Vanessa Guadiana laughs excitedly as she gets ready to set foot into the Hockey Hall of Fame. It certainly isn’t her first time here, but it is perhaps the most important visit. It’s been more than seven years in the making.
“Blown away! This is it — the NHL headquarters. I’m so excited to geek out and run around when you all leave,” Guadiana told Global News.
READ MORE: 36-year-old accountant turned emergency goalie helps Blackhawks beat Winnipeg
She will be the first to tell you she doesn’t fit the average description of a hockey fan: a small transport truck-driving woman from Mexico who is now living in Texas.
However, Guadiana recently marked a major accomplishment after watching an NHL game in all 31 arenas.
“I couldn’t believe it myself that I finished it,” she said.
The journey began in 2011 when Guadiana said she was still scrounging up cash as a student to visit various NHL arenas. She had already been to several games in Dallas, the closest professional hockey arena to her home, and a handful of games in Detroit, New York and Pittsburgh.
Although Guadiana said her parents supported her passion for hockey, her extended family from Mexico had never heard of the sport so it left her with few people in her immediate surroundings she could lean on to watch games with.
RELATED: Edmonton hockey fan recounts adventure of 30 NHL games in 30 cities in 30 nights
“They don’t even know what hockey is,” Guadiana said.
But her passion kept growing and the mission hit full swing when she got her job as a truck driver.
“When I got the truck driving job, I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I can actually do this now.’ I’m going to get to Winnipeg and Montreal and all these cities I never thought I would hit up,” she said.
“It just kept happening. I would go to three or four games a season and it just kept happening faster and faster.”
Over the years, Guadiana said she would beg dispatchers to send her to cities with NHL arenas she hadn’t visited yet.
“When things worked out and I knew I was going to the game, I was so happy,” she said.
“You could see me dancing, ‘Oh, I’m going to Ottawa! Oh, I’m going Toronto!”
Guadiana said she started knocking off cities in no particular order while thinking it would probably take her more than a decade to visit every arena.
But earlier this year, with only three cities left on her list, she said she saw her favourite team, the Vancouver Canucks, was going to be visiting the three remaining arenas.
“I saw the Canucks were going to be in (Las) Vegas, Chicago, St. Louis and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I could see the Canucks in my last three arenas,'” Guadiana said.
Guadiana finally accomplished her dream on March 23 while watching the St. Louis Blues beat the Canucks 4-1. She brought a bright orange sign to the game that read, “I did it! I saw a game at every NHL arena!”
“It was a shock. I cried because I’m a little baby,” she said.
“It was all so surreal. I was in tears. I couldn’t believe it happened to me finally.”
Guadiana said she then requested her dispatcher to send her to Toronto to drop off some cargo and where she could visit the Hockey Hall of Fame as the icing on the cake and touch the Stanley Cup for the first time.
“That’s just impressive to me. That’s someone that obviously loves hockey,” Hockey Hall of Fame spokesperson Kelly Masse said.
Guadiana admitted being at the centre of the hockey universe feels a lot different after finally accomplishing her goal. But she also said there is a lingering feeling that’s bittersweet.
“Part of me is so sad that it’s over. Now I have nothing to look forward to until Seattle comes around, or I may start visiting minor teams,” Guadiana said.
Comments