-----

"Dad originally wanted me to play baseball like he did. Sports runs in the family, and all that. My dad's dad played soccer in Italy and won a Euro with the Italian National Team, my dad was a pitcher in the Mets system, even got to pitch a few games for the major club in his day but spent most of his time playing triple-A. I think it's natural for parents to want their kids to do what they did, but I honestly fell in love with hockey after watching the Manhattan Rage when I was a kid. Luke Thomason was, like, my f---in' idol, man. I said to my old man, I said, 'Dad, I want to play hockey,' and he looked like he'd been hit by a truck. Betrayal of the highest order. But he also knew that I wasn't going to change my mind on it. I think he figured after I got my s--t rocked on the ice, I'd give it up and just get on the mound like he did, carry on the family business. I learned to skate through one of those little kid learn to skate programs at a local rink and then immediately went straight into a learn to play camp right after. I played youth hockey on the mainland for a bit and you know, it just sort of skyrocketed from there. There were some things I was definitely natural at straight away but man, yeah, I had to learn how to do some stuff, for sure. My shot was absolutely dogs--t for the first few years of my game but my vision of the ice was pretty solid from a young age--s'what they tell me, anyway. From there, the rest is history--went to play in New Jersey in the NAHL, could've gone to the USHL. Got scouted to play at a couple of colleges but made the call to enter the draft and I don't regret it for the world."

-- Benson Fiorentini, from the February 12th episode of Port Side