By: Kelsey De Melo
Some female hockey fans are proud to be called a “puck bunny” while others find it degrading.
Everyone knows that Canadian hockey fans are some of the most loyal fans around the world. Many people enjoy the sport for the action, excitement and the overall atmosphere. But for some fans, their excitement for the sport comes from a different part of the game– the boys.
Puck bunnies, otherwise known as female hockey fans whose interest in the sport is primarily motivated by sexual attraction to the players, have become a huge part of hockey’s fan base.
Meredith Elestone isn’t hesitant to call herself a puck bunny. She has been dating Hayden Davis, an OHL player for the Saginaw Spirit team, for over two years. “I don’t care that people call me a puck bunny, I’m proud of the title.”
Elestone and Davis started dating when he was still playing AAA hockey back in Grade 11. Soon afterward, David was drafted into the OHL and his time spent playing hockey began to intensify.
“It’s sometimes difficult to date an athlete that’s as intense about a sport as he is. It also doesn’t help that we live four hours apart,” Elestone said.
For some female hockey fans that have dated devoted athletes, they haven’t been as lucky as Elestone and Davis.
Seta Manukyan, a fourth-year student at Ryerson University, said her and her former OHL boyfriend couldn’t handle the distance and time apart. “It was too hard to spend time together because he always either had practice or a game,” Manukyan said. “It was also really hard because hockey always came before anything, even me.”
Manukyan said she met her boyfriend by attending all his games and hanging around afterwards to try and get him to notice her. Eventually this plan worked.
She said that while she likes all athletes, hockey boys are her “fav.” She doesn’t play hockey or really understand the rules but what she does understand is that hockey boys are “super attractive.”
Recently, the puck bunny fan base for the Toronto Maple Leafs has expanded because of the very cute and young addition to the team Auston Matthews.
Do I root for the devils cause I’m a devils fan or the maple leafs cause I love @AM34
— ♐️ (@kellyparatoree) October 12, 2017
@kellyparatoree on Twitter tweets about Auston Matthews.
Other female hockey fans refuse to accept the title of a puck bunny because of the negative connotations commonly associated with it. To a lot of people, a puck bunny implies that the female fan is only interested in the sport because of the boys, rather than the game itself.
Audrey Nicole, a first-year student at Ryerson, said that while she definitely finds hockey boys physically attractive, she is mostly attracted to their passion for the game.
Nicole grew up with two older brothers that played hockey their whole lives. She was forced to go to their games and because of this, she came to understand the game and become a fan of it herself.
“I’ve never dated a professional hockey player but I wish I did,” Nicole said. “It’s not mandatory for my future boyfriend to play hockey but it would definitely be a huge bonus for me.”
Some female hockey fans are in fact more than just a fan of the boys, but there’s also nothing wrong with embracing the puck bunny title either.
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