My Story

My Story

I played roller hockey first. I can't remember how young I was, but I still remember my first game. I had so much gear on - I think my mom said something like, "I don't see how you're going to be able to even move!" Luckily, I had a blast and just kept playing. Eventually I moved to roller hockey. My first time? I was terrible. I could barely skate. I was put on a team that had 3 sons (their dad was the coach) who were really good. They didn't want me on the team and I was put on another team. I can't remember how long it took me, but I got good. Really good. When I switched to Ice Hockey in High School, it was back to being terrible again. Turns out, Ice skates are much different than roller blades. Needless to say, my aspirations to play hockey at a Division 1 school for college quickly dissipated (although as I've gotten older, I'm convinced I could have had a better shot if I had someone willing to mentor me). 

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So how did I go from falling all over the ice in High School (they actually check you really hard at that age!) to writing and talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins? Easy, I love it. Hockey is the only sport I truly love. And even though I didn't win the national championship (I still play every now and then for fun), following the Penguins all these years has kept my love for the game alive. 

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So why start a blog? My YouTube journey started with my channel, Puck Mike - where I open and talk about hockey cards. Quickly I learned that was very expensive. I still have that channel, but I shifted my focus to another channel I have called Card Zoo Sports Cards where I talk about my experience selling mostly low-end sports cards on ebay. This channel has done really well so far.

I listen to a lot of Penguins Podcasts from other channels. I read Penguins articles. I watch interviews. I even do this for other hockey teams because I love the sport so much. I started getting the itch to share my voice. After all, who is a better expert than someone whose studied something their entire life? Enter "Pens Talk with Puck Mike." This is still on my hockey card channel, Puck Mike, but is a separate play list and podcast. I also publish blog articles on the blog page.

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I hope you enjoy the conversation, and look forward to talking some Penguins hockey with you!