Hockey

I remember playing hockey as a kid. It was awesome. I’d be desperate to get to the rink and skate around at practice, shooting, skills drilling, checking. Loved it all. I still do, but I’ve been off the skates for the last couple years with kids and work and what not making it too hard to fit in.

In my first year I was in goal. It was an interesting experience and one that I won a trophy at a tournament for, but at the time I was more interested in playing forward, in scoring and I knew I wanted to be out front when the hitting started.

So when we started playing full contact I swapped between right wing and right defence. When I was on the wing I was a super pest and got under the best scorers skin. One game I pissed a kid off so much by hacking the back of his knees that when the whistle went he turned and punched me in the face. I was so surprised to find myself lying on my back! He got ejected from the game and when I got the bench the coach slapped me on the shoulder pad and said, “good job!!”. Mr Barr. He was a great coach and I had the best time playing for him over a couple years. I remember having to sub into net one game cause our goalie was sick and when I came to the bench during the period break he offered me a drink of his “coke”. The other coach grabbed it off him just as I was about to have a swig. Turns out it was rye and coke. Heh heh. What a character!

Anyway, so the team from Okotoks had a kid who used to line up on the wing against me and we, for some reason beyond the normal competition of it all, hated each other with a passion. I’d beak at him, he’d chirp back. One game we were both racing towards the corner for the puck, on our home ice, and I purposely slowed down a fraction so I could be alongside him/slightly behind him as we got to the boards, he turned for the puck and I drove my shoulder into his chest, lifted him off the ground and slammed him into the corner boards. All the kids from the other Vulcan teams in the crowd roared and cheered. It was one of my favourite hits ever (which is why the memory is still so vivid). I had few other great hits during minor hockey, but none that had so much satisfaction along with them.

Why hockey out of the blue? Cause the Oilers are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2007 and I am loving that they have made the second round. It’s making me itch to play again and I think when the summer season starts I might be able to get back on the ice.