The SportSquee Featured Fangirl:Sherry

Wade Redden, aka Mr Sherry

After an exhaustive selection process, the estimable Sherry, of Ottawa Senators-centric blog-tacular Scarlett Ice, was chosen as SportSquee's Featured Fangirl for the Month of March. It was our deepest and most accomplished application pool yet. But Sherry's street cred cannot be denied. She runs one of the most respected and beloved blogs in the extensive hockey blogosphere, in addition to being a righteous babe. SportSquee is beloved only by bounders, bastards, and brothels, and is respected by no one. Sherry hails from Toronto, but denies knowing any of the students or faculty of Degrassi High School nor Jude Harrison, unfortunately. As further evidence of her considerable rep, Sherry is on the frontlines of the Battle of Ontario. The Sens and the gramatically disinclined Maple Leafs are one of hockey's fiercest rivalries. And Sherry soldiers on in enemy territory, all in the name of fandom. Budding fanettes, take note. Sherry was kind enough to take our SportSquee Quiz, between college classes, dodging rocks hurled by Leafs fans, and answering fan mail sent to the Scarlett Ice headquarters. This quiz has hobbled lesser fans, but not Sherry. As usual, if you want to apply to be a featured fangirl, leave word in the comments.
Editor's note: I spent roughly two hours formatting and spitshining Sherry's feature proper links, pics, etc, and then Blogger decided that I needed a right boning, and erased the whole damn thing. Upon which I totally burst into tears. Admittedly, I'm kind of frazzled at present. I'm sequestered for work and have been pulling all-nighters for a solid week and a half. This additional boning outside of my already bone-filled professional life was unwelcome to say the least. But since it's 5AM and I still have a mountain of work to finish, I am unable to re-link at this time. My apologies to Sherry and fans of Sherry for giving her a short-shrift.

Who were your earliest fangirl influences?
To be honest, I suppressed my inner fangirl from early on. I grew up with my older brother and his friends as influences so any signs of girliness was a no. But then I realized, ew, boys can sure be gross and my fellow female friends told me that it was okay to embrace my inner fangirl. It was okay to squee when I wanted to and there was nothing wrong with putting up a picture of Max from Breaker High in your locker. Um, not that I did or anything. Editor's note: I used to sleep with pictures of Jordan Knight and Gary Carter under my pillow. I totally hear you

To what athlete did you award your first Squee(!)?
We're going waaaaaaaaaay back here and it was most certainly Felix Potvin. See, when I was a poor, misguided child growing up in the middle of Leafs Nation, I actually sort of, maybe, at one point, really liked the Leafs. And of course I loved Felix Potvin because his name was "the Cat" and anytime you have some sort of feline involved, you will pique the interest of any 6-year-old.
Who was your longest and most intense crush and how did you prove your devotion?
Longest and most intense would have to be Steve Yzerman. He's been my favouritest since as early as I could remember although the love has not been as intense since I see him so rarely now. I prove my devotion everyday but purposely paying more attention to anyone who wears No. 19 and making sure they don't sully its reputation.

Were your parents alarmed?
My mother doesn't pay enough attention to hockey so she doesn't know anything about it except that I'm crazy about it. It works in my favour too because trying to explain anything to her with the language barrier involved is at times frustrating and often very comical.

Who has the best-looking team in the NHL?Skills-wise or appearance-wise?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, my team is great to look at in more ways than one. Editor's note: Agreed.

Who has the weakest-looking team in the NHL?
Standings wise, one would think Philly but I may have to go easy on them since they do have one Marty Biron there now.
Appearance wise I'm going to have to go with Florida. Actually, I suppose that goes for standings as well. I probably don't pay enough attention to them but I can't name one squee-worthy person on their roster.

Who are the top ten most squee-worthy NHL players?
Just 10? In no specific order:
1) Wade Redden – Not only is he a great player* but he's also easy on the eyes and does a lot of great charity work.
2) Cam Ward – I love that he's born on a leap year and that he's a good Christian boy.
3) Michael Cammalleri – He plays in the hockey wastelands that is L.A. and just doesn't get enough credit for being considered a shorty in the league yet still playing well on a team that's perhaps not so stacked with talent. Editor's note: Dibs!
4) Marty Biron – The personality! The laughs! The eyes! The fact he's a goalie!
5) Paul Kariya – Maybe not that noticeable in the looks department but I have a soft-spot in my heart for anybody in the league that's at least part Asian.
6) Andy McDonald – The only part of the Ducks I like.
7) Vesa Toskala – He likes sushi and his middle name is "Tapani"
8) Mike Komisarek – Underappreciated! Editor's note: Long Island's own!
9) Joe Sakic – Forever and always will be squee worthy
10) Some Flames – (Our) David Moss, Miikka Kiprusoff and Alex Tanguay.
An honourable mention goes to Aaron Ward. I never thought much of him at first but anybody who's willing to defy Jagr is cool with me.
* = By great player I mean: was at once great and should be great and is absolutely capable of being great. But currently, not so great but I have to love him nonetheless, don't I?

Who are the top ten least-squee-worthy NHL players?
1) Chris Simon – Because frankly, I hate baseball.
2) Andrew Peters – I don't know if I have to explain this one.
3) Chris Chelios – Ditto.
4) Wade Belak – Again, ditto.
5) Jaromir Jagr – He gets an A+ in both hockey skill and douche-baggery.
6) Dominik Hasek – Why can't him and his paper-mached groin just ride off peacefully into retirement already?
7) Alexander Ovechkin – My whole entire house [full of absolutely wonderful ladies] cringe whenever they see him
8) Chris Pronger – See: Jaromir Jagr
9) Jeff O'Neill – He's a Leaf. What more do you need to know?
10) Tyler Arnason – For so many reasons. He just didn't fit in with our team. For so many reasons.

What is the hottest position in the NHL?
Give evidence, name names. If you haven't noticed, I love goalies and guys that brood. For goalies, they're a whole bag of weird yet nobody can brood like a goalie when they're in the groove. Heck, practically half of my top 10 is goalies. They're the rock at the backend, your last line of defence. They play with your emotions; at times they're all you have, at times they let you down. Yet just when you think all hope is lost they'll come up big and sweep you off your feet, only for the cycle to repeat itself again.
Who doesn't love the boy-next-door quality of Cam Ward? Or the stealthy concentration of Miika Kiprusoff? Who doesn't fall for the energy and charm of Marty Biron? Editor's note: or the excessive gum-chewing, lunacy, and guido charms of Rick DiPietro?

Is Lance Armstrong having an affair with Matthew McConaughey?
I'd like to think they both have better taste but who knows. Hollywood is a strange, strange place.

Who is your pick for up-and-coming hottie in professional sports?
In all of professional sports, I'm going to have to give it to our boy Andrea Bargnani. He's a joy to watch on the court and off. Many were skeptical given the fact that he was coming from the European League. For those of you who don't know, he was drafted first overall in this past year's NBA Entry Draft by the Toronto Raptors. That's basketball for those of you who were confused. While it took a bit of time for him to get adjusted to North American basketball, he slowly found his groove and has won Rookie of the Month honours a bunch of times.
But here's the clincher: I hate basketball. I, at times, don't even consider it a real sport. But when Bargnani speaks, I listen. Mostly because he has a thick Italian accent.

Any early picks for SportSquee's favorite man alive?
I'm going to have to give it to either one of Jarome Iginla or our homecoming king Mike Fisher.
Iggy is someone you always feel happy seeing, his unassuming smile is always comforting and his work ethic is admirable. You always get the sense that he cares about his team.
Ditto for Fisher. Despite getting injured a lot due to his physical play, he sets the bar for going out there and hustling. He never takes a shift off (Editor's note: or his shirt off, unfortunately) which is only highlighted by the fact that his teammates certainly don't do that.

What I most want to say about the State of the Squee today is:
Embrace the squee and love the squee. Don't be afraid of your inner fan-girl because frankly there are worse things you could be called. If you love the sport for the sport itself, you'll know it because you'll be the one that's on the edge of your seat for the whole game, shouting and screaming with the best of them. There have been many at times that people have been surprised at how much about hockey I actually know asides from who I think is the cutest. Don't be afraid to think someone is aesthetically pleasing, it's part of life after all. But don't let that take over the conversation and don't let that be the reason you love something or someone. I guess that's applicable for sports and life in general, too huh?