I originally come from the Chicago area, and moved to DC in 2003 on a part-time basis while I attended college at George Washington University. After getting my Bachelor's degree in psychology, I made DC my home and lived in the city for the next four years.
Unforeseen circumstances spurred a move back to the Chicago area in 2011, and so I've further expanded my coverage radius, having NHL, AHL and ECHL teams within one hour or less of where I live. Now, I'm earning a Master's degree in Sports Administration at Northwestern University. But I'm still following and writing about the team that made me fall in love with hockey, the Washington Capitals.
Unforeseen circumstances spurred a move back to the Chicago area in 2011, and so I've further expanded my coverage radius, having NHL, AHL and ECHL teams within one hour or less of where I live. Now, I'm earning a Master's degree in Sports Administration at Northwestern University. But I'm still following and writing about the team that made me fall in love with hockey, the Washington Capitals.
I am a relatively new Capitals fan, but I'm no stranger to hockey. I played hockey on my high school girls' team for three years, even going to the state championships my senior year. Of course, there were only three girls' teams in Illinois, but let's ignore that for now (since then there are now a lot more). Fine, I admit it, we were horrible (it was a "no experience necessary" team).
I attended my first NHL game at Verizon Center on February 26, 2008, and I was instantly hooked on the Capitals. I've followed the team religiously since then. In 2010, after attending a Q&A with Tomas Fleischmann, I wanted to share some of the things that were said with friends and Twitter followers, so I started this blog. I expanded to analysis, opinion, and one of my more popular features, prospect profiles.
Since beginning Ravings of a Rink Rebel, I have been asked to contribute to several outlets, including The Fourth Period, Red Light District Hockey, District Sports Page, and Hockey Primetime, with some work featured on Yardbarker, Puckdaddy, and FoxSports.com. Links to those sites are on this blog's homepage.
- Erika (Schnure) Martinez
