Welcome to "Two for Elbowing"

Thanks for visiting Two for Elbowing. Two for Elbowing is a blog written by Chuq Von Rospach and Laurie Sefton, two long-time hockey fans out here on the left coast.

A bit about our backgrounds. We are season ticket holders with the San Jose Sharks going back to season 1 (back in what George Kingston used to refer to as the Palais du Boeff). We sit three rows off the glass in section 127 of the HP Pavillion (aka San Jose Arena, aka SharkTank) and average 36-38 games a year. Sometime early in 2007, we'll pass the 400 games watched number (no, I'm not insane enough to know the exact number, nor do I really want to).

We were the "List Moms" for the online San Jose Sharks mailing list from the inception of the team until 2005 -- the list can now be found here, and the mailing list archives for our time managing the lists are available on our website. We also ran mailing lists for many other NHL and minor league teams over the years, as well as for things you may not have even known existed, like Roller Hockey International (go rhinos!). We have long been a supporter of women's hockey, and we still maintain the women-in-hockey mailing list to help encourage women to play.

Our one professional foray into all of this was for the International Hockey League's San Francisco Spiders, who played at the Cow Palace (the staff's unofficial motto: It's a pit, but it's OUR pit!) in 1995-96 -- we were the team's webmasters and online experts.

Laurie grew up a Chicago Blackhawk fan as well as playing goaltender in the boys league (long before there were girls leagues, or boys leagues that easily tolerated girls playing in boys leagues....). The best way to describe her background in hockey is this: most girls her age grew up wanting to sleep with Tony Esposito. She wanted to be Tony Esposito. She has promised to bring back her goalie scouting reports (long a staple on the Sharks lists) and I've made her promise to start posting some of her hockey photography on line (or I'll wait until she goes to bed and post the best ones myself off her her machine).

Chuq is a native Southern California person who somehow grew up to be a hockey fan anyway, despite the best attempts of both the Los Angeles Kings and Peter Puck. He remembers being able to get day of game tickets in row 12 in the corner in the old Fabulous Forum, and when the Kings word "Forum Blue", since Jack Kent Cooke hated purple. His hockey interest waned and lay dormant until he met this interesting woman from Chicago.....

Both of us are serious hockey collectors; our book collection is somewhere beyond 450 volumes now, including all three volumes of Trail of the Stanley Cup. Laurie is a collector of media guides and program books (modern and vintage), a collection that now dates back into the 30's and into the thousands of pieces. Chuq collects jerseys and pucks and rulebooks for hockey from around the world, with copies of the NHL rulebook going back to the 40's.

The hope for this blog isn't just to gab about the game last night (although we plan on doing that, too), but to look at other aspects of the sport, also, from a business side and also pulling material out of our collection and laurie's research and talking about it.

Mostly, though, we hope to be interesting enough for you to want to read what we have to say...

Comments

[TheHockeyChick]

Can you please add me to your links? I have you listed on my list on my site. It is a general hockey blog, not particular to any team. Check it out -- http://www.thehockeychick.com.
Thanks!

[DumbPuck®]

Great to find that you are still talking Sharks' hockey. I have to admit to missing the postings of Chuqui!