Happy Belated Birthday Simon

No, I did not forget you.  I couldn't very well wish Maxim Lapierre a happy birthday on his day and completely forego yours. It's just, as you know, I was caught up with the playoffs as much as you were and didn't post.

But here goes. Two days late. But better late than never, right?

My dear Simon, Happy Birthday.  I hope you enjoyed your sour patch kids (I recalled you bitching about how Kevin is the only one who gets them...see? see? I listen) and the cupcake from my mother (who also adores you, you know) and the drawing from the other week.  I hope they were okay.  The thing I really wanted to do though, and it just never feels right to do it when I see you walking out tired and exhausted at the end of the night, is to throw my arms around you and say thank you.  To tell you about the positive impact you made in my life and how it changed everything. The very first live hockey game I ever attended was a Utah Grizzlies game and you were the first player I remembered by name and by number.  The first I learned to recognize on the ice.  The first player I put pen to paper for.  (I remember it clearly.  It was your first star and it inspired me to try something I had never done before. Draw people.  It made sense. You were always the first star to me.)  

Over the last six months I've gotten to know the rest of the team and love all of them individually and collectively, but that may not have happened if you didn't skate out onto the ice and wow me from day one. You are the reason I remembered the team, the reason I came back for another game. You are the reason I caved and got season tickets.  Everything else came later, but it was your personality and athleticism, for all of its wonders and flaws, that stood out and made the game something it had never been before for me.   We may not always see eye-to-eye, you and I, but you are and will always be the most memorable character for me from this most memorable story and the one I have loved best.

You're my Fergie. My favourite.   Not every hockey player can boast about how much they changed some random fan's life for the better, but you can. You may not understand how you can, but you can.

Happy Birthday, Simon, and here's to many many more.  Immortality even.

Now get out of here and kick Stockton's ass.