'Puck Bunny': NHL Friend or Foe?

Definition: A female ice hockey fan, often one whose interest in the sport is primarily motivated by sexual attraction to the players rather than enjoyment of the game itself. Puck bunnies elicit similar traits as groupies do to musicians.

(In 2004 was added to the second edition of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary)
My preferred definition (props to PuckBunny radio for this super definition!): A young woman who knows nothing about the sport but who attends hockey games for the purpose of touching a player’s stick.

I understand that I may come under fire for covering such a subject among fervid hockey devotees but I thought that this might be an interesting topic to cover in a blog, and somewhat of a taboo subject among true female hockey followers. We make up 34% of total NHL fans, do the hardcore puck bunnies legitimately add any value, or indeed anything to this percentage?
The term ‘puckbunny’ is one that I only came across fairly late; I was unsure of the meaning and assumed it was synonymous with the term we use here in Britain ‘WAG’. I was, indeed, recently tagged a puckbunny myself by a pretentious young hockey ignorant. This particular young man took great pleasure in ripping me apart for my hockey worship and insisted that a career in fitness does in fact give you unceasing knowledge of all sports! Who knew! Never one to take the conceited well, I challenged the man on his thoughts on the CBA to which he greeted me with a rather perplexed, almost disorientated look…you know the one that you would imagine you would have if Ovie strapped you to his stick spun around 40 times, shot on goal so fast that you flew into the stratosphere. Aaahhh…there’s something so comforting about seeing a pompous man almost spew! Needless to say I walked away from a rather wounded man.

I get off point…
On further investigation I realised that there was much debate over these so-called ‘puckbunnies’. The term clearly implies that these ladies are not dedicated in their support and are merely interested in the pursuit of the players and their sexual attractiveness. My question being…in the age of Bettman and his NHL marketing strategy is it a good thing to have plenty of young girls and women lusting over hockey players?

When we look at one of the NHL’s biggest marketing commodities, Sidney Crosby it is apparent that the role the puck bunny would play in the rise of the new NHL was unquestionable. The on-ice product was not what the NHL was going for, it was to attract all those people who wouldn’t ordinarily access an otherwise confusing sport to beginners. Those guys in the ivory tower certainly weren’t unintelligent when in came to 2005, they were going to have a pin-up that would attract plenty of women to the sport. Incredibly clever this was and surely opened up a whole new facet of fans. You need not look far around the web to realise what effect Crosby has had on young women and their interest in the sport; countless questions on girlfriends, places to hang out where he might be and where he lives make uncomfortable reading, if a little worrying.
Sean Avery said at one point that the NHL marketing department were doing an appalling job and that, “They just, they haven’t figured it out that villains and heroes are what sells.” I would beg to differ Mr Avery, clearly they did a sterling job on marketing the next hero of the NHL, villains would merely sell the sport to the already well- seasoned zealot.

Speaking of Avery, I think it would be foolish of us to forget the celebrity puckbunny and their contribution to the mainstream popularity of the NHL. Let us not forget the power that some of these women have over young adults, whether they be models, actresses or singers. The reality is that these ladies are role models whether they like it or not and they are creating a partnership between the idea of celebrity and the hockey player. They are responsible for “treating hockey stars like movie stars, whose exploits merit more flash bulbs off-screen than on.” Ultimately NHL stars become mainstream fodder following a stint in People magazine alongside their beau.

Of course one area that cannot be overlooked when examining the importance of the puck bunny is the danger that comes with it. Fear not these girls want the guys, anyway….anyhow. They will stoop to incredible lows to meet, talk up and @% over players. In particular instances players wives or girlfriends have apparently been subject to online stalking, photograph theft and exposing private information in online forums. Laura Robinson, author of Crossing the Line: Violence and Sexual Assault in Canada’s National Sport commented that many of these girls have “confused sexual liberation for getting laid as often as possible, writing about [it] and showing off the pictures.” Tales of sexual encounters and idle gossip all add to the illustration of how these ladies behave. I would hope, however, that this behaviour is on the small scale rather than sport wide.

Do we believe that in the spirit of expanding the fan base of the NHL there is no genuine harm whatsoever of using pin-ups for the sport. Articles suggest, also, that many puck bunnies hold some knowledge of the game. Many also become fans due to the perceived safety of the game as opposed to many other UK and US spectator sports. They are knowledgeable on the skill of their team and their voice, I’m sure, is passed onto friends who otherwise would not entertain the game.Female fans in general are reported to have as much knowledge as male fans and that physical attractiveness of players does not play that much of a significant role in attracting girls to the sport. Indeed many take it as an insult that upon admission of being a hockey fan they are labelled ‘puck bunny’. In essence it does, however, give females the opportunity to separate themselves as a true fan. Friend or foe, you decide?