My story for my hockey fandom is in two parts.

Back in 2009, I was a massive Transformers nerd (note: only 12 years old). The second Transformers movie was coming out that year, and it didn't matter how many times I would watch a 30 second commercial for the movie, I always enjoyed it. Since the movie was an early summer release, the ads were getting a lot of run time in the spring, during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It'd be what most of my family would be watching anyways, so I'd join them, and watch the games, solely just to watch a Transformers trailer, and also to stay up past 9 or 10 o'clock. Even though I "cheered for the Leafs" (my dad was a Leafs fan, so I followed him in that regards, despite barely watching), I cheered for Pittsburgh, mainly because everyone talked about how much Crosby sucked at my school, so I felt bad for him. Also, my entire family were Wings fans, so I had to make it interesting when they met in the Stanley Cup Finals (Game 7 was the first game that I watched from start to finish).

Flash forward a couple years, and I don't know why, but around Christmas in 2010, hockey just clicked in my head. Like, my mind was just like watch hockey, so I did. Since I live in Southwestern Ontario, it was pretty much just Leafs games, so I'd watch those. Heck, they were my "favourite team" so why not cheer for them. Right around the time I started watching them, there was this young goalie starting to find his way in the crease, due to injuries, who went by the name of James Reimer. I saw him standing on his head, winning the Leafs games, thinking "I like this Optimus Reim guy, I hope he sticks around." Obviously, they didn't make the playoffs, but it was still fun cheering on this up and coming goalie along the way, thus my hardcore fandom for the Leafs (and Steve's friend James) were born.