NY. Over the last 2 years, the Ducks have creeped up into my #1 team because I love the fact that it is more of a family team. The Rangers feel so corporate. The Ducks feel like a fun, more of a small market team. I've tried to go to the Rangers/Ducks game every year at MSG since I've been back in NY... and I wear my Ducks jersey to it lol