An Introduction

First off, hello, and thank you for reading my posts! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lance. I grew up in sunny Southern California and I'm currently living in Boston, where I am majoring in Audio Production at Emerson College. I was introduced to the game of hockey when I was five years old, when my dad's company got season tickets for a brand new hockey team that came to Orange County: the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. I immediately loved the sport and I have been a Ducks fan since.

I currently play for my school’s club hockey team, the Emerson College Lions. Are we good? Not really, but we’re a growing program that just started two years ago, and we’re an arts and communications school for Pete’s sake. Am I good? Not really, but I’m having the time of my life playing, and in my next post, you’ll see how hockey has affected my life. Anyways, I play forward: mostly right wing and occasionally center. Last semester, our goalie left to study abroad, so I got to play a semester in net, which was awesome.

Although I’m about as far away from Anaheim as you can get while staying in the US, I still love my Ducks. I created and maintain a group on facebook that is currently the largest group for Ducks fans. I check up on my hockey news and rumors daily, and I watch as many games on TV as I can. All my friends in school know that I’m a big Ducks fan. I even “Ducked Out” my dorm room last year. I thought I had pictures but I don't. That's unfortunate.

If you asked me who my favorite Duck of all time is, I wouldn’t know what to say. I grew up idolizing Paul Kariya. His heroics in Game 6 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals still give me chills.

However, as he has gone his separate way, I found a new favorite: Andy McDonald. I love his speed and his playmaking ability. People say that he was only good when put on a line with Teemu Selanne, and I hope he can prove them all wrong, even now that he’s been traded to the St. Louis Blues. The news of that trade devastated me. While I was getting back into the game of hockey playing for my school, it was McDonald who I looked up to and tried to model my game after. My favorite current Ducks are Ryan Getzlaf and Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

So you may be wondering why I chose the blogger name Rufio19. For Halloween a couple years ago, I dressed up as Rufio (yup, the one from Hook), and at my hockey game the following week, the fans started the Rufio chant every time I took a shift.
The nickname caught on in the locker room and with my friends. 19 is for the number I wear on my team, which I chose in honor of former Duck Andy McDonald.

Photo Credits of all pictures with me in them: JLW