This year marks the first that I am excited about the beginning of an National Hockey League (NHL) season.

Over the past several years, I would take a limited interest in hockey when the playoffs rolled around in May and June. Then, after the Stanley Cup Finals, I would forget about hockey until the following year’s postseason.

Well, this year is different. Last spring, I caught the fever of the NHL playoffs and have yet to shake it.

I have not allowed hockey to regress into the depths of my sports followings the way I have in years past.

Watching the excitement, passion and intensity of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year, I became a hockey fan. While I still have so much to learn about it, I am eager to immerse myself in a sport that I used to disregard completely.

Taking an interest in the NHL has forced me to pick a favorite team. When faced with this decision, I asked myself, “Which team did I enjoy watching the most in the playoffs?”

The answer: the Los Angeles Kings.

While this may sound as though I am just hopping on the bandwagon of the 2014 Stanley Cup Champions, that characterization is not true.

As I watched more games, I became a bigger fan. Since the Kings made it all the way to the finals, I was exposed to them more than almost any other team.

Seeing the Kings come back from deficit after deficit in the early rounds of the playoffs sparked my interest in them, as their postseason began to take the shape of a fairytale in which the underdogs continuously snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

I began to root for the Kings. It only seems right that my favorite team is the team that I rooted for when I first took an interest in the sport.

Watching the Kings compete in their epic battle with the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference Finals really drew me in. The high level that the two franchises played at really captivated me by demonstrating that hockey is an exciting and invigorating sport.

Another reason for my heightened interest in the NHL was when I was assigned to write about it during my summer internship. While working for TheCelebrityCafe.com, I reported on several sports, including hockey. This forced me to follow the race to the Stanley Cup and learn about the teams and the players.

After spending most of my life claiming that I would never get into hockey, I am finally becoming a fan.

I guess the next sport for me to branch out into is soccer. But not so fast; for me, getting excited about soccer is still a long way off. Just be glad I have expanded my horizons to the NHL.

To contact the Ionian’s Ian Sacks, e-mail him at [email protected]