“If I hadn’t been at Wimbledon, I would have flown to Miami to watch a game during the Stanley Cup,” Cervara told NHL.com.
Cervara started watching ice hockey in France at the age of 12 and fell in love with the sport after watching the goalies play, with one goalie in particular catching his eye.
“Patrick Roy impressed me,” said Cervara. “He was the most charismatic goalie for me at the time and that’s how I became interested in ice hockey.”
That was 1993, when Roy won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens. It was also the season that Roy received the Conn Smythe Trophy as Most Valuable Player during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“I was so inspired and impressed by the goalies,” Cervara said. “And I became a huge fan of Patrick Roy … who had just won the Stanley Cup with the Canadiens.”
From then on, Cervara focused on specific players rather than a specific hockey team. He followed Roy to the Colorado Avalanche (where he won two more Stanley Cups) and said he still hopes to meet the current coach of the New York Islanders one day.
He was a Philadelphia Flyers fan for a while when Eric Lindros was on the team. Last season, Cervara became enamored with Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, so the tennis coach started following the Panthers. Thanks to Bobrovsky’s outstanding play, the Panthers won the Stanley Cup, so it was only natural for Cervara to pull out the Panthers cap at the Wimbledon Championships.
Now it’s on to the US Open in New York City. Cervara decided to support the New York Rangers during the tournament after receiving a Rangers hat as a gift from a friend. He wears a regular Rangers hat on game days and a camouflage Rangers hat on practice days. He said one of his first stops in New York was the NHL Store in Manhattan to check out the hats.
In total, Cervara has about 30 hats in his collection, which is constantly growing. He doesn’t have a favorite, but tends to source hats locally depending on the city he is in.
So don’t worry if he doesn’t support your team during this tournament, because he could be the next addition to the collection.
