How it starts…
I’m the administrator for a message board that serves as the online community for an influential punk record label. I was surprised during the 2008-09 Stanley Cup Playoffs (and to a lesser extent, during seasons past) about the amount of interest that was shown towards the sport of hockey. The punk community is one that typically shuns sports, though it appeared that hockey wasn’t a taboo.

This was good news for me, of course – As a hockey fan since the age of 9 and part of the punk culture since not too long after that, this worked out perfectly. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how many other examples (that I knew about but never pieced together) there were where hockey and punk rock intersected – Ben Weasel (of Screeching Weasel/The Riverdales fame) publishing the hockey-zine Blood on the Ice(and a song by the same name), hockey-themed songs by punk bands like The Hextalls (whose name comes from retired hockey goaltender Ron Hextall), Dropkick Murphies, Propagandhi, The Hanson Brothers (not to be confused with Hanson), Goldfinger, and a whole slew of others. And, even though it may be a stretch, this guy sure thinks there’s a strange similarity between hockey and punk that forms a deep connection between the two.

So the joke was inevitably made, that this message board with all of us kids who could care less about Monday Night Football but couldn’t stop talking about Hockey Night in Canada and the Stanley Cup, should start a seperate message board for others out there like us. The idea of HockeyPunx was born, and it started to seem less like a joke and more like a good idea (but we assure you, we use the term “punx” as opposed to “punks” purely tongue-in-cheek!). And as it became more of a good idea, the thought came that maybe HockeyPunx could be more than a message board… maybe a larger community of user-contributed news, opinions, analysis, etc.

Look, we have no delusions, we’re not going to be the most recognized name in hockey publications, but with any luck, we will be fun. If even just stupid fun.

My name is jer, and I run this ship.

Where you come in…
Look, I’m not doing this alone! You’re a part of this community too. So why not pitch in?

• Sign up for our message board and make some friends
• Find out how you can write news/opinions/etc for our blog/main page
• Give us suggestions and ideas for the site
• We know you have a punk rock friend who likes hockey. Tell them about us.
• At the bottom of every page/post, there’s a drop down box that lets you easily share our articles on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and other social networking sites. If you see something you like, please share it. it only takes seconds!
• Contact us (for whatever reason)
• Be creative. Find some other ways to help out.