Yes he’s good looking. No that’s not why I’m a fan of his. (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now the Rangers thought it was a great idea to post “A Girl’s Guide to Watching the Rangers”. It went over as well as anyone with half a brain would’ve expected and the Rangers took it down within a half hour. If you missed it, plenty of people took screen shots and posted them. You can read all of them on The New York Rangers Blog here.

My first reaction when I saw it was to respond to it. But what to say? Honestly the post didn’t even say anything; it was more the fact that it was posted in the first place. Then I realized it didn’t need a response once they took it down.

The Rangers apologized for the post roughly seven hours later with this tweet:

Glad to hear you guys realized that. I’m pretty sure that “fan contributor” didn’t just post it on her own so way to throw her under the bus. Honestly I’m more offended by that tweet than the actual post but that’s probably just me. At least they apologized.

Either way, this post isn’t about that. Instead I decided to write what they should’ve posted – a guide to watching with a female fan.

Don’t ask me if I have a crush on the players
If you haven’t noticed hockey players wear a lot of gear. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. So if I’m watching a game I’m not doing it to see the players faces or check out their behinds. I’m doing it to, you know, watch the game. Plus they tend to come back from “a day at the office” looking like this:

Yes that’s a black eye on the right and a welt below his left eye. (Photo: Screenshot from postgame Thursday night)

So if you do ask me this, you will get one of two answers – “OMG he’s so cute!!!! Hehehe!!!!” or I will throw more stats at you than your small brain will be able handle. A hockey game isn’t the VS fashion show for ladies.

Yes we know ALL stats
Most hockey fans can re-iterate recent stats for a player, especially when they are on a hot streak. While female fans can do that, they can also usually tell you a players date of birth, height, weight and hometown. Yes, I can do that for almost everyone on the Rangers. I can also tell you how many goals, assists and penalty minutes they have plus who each skater scored their first NHL goal against. Test me. I apologize in advance if you feel stupid afterwards as that honestly isn’t my intent (but always ends up happening).

Let me scream at the players how I want
We all yell at athletes. Guys usually curse. Girls do that too. (And please don’t tell us you think it’s hot when we do.) Some girls scream their names or nicknames at the players/team. For instance in my house, my family knows if I scream “DANNY!”, “Argh Step!” or “Decline!” that means Dan Girardi messed up, Derek Stepan didn’t shoot while in the slot or the Rangers are headed on the power play. Don’t say I’m cute for these things. Just let me be.

We freak out at any mention of their families
Look at the end of the day we’re still females. So yes we know more about their personal lives than we should. Doesn’t mean we plan to become homewreckers. We just get happy when we hear they are getting married or became a father. It won’t stop us for screaming at them for going offsides during the next play so just ignore us if it bothers you that much.

We’re not clueless when watching the game
I didn’t want to relate this in any way to the post that brought me to writing it, but there was one thing that was mentioned which didn’t make sense to me. She mentioned being one of the only girls watching the game with the boys. What does that have to do with anything? I’ve done it and can do it. All the guys in my office know if they want hockey stats to come see me as I probably know them (or know where to get them) faster than they would be able to find them.

But honestly, it shouldn’t matter who you’re watching with. Yes, I’m a female fan. You know why? Cause I’m a fan who happens to be female. I wrote a whole post trying to say one thing – I’m a fan of the sport. Yes I enjoy seeing the guys on an off night in suits just as much as guys enjoy the ice girls. Fine. But otherwise, why are we still separating this. We shouldn’t be so you want to know what you should do if you are watching a game with a female fan?

Do the exact same thing you would do if you were watching with a guy.