Connect with us

Get to Know your Fellow Subscriber

Meet your fellow CHN subscriber: Eric Hervieux

Published

on

The latest in an occasional series. of mini-biographies on Colorado Hockey Now subscribers. Want one written on you too? OK, first, subscribe. Second, send me your summation of who you are to this point in your life – your story – to me at adater@comcast.net.

Meet Eric Hervieux – @eric_hervieux. He’s 28 and lives in Rhode Island. He works at Ninety Nine Restaurant and is attending New England Tech studying Digital Media Production.

It’s not the easiest thing to do…live in New England and cheer for an out-of-market team. As a fellow New Englander Dater, I’m sure you can understand just how die-hard Boston fans are whether it’s the Pats, the Celtics, the Sox or the B’s.

I grew up in the teeny tiny state of Rhode Island. No, not Long Island, NY like a lot of people who don’t know New England tend to say. I grew up in North Providence, RI…the tiniest town in the tiniest state. My love for the game of hockey came very early on in my life. The Hervieux’s are very much a hockey family above all else. I can remember learning to skate at 9 years old and although I was never the best skater out there, eventually I would learn to hold my own.

Hockey really didn’t take root until my older brother, Brian, started to play high school hockey for North Providence High School. They had a pretty darn good team back then. They won the championship two of his fours years there. Good times. Brian, being the oldest of four kids, he was always the one we looked up to the most. And my love and passion for hockey was definitely influenced by him.
Now, of course, living in New England meant cheering for the Bruins. And I did for some time. But one thing changed for me. They traded Brad Boyes away, my favorite player at the time. This along with a series of trades that I just didn’t like, I decided to quit the Bruins for good. I adopted the Colorado Avalanche as my new team. I had really only seen them while playing NHL 2003 for the first time and I began to fall in love.
By 2008 I would spend every day during the season scrounging the Avs’ website and reading all of their articles. I would check the scores the next day and began following them pretty regularly. It was right around this time that I actually visited the Denver Post website every day and began reading your work Dater! Along with Mike Chambers and Terry Frei. As someone from across the country, and before online streams of hockey games began, this was how I got my Avalanche fill. Once the team drafted Matt Duchene in 2009 I became obsessed with him and the team. He was the same age as me and it really drew me in.
Next thing you know I’m a die-hard fan. I would listen to Marc Moser do the radio broadcast on the team’s website whenever I could. And once NHL Center Ice came out…forget it! I was hooked and in heaven!
I love learning about the history of the team and I’ve learned a ton of it by following you and reading your stuff. To that, I thank you. I’ve also literally fallen in love with Colorado the state, and Denver too. I can’t wait to live there one day and go to many games.
Since I live on the east coast (and those playoffs games starting at 10 pm EST, woof!) I usually see the Avs when they are in Boston to play the Bruins.
My parents got me my first ever Avs jersey in 2005. It was a road David Aebischer jersey. It was the first hockey jersey I’ve ever owned. I loved it. I loved Aeibischer for some reason. I guess because he was the “Heir to the throne” after Roy retired.
My first NHL game, and Avs game, was at the TD Banknorth Garden (as it was called then, I believe). 2007. I still have my ticket from that game and the newspaper from the Providence Journal the next day picturing Wojtek Wolski with the puck. The headline read “It’s A Whiteout For Bruins.” It’s one of my fondest hockey memories, being there with my dad and seeing real NHL players right in front of me. We were 3 rows up from the ice near the penalty boxes. It was heaven. I got to see Sakic play. Just the one time. Man, I wish I could’ve seen them play in the glory days…
I believe my first game back was in 2010. And I’ve been to every game they’ve played in Boston since. What a record they have there, eh? I’ve been very lucky! Except for this past year…loss in OT. Ah well. It was during that rough patch! But it wasn’t all bad, I got to meet you and you signed my book!
My best Avs moment was my very first Avs home game. That’s right, at the Pepsi Center! My wife and I flew out there just to see the Hejduk retirement game. Milan Hejduk was my absolute favorite player. When I found out they were retiring his jersey I told the wife we were going no matter what. IT. WAS. UNBELIEVABLE. Seeing Denver and the Rocky Mountains for the first time, seeing Avs fans everywhere, seeing the boys in their burgundy home jerseys. I was in heaven. I felt so at home, it was so weird. It was so great being a part of the home crowd for once. And my God was that building loud that night. What a great game. A 7-2 spanking over the Wild I believe. Unreal.
I am a huge Matt Duchene fan as I alluded to earlier. I bought a Duchene 95 Ottawa Senators jersey the day he got traded. I was devastated. I mean we all knew it was coming by that point, but still. I think I literally cried. I miss him so much. I really wish it could have worked out with Dutchy, the success I mean. But hey, this new era of Avs hockey is starting to get amazing! I feel like we’re finally back to great Avalanche hockey…before I was a fan! I’m so damn excited about this team. So many great things are coming together. I can’t wait to see what’s next for this team!

TAKE 5 

  1. Everybody on death row gets a final meal. I hope you’re never on death row, but if you were, what would be your final meal? I’m a real foodie so this is tough. It would probably either be Italian or Chinese. I’m a sucker for some great pasta but I also love General Tso’s chicken with fried rice.
  2.  I don’t like being in elevators. Not because I’m claustrophobic, but I find it uncomfortably awkward around other people in them for some reason. I don’t enjoy the small talk. I’d rather have a deep conversation with someone than a 30-second conversation. Do you have any social phobias like this? I don’t like when people that I don’t know and/or people that don’t know me touch me. Whether it’s a pat on the shoulder or a nudge or whatever. I know they’re trying to be nice but don’t touch me please.
    3. Let’s say I offered you 10 extra years on your life, or one million dollars. Which would you choose? There’s an old saying that goes “You can make a million before you win a million”. If I was guaranteed a million dollars I would probably take it. I’d rather take the life I’m expected to have and live a little more stress free than take an additional decade.
    4. Have you ever cried at a movie? All the time. I’m a cryer. Anytime there is the slightest of sappy in a scene, whether it be tv or movie, I’m at least tearing up. Especially those videos of soldiers surprising their loved ones. I’ve most recently cried watching Toy Story 4.
    5. Who do you think is the greatest person in world history? The greatest person who has lived has to be Martin Luther King Jr. right? The things he went through and saw, let alone had the courage to stand up and fight for what’s right peacefully and ethically. What a human being. He changed history forever and for the better.

Colorado's premier coverage of the Avalanche from professional hockey people. Evan Rawal, Editor-in-Chief. Part of the National Hockey Now family.

This site is in no way associated with the Colorado Avalanche or the NHL. Copyright © 2023 National Hockey Now.